On September 1, 2009, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued a hurricane warning for Baja California. At the time of the warning, Hurricane Jimena had maximum sustained winds of 110 knots (200 kilometers per hour) with gusts up to 135 knots (250 kilometers per hour). The storm’s center was near 21.9 degrees north and 111.2 degrees west.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the storm on August 31, 2009. The massive storm overlaps western Mexico although the bulk of the storm remains over the Pacific Ocean.
The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
