NASA gets Hurricane Oho by the tail

Tropical Storm Oho intensified into a hurricane on October 6 and appeared to have a "tail" in Infrared NASA satellite imagery. Oho is the seventh hurricane of the 2015 season in the North Central Pacific Ocean.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Oho in the Central Pacific Ocean on October 6 at 8:17 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument gathered infrared data on the storm. The infrared data shows temperatures.

AIRS data showed very cold temperatures of storms with high cloud tops located somewhat east of the center of circulation and in a long fragmented band of thunderstorms that stretched from the eastern quadrant of the storm, south and west. Cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit/-53 Celsius, a threshold that indicates powerful storms with the capability to generate heavy rainfall.

Forecaster Houston at NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center noted in the discussion on Oct. 6 at 11 a.m. EDT, "the 85 Ghz channel also showed an upper level center, which appeared to be displaced slightly to the west of the low-level center."

The previous day, October 5 at 10 a.m. EDT when Oho was still a tropical storm, the RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station measured Oho's surface winds. RapidScat saw sustained surface winds around most of Tropical Storm Oho's center found strongest sustained winds on the northeastern side near 24 meters per second (53.6 mph/86.4 kph).

At 11 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. HST/1500 UTC) on October 6 the center of Hurricane Oho was located

Near latitude 15.3 north...longitude 151.3 west. That's about 395 miles (635 km) southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Oho was moving to the east-northeast at 13 mph (20 kph) and is expected to turn toward the northeast and speed up late in the day and through October 7.

Maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph (120 kph) and some additional intensification is expected during the next day or two. The estimated minimum central pressure is 980 millibars.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center noted that "Oho no longer appears to be a viable threat to the main Hawaiian Islands." The CPHC forecast track takes Oho on a northwesterly route toward Oregon and Washington by Friday, October 10. For updated forecast tracks, visit: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc.