GPM Sees Tropical Cyclone Komen Drenching Bangladesh

Bangladesh was already soaked by monsoon rainfall before recently formed Tropical Storm Komen started drenching the area. The GPM core observatory satellite collected rainfall and cloud height data on the tropical cyclone as it passed overhead.

Tropical Storm Komen was formerly known as Tropical Storm 02B and formed in the northern Bay of Bengal on July 29.

On July 30, 2015 at 0436 UTC (12:36 a.m. EDT) the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission passed over the Bay of Bengal. At that time GPM’s Microwave Imager (GMI) measured rain falling at the extreme rate of close to 150 mm (5.9 inches) per hour in powerful storms situated over the Bay of Bengal.

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a 3-D view of thunderstorm tops was created based on radar reflectivity day from GPM’s Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). DPR (Ku band) radar data were used in a simulated cross section through storm tops associated with tropical storm Komen. GPM’s radar saw that some of the cloud tops were reaching heights above 15.9 km (9.9 miles).in the intense thunderstorm feeder bands located over the Bay of Bengal. Those “feeder bands” of thunderstorms were spiraling into the center of Komen’s circulation.

On July 30, 2015 at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued their final bulletin on Tropical Storm Komen. At that time, Komen had already made landfall and was just 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles/22.2 km) north of Chittagong, Bangladesh, near 22.5 North latitude and 91.8 East longitude. Komen was moving to the north at 5 knots (5.7 mph/ 9.2 kph) and had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/62 kph).

Since making landfall, Komen weakened to a tropical depression and is dissipating over Bangladesh as it moves to the northwest and further inland.