Tropical Cyclone Bavi moving through Philippine Sea

NASA's Aqua satellite captured visible and infrared data on Tropical Cyclone Bavi as it moved in a westward motion through the Philippine Sea.

On March 16 at 01:35 UTC, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard Aqua provided a visible image of the storm. The storm appeared somewhat elongated with strong thunderstorms stretching from the center, northwest of the center as a result of moderate southeasterly vertical wind shear.

An infrared image from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that also flies aboard Aqua revealed the coldest cloud top temperatures of powerful thunderstorms were as cold as -63F/-52C, indicating they have the potential for dropping heavy rainfall. Those thunderstorms circled the center and northwestern quadrant of the storm.

At 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), Bavi's maximum sustained winds were near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph). It was centered near 14.2 north latitude and 138.4 east longitude, about 254 nautical miles north of Ulithi. Ulithi is an atoll located in the Caroline Islands.

Bavi was moving to the west-northwestward at 8 knots (9.2 mph/14.8 kph).

Bavi is forecast to continue on a westerly trek through the Philippine Sea, but is expected to weaken to a depression as it nears the northern Philippines. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center current forecast track takes the storm near eastern Luzon sometime on March 20.