News: 2009

CloudSat profiled a developing tropical cyclone Izilda located in between Africa and Madagascar on March 23rd, 2009. In this overpass, Izilda was in the process of transitioning from a tropical depression to a tropical storm with winds of 30 knots. CloudSat passed through the edges of two convection cores of the storm, the intense developing convection is evident from the orange and red reflectivities in the center of the core convection. Izilda strengthened to max winds of 60 knots in less than 48 hours after this overpass, just shy of becoming a category 1 tropical cyclone.

CloudSat completed two overpasses of a strong storm system moving across the central US on March 23rd and 24th, 2009. The March 23 overpass intersects heavy snowfall occurring over parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Some areas of Wyoming and western South Dakota recorded snowfall amounts in excess of 25" from this event. During the March 24th overpass, CloudSat intersects an area of dissipating severe weather over parts of Missouri and Iowa. Earlier in the evening squall lines developed ahead of the storm system as the upper level low tracked over the Dakotas. The system also has the appearance of the classic comma shape observed with mid-latitude systems as they move across the US.

CloudSat made an overpass through the left outer wall region of a weakening Tropical Cyclone Ilsa with winds of 98 mph (85 knots). At the height of the storms intensity on March 19th, 2009, Ilsa contained winds of 110 mph (96 knots), strengthing into a Category 4 cyclone off the western coast of Australia. As the storm moved further west of Australia, it weakened as it encountered mid-level dry air and cooler SST's. The overpass example here shows the dry air being entrained into the southern edge of the storm (causing convection to weaken) while the northern portion of the storm contains more convective areas.