NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 13, 2011 – Tropical Storm Muifa (11W) over China and Korea
Shortly after Tropical Storm Muifa made landfall over the coast of North Korea on August 8, 2011, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true color image of the storm’s heavy convective bands stretching over China and North Korea, bringing torrential rains and strong winds to the region.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that by 15:00 UTC on August 8, 2011 (midnight on August 9 in Seoul) the storm had made landfall.
This image was captured at 15:10 UTC (12:10 a.m. in Seoul), and shows the center of circulation touching the North Korean coast. On July 30, Muifa, which had begun as a low pressure center on July 23, had strengthened to a Category 5 Super Typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour (260 kilometer/h). On August 7, the maximum sustained winds had dropped to 60 mph (100 km/h) as the storm rapidly weakened before striking land. After Muifa made landfall the next day, the winds dropped to 46 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts. Despite the weakening trend and lower wind speeds, the storm caused significant damage in North Korea, killing at least 10 people, damaging over 2,000 acres of farmland, and harming more than 100 homes, according to the state-run news agency KCNA. In China, news agencies reported the storm caused about 3 billion yuan ($466 million) in damage, and affected 1.74 million local residents in Shanghai and neighboring provinces.
