The animation above portrays the development of Ians wind field between September 25– 29, 2022. The greatest winds appear brilliant yellow; more moderate winds are tones of orange and bright purple.
As Hurricane Ian barreled past Cuba and entered the Gulf of Mexico on September 27, the eye was roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) broad. As the storm churned to the northeast, satellites observed a 2nd, larger eye forming around and eventually enveloping the original eye. This is a procedure called an eyewall replacement cycle. Eyewall replacement cycles prevail in strong hurricanes, generally triggering the wind field to spread out over a larger area.
” An eyewall replacement cycle happens when a typhoon establishes concentric eyewalls and the inner eyewall collapses,” discussed Charles Helms. “As a result, a hurricanes eye grows much larger, and these cycles are frequently associated with a short-lived pause in increase.
In Ians case, the eyewall replacement cycle triggered the eye to broaden to a width of 34 miles (55 kilometers), triggering the eyewall to broaden also. As some hurricane experts have actually noted, this meant that the entire extent of Charleys hurricane-force winds would have fit inside Ians eye. (Hurricane Charley was a compact category 4 storm that struck the same part of Florida in 2004.).
” While Hurricane Charley had a similar strength to Hurricane Ian and caused significant damage to the immediate region as well as throughout main Florida, Charley was fast and reasonably small moving,” stated Helms. ” Hurricane Ian was substantially larger than Hurricane Charley and moved much slower. This suggests that structures went through high winds and storm surge for significantly longer throughout Ian than throughout Charley.”.
By the time OLI got the image, Ians eye had actually diminished to 26 miles (42 kilometers) as the storm went through another duration of enhancing, ending up just short of Category 5 strength before making landfall. The strength of the winds and big size of the wind field helped the storm push what showed to be a disastrous storm surge into coastal neighborhoods, consisting of Cape Coral and Fort Myers. According to brand-new reports, winds and floods have actually ruined or damaged large numbers of homes and knocked out power to millions.
NASA Earth Observatory image and video by Joshua Stevens, utilizing Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey, GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC, and roadways from OpenStreetMap.
An eyewall is an organized band or ring of cumulonimbus clouds that surround the eye, or light-wind center of a tropical cyclone. Another name for eyewall is wall cloud.
According to the National Hurricane Center, when Ians eyewall crashed into Florida, its optimum sustained winds were 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour.” Those awesome low-level cloud swirls in Ians eye may provide ideas into some essential processes that impact a cyclones intensity,” said Justin Whitaker. As Hurricane Ian barreled past Cuba and passed into the Gulf of Mexico on September 27, the eye was around 12 miles (20 kilometers) broad. Eyewall replacement cycles are common in strong typhoons, typically triggering the wind field to spread out over a bigger location.
As some hurricane experts have kept in mind, this suggested that the whole level of Charleys hurricane-force winds would have fit inside Ians eye.
Typhoon Ian, September 28, 2022.
NASA researchers are studying the most recent satellite images of Hurricane Ian and examining the forces that made the storm so devastating.
As Hurricane Ian headed towards a 3rd landfall, this time in South Carolina, NASA researchers were inspecting the current images of the storm and evaluating the forces that made it so catastrophic.
On September 28, the Landsat 8 satellite passed straight over Ians eye as the storm approached southwest Florida. The natural-color image above was obtained by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) at 11:57 a.m. local time (15:57 Universal Time), which was 3 hours prior to the storm made landfall in Caya Costa.
It is surrounded by a towering ring of exceptionally effective thunderstorms called an eyewall, the part of the typhoon with the strongest winds. These are small-scale rotational features found in typhoons with incredibly strong winds.
According to the National Hurricane Center, when Ians eyewall crashed into Florida, its optimum sustained winds were 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour. That is the equivalent of a classification 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. It is also fast enough to tear the roofing systems off homes and snap power lines.
” Those spectacular low-level cloud swirls in Ians eye might offer clues into some essential processes that impact a typhoons intensity,” said Justin Whitaker. “At SPoRT, were studying how these inner-core asymmetries can impact a cyclones structure, its possible to heighten, and whether lightning will happen within the storms eyewall.”