image: When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the Indian Ocean on May 13 at0747 UTC 3:47 a.m. EDT, the AIRS instrument captured an image of both the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Jamala (right)in the Southern Indian Ocean, and Tropical Cyclone Mahasen (left) in the Northern Indian Ocean. view more
Credit: Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Tropical Cyclone Jamala ran into some harsh atmospheric conditions on May 11 in the Southern Indian Ocean and vertical wind shear tore the storm apart. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of the remnants while the more powerful, more organized Tropical Cyclone Mahasen continued to strengthen to the north.
When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the Indian Ocean on May 13 at 0747 UTC (3:47 a.m. EDT), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an image of both the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Jamala in the Southern Indian Ocean, and Tropical Cyclone Mahasen in the Northern Indian Ocean.
At the time of the AIRS image, cloud top temperatures in Jamala's remnant continued to warm as the cloud tops continued to drop. The remnants appeared as an amorphous blob. Tropical Cyclone Mahasen appeared at least three times larger than Jamala's remnants, and had much colder cloud top temperatures. In fact, Mahasen had a large area of very strong thunderstorms with cloud top temperatures near -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius) that stretched from its center northeast of Sri Lanka, southwest over northern Sri Lanka. Thunderstorms with cloud top temperatures that cold have been known to be heavy rain makers.
Tropical Storm Jamala dropped below tropical depression status on May 11. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued their final warning on Jamala on May 11 at 2100 GMT 5 p.m. EDT). Jamala's last noted location was near 10.6 south latitude and 88.3 east longitude, or 960 nautical miles (1,105 miles/ 1,778 km) east-southeast of Diego Garcia. Jamala was moving to the east at 7 knots (8 mph/13 kph), and its maximum sustained winds had dropped significantly down to just 25 knots (28.7 mph/46.3 kph).
Jamala is now a remnant low pressure area in the Southern Indian Ocean being battered by wind shear and dissipating.