Satellite: 3 Pacific Typhoons at Once

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a pretty neat image this Monday: Three typhoons at once in the Western Pacific. Multiple typhoons out there are not uncommon, but it's rare to capture three at once on a narrow satellite shot such as this. The full image, and a detail, are shown below. They have a super-size version if you have the bandwidth (if it doesn't work in IE, save it to your desktop and view with your Windows Preview).

em>(NASA): This photo-like image was acquired at 12:35 p.m. local time (04:35 UTC) on August 7. The trio makes an interesting illustration of the evolution of tropical storm systems. Bopha, the youngest at just a few hours old, shows only the most basic round shape of a tropical storm. Maria, a day older, shows more distinct spiral structure with arms and an apparent central eye. Despite their differences in appearance, both storms were around the same size and strength, with peak sustained winds of around 90 and 100 kilometers per hour (58 and 63 miles per hour), respectively. A day older than Maria is the much more powerful Typhoon Saomai. At the time of this image, the typhoon had sustained winds of around 140 km/hr (85 mph). The typhoon’s well-developed structure (including a distinct, closed eye in the center) in comparison to Maria is clear in this image.

Where are they now? Today, all three storms are near land. You can see a snapshot of their current positions (Univ. of Hawaii) and forecasts (Joint Typhoon Warning Center) here (live).