Aqua Satellite sees Ignacio in a trio across the Pacific

The tropical trio of tropical cyclones continued on September 3 when NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Pacific Ocean. Images taken from several overpasses were put together to create a panorama of the Pacific that included Typhoon Kilo, Hurricane Ignacio and Hurricane Jimena.

Hurricane Ignacio lies northeast of Hawaii in the Central Pacific Ocean and is sandwiched between Kilo in the Northwestern Pacific and Jimena in the Central Pacific. After Ignacio regained hurricane status, Aqua passed overhead and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument took an image of the storm that showed a re-developed eye and thick bands of thunderstorms wrapping into the low-level center.

At 11 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. HST/1500 UTC) the center of Hurricane Ignacio was located near latitude 28.8 north and longitude 161.7 west. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) noted Ignacio was moving toward the northwest near 14 mph (22 kph) and this motion is expected to continue through today followed by a turn toward the north Friday and Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph (120 kph) and gradual weakening is expected over the next two days. The estimated minimum central pressure is 983 millibars.

NOAA's CPHC noted that after September 3, ocean swells generated from Ignacio will fade but swells from Hurricane Jimena, located east-southeast of the Hawaiian Islands, will then become the dominant surf producer.