Tropical Storm Kalmaegi made landfall on September 17 near the border of Vietnam and China and moved inland. Soon after the landfall as a typhoon, NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead and captured an image of the weaker tropical storm.
The MODIS instrument that flies aboard Aqua took a visible picture of Tropical Storm Kalmaegi on Sept. 17 at 03:35 UTC (Sept. 16 at 11:35 p.m. EDT). The image showed the center of the storm in northeastern Vietnam, just south of the China border. Kalmaegi's clouds extended north into southern China and west into Laos.
The Vietnamese National Weather Agency reported that the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh received the brunt of Typhoon Kalmaegi on Tuesday night, Sept. 16. Kalmaegi uprooted trees and damaged crops, in addition to causing damage to homes.
On Sept. 16 at 2100 UTC (5 p.m. EDT), maximum sustained winds were still near 60 knots (69.0 mph/111.1 kph), so Kalmaegi was still a strong tropical storm while moving over land. At that time, the center of the storm was located near 22.3 north latitude and 105.2 east longitude, about 67 nautical miles (77 miles/124 km) north of Hanoi, Vietnam. It was moving to the west-northwest at 20 knots (23.0 mph/37.0 kph).
Kalmaegi is expected to weaken to a depression later on Sept. 17 after it crosses into southern China and moves into the Yunnan Province. The Yunnan Province located in the far southwestern part of China.
Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center