Tropical Cyclone Gael brushed the islands of Mauritius and Réunion on its westward trek through the southern Indian Ocean in early February 2009. On February 7, the storm hit Category 4 cyclone strength, with sustained winds of 120 knots (138 miles per hour), as it approached the east coast of Madagascar. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the storm that day, before it veered away from land and headed northeast.
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.
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NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
