May 11, 2014 - Storm over southern India

Storm over southern India

The tropical low pressure area known as System 91B had been making a slow northerly crawl while sitting inland in southwestern India in early May, 2014. By May 8 it had moved partially over the Indian Ocean, and by May 9 the system had faded over the open water.

NASA's Terra satellite passed over System 91B over southwestern India and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument flying aboard captured a true-color image on May 8 at 05:40 UTC/1:40 a.m. EDT. Despite having a poorly defined low-level circulation center on infrared imagery, the circulation can be clearly seen in this image. The eastern quadrant of the broad tropical low pressure system remains over southwestern India, while the western quadrant extends into the Northern Indian Ocean. The thunderstorms are fragmented in the low pressure area.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimates that the low-level center of System 91B was near 10.1 north latitude and 76.4 east longitude, just 20 nautical miles (23.0 miles/37.0 km) north-northeast of Cochin, India. The center of the storm has moved to the north over the last day and is about 15 nautical miles (17.2 miles/27.8 km) closer to Cochin than it was on May 7, indicating that it was a very slow moving system.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 5/8/2014
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC