Tropical Storm Emilia skirted the coast of Baja California as it moved northwest into the Pacific Ocean on July 26, 2006. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 1:35 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (20:25 UTC), the storm had sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour (65 miles per hour) with stronger gusts. Though these winds were still about ten miles per hour under hurricane status, Emilia has the distinct spiraling clouds and round shape that mark a hurricane. In the hours after this image was taken, Emilia moved out over the Pacific Ocean and degraded into a tropical depression, said the National Hurricane Center.
The large image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
