Triple cyclones over northwest Pacific
6 July 2015 02:15 UTC–7 July 02:00 UTC
Three tropical cyclones formed in the western Pacific in early July.
14 September 2022
06 July 2015
By HansPeter Roesli (Switzerland) and Ivan Smiljanic (DHMZ)
The three tropical cyclones are lined up over the western Pacific. From west to east there were tropical storm Linfa and typhoons Chan-Hom and Nangka. Nangka displayed an eye.
The line of cyclones can be clearly seen on the visible image from the Korean geostationary Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS), taken on 6 July at 02:15 UTC.
Imagery the Japan Meteorological Agency's Himawari-8 satellite, which only became fully operational on 7 July 2015, also clearly shows the three cyclones in a train across the ocean.
Figure 2 shows Himawari-8 6.2µm (top), 6.1µm (middle) and 7.3µm (bottom) water vapor infrared imagery, 7 July 02:00 UTC (Credit: CIMSS Blog). Himawari-8 samples a full disc image every 10 minutes, with nominal 2km resolution in the infrared channels.
Further analysis and more imagery (including an animation of the water vapour imagery) can be found on the CIMSS Satellite Blog, written by Scott Bachmeier.
The structure of Chan-Hom can be clearly seen in the MODIS True Color RGB image from 7 July 01:30 UTC (Figure 3).
8 July
The further development of the storms can be seen in these three four-hour animations from Himawari-8, 8 July 00:00–04:00 UTC. The WV6.2 also shows a feature that looks like a fourth cyclone, a whirl squeezed between Chan-Hom and Nangka. Note that Himawari has full disc 10-minute scanning.
Download Airmass and infrared animation
Download True Color animation
Download Water Vapour animation
9 July
Tropical Storm Linfa was tracking westward parallel to the coast of China and was losing power as it crossed over land. Typhoon Chan-hom was over the Ryukyu Trench south of Okinawa on a track heading northwest toward the China coast north of Wenzhou. With wind speeds around 250km/h Nanka was declared a Super Typhoon, positioned north of Guam.
Additional content
Japan’s New Satellite Captures an Image of Earth Every 10 Minutes (New York Times)
Chan-Hom in the western Pacific Ocean (CIMSS Blog)
Loop of Typhoons Chanhom and Nangka via Himawari-8 (Credit: JMA/Dan Lindsey)
Himawari visible satellite imagery of Typhoon Chan-Hom (NWSOPC/YouTube)
Real-time storm coverage (SSEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Tropical Storm Linfa Brings Flooding Threat to Philippines, Taiwan and China (Accuweather)
Typhoon warnings from Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
