NASA MODIS Image of the Day: October 6, 2012 – Tropical Storm Oscar (15L) in the North Atlantic
On October 4, 2012 Tropical Storm Oscar was losing the battle against strong wind shear over the central Atlantic Ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image of the embattled storm at 13:35 UTC (9:35 a.m. EDT) on that same day. The bulk of Oscar’s clouds and rain have been pushed to the southeast of the center of circulation, and the apostrophe shape typical of strong tropical storms has been lost. A storm needs symmetry to strengthen effectively, but the westerly winds shear, measured between 15 and 20 knots near the time of this image, was effectively disrupting the shape and strength of the storm. By the next morning, Oscar had lost its battle against the wind. At 14:00 UTC (10:00 a.m. EDT)on October 5, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Oscar no longer had a closed circulation, but that the convection had become linear and limited to an area southeast of a trough, and so was no longer a tropical cyclone. The remnants of the storm will continue to move northeastward rapidly and are forecast to be absorbed by a large extra tropical low late on October 5.
