NASA Panorama of Two Southern Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclones

The MODIS instrument that flies aboard two NASA satellites captured images of Tropical Cyclone Diamondra and Tropical Cyclone Eunice in the South Indian Ocean, and two separate images were combined to make one panorama of the two storms.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument flies aboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Those satellites fly in formation behind each other as the circle the Earth. An image from the MODIS instrument aboard each satellite was used to create a panorama from January 28, 2015 at 08:30 UTC (3:30 a.m. EST) showing both storms. Tropical Cyclone Eunice is the more powerful of the two storms and is west of Diamondra.

On Jan. 28, 2015 at 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST),  Tropical cyclone Diamondra was centered near 19.2 south latitude and 79.3 east longitude, about 827 nautical miles (951.7 miles/1,532 km) south-southeast of Diego Garcia. Diamondra was moving to the east-southeast at 9 knots (10.3 mph/16.6 kph) and had maximum sustained winds still near 45 knots (51.7 mph/83.3 kph) as they were on Jan. 27. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) expect the storm to intensify to 55 knots (63.2 mph/101.9 kph) before running into conditions that will weaken it quickly. JTWC expects those conditions to dissipate the storm in three days.

Tropical cyclone Eunice is the powerhouse of the two storms with maximum sustained winds near 85 knots (97.8 mph/157.4 kph) at hurricane force. JTWC forecasters expect Eunice to continue strengthening over the next couple of days and peak near 125 knots (143.8 mph/231.5 kph) before weakening.

It was centered 622 nautical miles (715.8 miles/1,152 km) southwest of Diego Garcia near 14.2 south latitude and 64.8 east longitude. Eunice was moving to the southeast at 4 knots (4.6 mph/7.4 kph).

Neither storm threatens any land areas.