image: This is a combination of two images taken from the AIRS instrument that flies onboard NASA's Aqua satellite. It shows Typhoon Tembin near Taiwan and Tropical Storm Bolaven west of the Marianas Islands. The images were taken on Aug. 21 at 04:41 UTC and 16:47 UTC. view more
Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Typhoon Tembin and Typhoon Bolaven continue to churn in the Philippine Sea, and infrared satellite data from NASA showed the power within both storms.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured imagery of both storms on Aug. 21 in two different overpasses. Aqua flies over the same locations during early morning and early afternoon (local time) as it orbits the Earth. Aqua passed over the Philippine Sea on Aug. 21 at 04:41 UTC (12:41 a.m. EDT) and 16:47 UTC (12:47 p.m. EDT). The two satellite passes were combined to show the proximity of the storms from each other. Typhoon Tembin is located east of Taiwan and Typhoon Bolaven west of the Marianas Islands.
The AIRS image of Typhoon Tembin showed a wide area of very high, cold cloud top temperatures, exceeding -63 Fahrenheit (-052 Celsius) surrounding the eye of the storm, which has warmer temperatures (indicating open air). The AIRS data revealed a large area of strong thunderstorms north, east and south of the center of Typhoon Bolaven.
Bolaven has strengthened into a typhoon. It has maximum sustained winds near 80 knots (92 mph/148 kmh) and is expected to continue intensifying. Bolaven is about 270 miles in diameter (310.7 miles/500 km), now larger than Typhoon Tembin. It is located about 685 miles east-southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, near 19.3 North latitude and 137.5 East longitude. Bolaven is moving to the west at 9 knots (10.3 mph/16.6 kmh), and is expected to begin moving northwest.