Cyclones Olaf and Nancy

Credit: Jacques Descloitres; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Wednesday, 23 February 2005, 07:45 CST Download full size image

Cyclones Olaf and Nancy continue to get closer and closer together, as shown in this true-color Terra MODIS image from February 16, 2005. At upper center, Olaf is a huge swirling mass of dense clouds east of the American Samoa and Cook islands in the western Pacific Ocean. At lower right, Nancy swirls in a shrinking spiral as its power seems to be siphoned off by Olaf.

Earlier in the day, the Aqua MODIS instrument captured this same scene. Olaf's eye was much closer to the main Samoan island of Savai'i than it is in this scene, acquired more than 20 hours later. Just two days earlier Nancy had been a Category 4 cyclone with winds in excess of 125 knots (143.75 mph, 1 knot = 1.15 mph), but by the time this image was taken, it had become a tropical depression with only 30 knot winds. Meanwhile, Olaf was gaining Super Typhoon status as a Category 5 storm in this image with 145 knot winds.

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