In the southern Indian Ocean east of southern Africa and Madagascar (left), a train of four tropical cyclones has been captured in this true-color image made from observations collected by alternating passes of the Aqua and Terra satellites. The cyclones pictured are (west to east) Gerry, Hape, 18S, and Fiona. Each of these storms is in a different stage of development, though all are moving generally east or southeast. As of the morning of Feb. 12, Fiona was predicted to weaken and move toward the South Pole; 18S was predicted to intensify slowly as it moved southeast; Hape was predicted to move eastward and intensify; and Gerry was predicted to maintain its current intensity and move southeast.
Terra passed over this area in the morning, moving east to west, and contributing the second and fourth chunks of the image (from right to left). Aqua passed over in the afternoon, also moving east to west, contributing the first and third chunks.
The high-resolution image provided above is 1 kilometer per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at a spatial resolution of 500 meters.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
