As Newfoundlanders braced Tuesday for tropical storm Leslie, its activity was also being monitored from afar, in fact, well above Earth's surface.
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Atlantic Tuesday, capturing images of Leslie's storm clouds over Newfoundland and what NASA refers to as "peanut-shaped" tropical storm Michael to the southwest.
The satellite's atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) instrument captured infrared data on both tropical storms when it passed overhead.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Leslie made landfall Tuesday in Fortune around 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time, which is about 9 a.m. Newfoundland time.
NASA said its infrared imagery showed strong thunderstorms around Leslie's centre and in bands to the north of the centre. By 11 a.m., Leslie's centre was about 130 miles north-northwest of st. John's and was classified as a post-tropical cyclone and by noon, it was classified as a cold front and no longer a tropical cyclone.
According to NASA, Leslie's remnants are expected to skirt southern Iceland Thursday before heading toward Scotland.
Tropical storm Michael, meanwhile, had maximum wind speeds near 75 kms per hour Tuesday and was located about 1,755 kms west of the Azores, moving to the north-northeast 37 kms an hour.
NASA said late Tuesday, Michael appeared a tight swirl of low clouds over cool waters and in an environment of strong wind shear, two factors that are weakening the storm quickly.
NASA is now monitoring a new tropical depression, first dubbed tropical depression 14, in the central Atlantic ocean which it says seems primed for further development.
NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) airborne mission sent an unmanned Global Hawk aircraft Tuesday on a 26-hour flight mission to investigate this system.
Overnight Tuesday the system strengthened and was upgraded to tropical storm Nadine.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Nadine's maximum winds have increased to near 75 kms an hour with higher gusts . It says the tropical storm is expected to strengthen over the next 48 hours and, although still far from land, Nadine could become a hurricane by Thursday or Thursday night.
More information on these storms can be found on:
• NASA's website — http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/news/index.html
• National Hurricane Center website — http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
• Environment Canada and the Canadian National Hurricane Centre — http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/hurricane/index_e.html
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