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GPM Views Typhoon Bolaven

GPM Overpass of Cyclone Bolaven
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Typhoon Bolaven began as a tropical depression over the West Pacific Ocean on Oct. 7, 2023. On Oct. 10, Bolaven became a Typhoon and passed over the Mariana Islands as it tracked to the northwest. Bolaven then rapidly intensified over 12 hours from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, starting around 12 UTC on Oct. 10. Several factors contributed to the rapid intensification, including modest shear in the atmosphere and warm sea-surface temperatures. This animation shows precipitation within Typhoon Bolaven around the time that rapid intensification began. The global
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GPM Captures Powerful Typhoon Khanun Approaching the Ryukyus

GPM Overpass of Typhoon Khanun
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Northwest Pacific typhoon season has been quite active recently. Following in the wake of Super Typhoon Doksuri, which skirted the northern tip of Luzon July 25 and 26 and continued on to bring extreme rainfall to southeast coast of China, is yet another powerful storm - Typhoon Khanun. Khanun (known as “Falcon” in the Philippines) began in the West Pacific Ocean as an area of disturbed weather on July 24 situated well south of Guam and east of Palau. Over the next several days the system slowly intensified as it tracked northwestward towards the Ryuku Islands of southern Japan, becoming a
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GPM Captures Typhoon Mawar

GPM Core Observatory data of precipitation within Typhoon Mawar
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Driven by powerful winds and intense rainfall, Typhoon Mawar emerged as a rapidly intensifying storm in the western Pacific Ocean. Originating from a tropical disturbance, the typhoon swiftly developed into a significant weather system, eventually making landfall on the U.S. territory of Guam on May 25, 2023, as a Category 4 typhoon. After hitting Guam, it further intensified into a Category 5 typhoon, making it one of the most powerful storms on record in the month of May. Download this video from the NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio The combination of NASA’s IMERG precipitation
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GPM Tracks Typhoon Surigae in the West Pacific

GPM Overpass of Typhoon Surigae
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Although it was only the 2nd named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season, Typhoon Surigae became not only the first super typhoon of the season, but also the strongest tropical cyclone of 2021 worldwide. The majority of storms in the Northwest Pacific region form between June and Nov., but the season runs yearlong, as storms can form in any month in this region, which stretches from 100 degrees East to 180 degrees East, north of the equator. Surigae originated from an area of low pressure about 700 miles south of Guam. Persistent thunderstorm activity resulted in the formation of a tropical
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Comparing Typhoon Mindulle and Hurricane Sam

IMERG Comparison of Typhoon Mindulle and Hurricane Sam
Friday, October 8, 2021
From late Sept. through early Oct. 2021, two powerful storms churned over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans: Typhoon Mindulle, which peaked as a Category 5 storm, and Hurricane Sam, a Category 4 hurricane and one of the longest-lived hurricane-strength storms on record over the Atlantic Ocean. While neither storm posed a direct threat to land, Mindulle brushed by eastern Japan, leaving heavy rainfall accumulations in the area near Tokyo. Despite the fact that neither storm made landfall, the storms’ slow-motion tracks across warm ocean waters allows an opportunity to observe how the strong winds
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IMERG Captures Heavy Rainfall from Typhoons Bavi, Maysak and Haishen

IMERG Rainfall from Typhoons Bavi, Maysak and Haishen
Thursday, September 10, 2020
From August 22 through September 7, 2020, NASA’s IMERG algorithm estimated rainfall from three typhoons as they passed over the Pacific Ocean, Japan, and Korea. According to NOAA's records, this was the only time since records have been kept starting in 1945 that the Korean peninsula saw three landfalling typhoons in a single year, let alone in two weeks. Each of the three typhoons--Bavi, Maysak, and Haishen--reached the equivalent of “major hurricane” status, meaning Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane-intensity scale (shown here as a red in the hurricane track) along their
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Typhoon Hagibis Brings Heavy Rains to Japan

Typhoon Hagibis Brings Heavy Rains to Japan
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Typhoon Hagibis, a once powerful super typhoon, struck the main Japanese island of Honshu over the weekend, bringing very heavy rains and widespread flooding. Hagibis formed into a tropical storm on the 5th of October from a tropical depression that originated from a westward moving tropical wave north of the Marshall Islands. At first, Hagibis strengthened steadily becoming a typhoon about 24 hours after becoming a tropical storm. But, then on the 7th, Hagibis underwent a remarkable rapid intensification cycle and quickly intensified into a super typhoon with sustained winds estimated at 160 mph by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) less than 24 hours after becoming a minimal typhoon.
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GPM Examines Weaker Tropical Storm Yutu in the South China Sea

GPM Examines Weaker Tropical Storm Yutu in the South China Sea
Typhoon YUTU (known as Rosita in the Philippines) is now threatening the Philippine Island of Luzon. On October 24, 2018 YUTU devastated the northern Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan as a super typhoon. One death has been attributed to the typhoon in the Marianas with many structures including schools and hospitals being destroyed. Typhoon YUTU weakened as it moved toward the Philippines and had maximum sustained winds of about 90 kts (103.5 mph) when the GPM core observatory satellite passed above the Philippine Sea on October 29, 2018 at 0212 UTC. This rainfall analysis was developed

GPM's GMI Measures Weakening Kong-Rey's Rainfall

GPM's GMI Measures Weakening Kong-Rey's Rainfall
The GPM core observatory passed above tropical storm Kong-Rey on October 5, 2018 at 0846 UTC. Kong-Rey was a powerful category five typhoon just a few days ago but increased vertical wind shear and cooler sea surface temperatures have caused the tropical cyclone to weaken dramatically. Tropical storm Kong-Rey had maximum sustained winds of about 55 kts (63 mph) when it was scanned by the satellite. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) data were used to gauge the intensity of precipitation around Kong-Rey's center of circulation. Energy observed through clouds by GMI's microwave channels was used to

GPM Views Cat. 2 Typhoon Trami Moving Towards Japan

GPM Views Cat. 2 Typhoon Trami Moving Towards Japan
View fullscreen in STORM Event Viewer Once a Category 5 Super Typhoon, Trami has become rooted in place due to a lack of steering flow. This has caused the storm to deplete the warm waters beneath it and it has since weakened to a Category 2 with maximum winds of 90 knots. It maintains a broad eye and once it begins moving again, is likely to reintensify at least somewhat as it zooms northeastward over the Ryukyu Islands and into the southern coast of Japan. Wind impacts are likely to be exacerbated by its forward speed and current forecasts expect it to have widespread impacts in a region
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