October 12, 2019 - Typhoon Hagibis off Japan

Since its wicked-fast intensification earlier in the week from tropical storm to category 5 major storm in less than 24 hours, Typhoon Hagibis has been spinning toward the north-northwest over the western Pacific Ocean moving towards Japan. This true-color image, acquired on October 11, 2019, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows the typhoon as its outer cloud bands reached the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

At the time, maximum sustained winds were 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour. That made it a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. Also impressive was the size of the storm, which according to news reports spanned 1,400 kilometers. For comparison, Honshu—Japan’s largest and most populated island—is about 1,300 kilometers long.

Forecasts call for Hagibis to make landfall near the central part of Honshu over the weekend and then spin northeast up the island. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecasts that the storm will make landfall as a weakening storm, with maximum sustained winds of about or just under 104 mph (167 km/h), which is the equivalent of a category 2 storm. Heavy rain, high waves, and storm surge in some coastal areas are expected to cause substantial disruption. Transportation has already been affected as flights were canceled and train service suspended.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 10/11/2019
Resolutions: 1km (465.3 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m (4.1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC