Over the southern Indian Ocean, northwest of Australia and south of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Tropical Cyclone Sean spanned hundreds of kilometers in late April 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on April 23, 2010. The storm has a comma shape consistent with cyclones, but it lacks a distinct eye.
On April 23, 2010, the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Tropical Cyclone Sean had maximum sustained winds of 45 knots (85 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 55 knots (100 kilometers per hour). The storm was located roughly 475 nautical miles (880 kilometers) north of Learmonth, Australia. The JTWC reported that Sean had traveled toward the southwest and would continue on that route before turning westward. The storm was expected to intensify over the next 12 to 24 hours, but then to weaken over the next few days.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
