Categorized | Environment, Sci-Tech

Hurricane season 2009: Two Eastern Pacific lows (Eastern Pacific)


GOES-11 captured two low pressure areas on July 28 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC). The satellite image is marked "Area 1" for the showers associated with the tropical wave near mainland Mexico, and "Area 2" for the other area over 1,000 miles farther west. Credit: NASA GOES Project Two areas of thunderstorms in the eastern Pacific developed today, July 28, 2009 and both have less than a 30 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression.

GOES-11 captured two low pressure areas on July 28 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC). The satellite image is marked "Area 1" for the showers associated with the tropical wave near mainland Mexico, and "Area 2" for the other area over 1,000 miles farther west. Credit: NASA GOES Project Two areas of thunderstorms in the eastern Pacific developed today, July 28, 2009 and both have less than a 30 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression.

Story by Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-11 captured a satellite snapshot of the two areas of thunderstorms on Tuesday, July 28 at 11 a.m. EDT. The satellite image shows the two clusters of showers and thunderstorms in the eastern Pacific. The first area is near mainland Mexico and the other far to the west in the open waters.

The first area of showers and thunderstorms that the National Hurricane Center is keeping an eye on is closest to land, although still several hundred miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Those showers are associated with a tropical wave. Currently there are no signs of organization, and if it happens it is expected to be slow to develop. That tropical wave is moving west to west-northwest near 10-15 mph.

The second cluster of showers and thunderstorms that have a low chance of development are much farther from land. In fact, they’re located about 1,400 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. That cluster of storms is also poorly organized, and it continues moving westward near 10-15 mph.

Tropical waves are elongated areas of low pressure, also called a “trough.” They consist of clouds and thunderstorms and stretch from north to south and move west across the eastern Pacific Ocean. They can lead to the formation of tropical cyclones in the northeast Pacific basin.

GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA’s GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.

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