Millions of people prepared to evacuate as Tropical Cyclone Amphan approached eastern India and Bangladesh on May 19, 2020. The potent storm is expected to make landfall by midday on May 20 with dangerous wind, rain, storm surges, and flooding.
This image shows the storm at 16:15 Universal Time (9:45 p.m. India Standard Time) on May 19 as it moved north-northeast over the Bay of Bengal. The image is a composite of brightness temperature data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, overlaid on Black Marble nighttime satellite imagery.
Around the time this image was acquired, Amphan had sustained winds of 100 knots (185 km/115 miles per hour). That is the equivalent of a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. The storm had reached Category 5 force on May 18.
Bottom line: Satellite photo of Tropical Cyclone Amphan, as viewed from space.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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