Tweet
Tropical Storm Cindy was racing across the Atlantic Ocean on July 22, 2011 at 16:00 UTC when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image as it passed overhead.
This storm first appeared on July 19 as an area of low pressure north of Bermuda. Enough organized convection and circulation had developed by the next day to warrant the first National Hurricane Center (NHC) advisory on July 20, when the storm was dubbed “Tropical Storm Cindy”. At 21:00 UTC on that day the NHC reported the storm was located about 665 miles (1,065 km) east-northeast of Bermuda, and was moving towards the northeast at 24 mph (39 kmh). Her track was predicted to remain far from land over the open Atlantic Ocean.
By July 21 Tropical Storm Cindy reached her maximum strength of 60 mph (95 kmh) and remained travelling briskly to the northeast, towards colder waters. By the morning of July 22, the clouds were beginning to have a ragged appearance, although in this image the cloud pattern was still clearly characteristic of a tropical cyclone. Near the time this image was captured, Cindy was located about 730 miles (1,175 km) northwest of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kmh). She was moving to the east-northeastward to northeastward at 25-30 knots.
The colder waters of the far North Atlantic Ocean quickly weakened the storm, and the NHC issued the last advisory on Cindy at 3:00 UTC on July 23. At that time, Cindy was a post-tropical cyclone well on the way to becoming fully dissipated in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 7/22/2011
Resolutions:
1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC