On August 17, 2002, Typhoon Phanfone was roughly 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Tokyo and packing surface winds of up to 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour. This image of the typhoon was taken on August 17 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra spacecraft. In the two days following this image, the storm dropped slightly in intensity, hovered just off Japan, and then slowly moved northeast just off the eastern coast of the island nation. Several people were reported as missing at sea near the coast of the Japanese state of Kanagawa, and the typhoon led to some transportation disruptions in parts of Japan.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
