Typhoon Rammasun was an impressive Category 4 storm, making it a super typhoon, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on the morning of May 11, 2008. The storm forms a nearly perfect circle around a well-defined eye. At the time this image was taken, Rammasun had winds of 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour or 135 knots), according to estimates made by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The storm was moving northeast over the Philippine Sea. It was predicted to lose strength and dissipate without striking land.
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 System.
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NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
