Tropical Storm Vince about to U-turn away from Oz, finds NASA’s Aqua
By ANISaturday, January 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - NASA’s Aqua satellite has found that high pressure is about to make Tropical Storm Vince do a U-turn in the Southern Indian Ocean and take a westward track away from Western Australia.
The instrument aboard Aqua captured a visible image that showed the bulk of Vince’s thunderstorms southwest of the storm’s center due to moderate wind shear.
According to the images, the low level circulation center is now exposed to outside winds, and the strongest convection and thunderstorms are limited to the southwestern quadrant of the storm.
The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) instrument that also flies aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, showed good organization and tightly curved bands of clouds that are wrapping into the center.
At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST/11:00 p.m. Australia/Perth) on Jan. 14, Tropical Storm Vince’s maximum sustained winds were down to 39 mph (35 knots/63 km/hr). It was located approximately 350 nautical miles north of Learmonth, Australia, near 16.3 South and 114.6 East. It was moving eastward at 10 mph (9 knots/16 km/hr) and is expected to turn west.
A ridge (an elongated area) of high pressure that is building over Western Australia is expected to push Vince to the west and away from Australia this weekend. (ANI)
