NASA Sees System 98S Become Tropical Storm 18S in the Southern Indian Ocean
Yesterday, infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite confirmed that the low pressure area in the Southern Indian Ocean known as System 98S had become a tropical depression and saw indications it would strengthen. Today it has become a tropical storm named 18S.
Infrared data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite saw strong convection when it passed over System 98S, indicating that the tropical depression was strengthening. AIRS data from today, March 17 at 08:05 UTC (4:05 a.m. EST) continues to show increasing strong convection (rapidly rising air that forms the thunderstorms that power a tropical cyclone) surrounding the storm's center. Those areas represent very high, cold, thunderstorm cloud tops where temperatures are as cold as or colder than -63F/-52C.
Satellite imagery also shows the convective banding of thunderstorms that are wrapping into the center of the tropical storm's circulation indicating organization and strengthening.
On March 17, 2011 at 0900 UTC (), Tropical Storm 18S (TS18S) was located near 14.9 South latitude and 75.7 East longitude, about 500 nautical miles south-southeast of Diego Garcia. TS18S has maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/64 kmh) and is moving west near 14 knots (16 mph/25 kmh).
Currently Tropical Storm 18S is in an area of low vertical wind shear, but that's expected to change as trough (elongated area) of low pressure in the upper atmosphere is expected to increase winds and cause subsidence (the sinking of air that will prevent the growth of thunderstorms that power the tropical cyclone).
Tropical Storm 18S is forecast by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center
Text Credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt , Md.
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