Ikola

Since being launched in November 1997 the TRMM satellite produced huge volumes of precise precipitation measurements for use in climatology . Near real time collection of data also provided valuable information such as rainfall distribution, three dimensional structure and the stages of development for tropical cyclones. The TRMM satellite saw two tropical cyclones with successive orbits over the the South Indian Ocean on Tuesday April 7, 2015. Cyclone Ikola was the first to come into view when TRMM passed over at 1646 UTC and then the satellite had a good look at cyclone Joalane at 1755 UTC

The TRMM satellite's Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument collected data used in this rainfall analysis when the satellite flew over tropical storm Ikola in the South Indian Ocean on April 5, 2015 at 1722 UTC. TMI data revealed the location of rain falling at a rate of over 50 mm (amost 2 inches) per hour around Ikola's eye.