Tropical Storm Florence is the sixth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. Florence started as a tropical depression (area of low air pressure) north and east of the South American coast on September 3, and it grew in power and size very gradually. As of September 11, 2006, it had become a Category 1 hurricane. Its center was not predicted to make landfall, but the inner portions of the hurricane were brushing against Bermuda on September 11 when this image was taken. The storm brought powerful winds, rain, and strong surf as it passed as close as 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the island, according to Reuters.
This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on September 11, 2006, at 11:05 a.m. local time (15:05 UTC). Hurricane Florence at the time of this image was a large, open swirl spread over a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean. Florence had sustained winds of around 145 kilometers per hour (90 miles per hour) at the time this satellite image was acquired, according to the University of Hawaii’s Tropical Storm Information Center.
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.
