× This page contains archived content and is no longer being updated. At the time of publication, it represented the best available science.

The loose spiraling clouds of Typhoon Chaba are spread across most of the Philippine Sea in this true-color image from October 27, 2010. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired the image at 10:25 a.m. local time (2:25 UTC), Chaba was strengthening into a Category 3 storm. Two hours earlier, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Chaba’s winds to be 95 knots (176 kilometers per hour or 109 miles per hour), and the storm reached 100 knots (185 km/hr or 115 mph) by 2:00 p.m. local time. Chaba was forecast to weaken into a tropical storm before going ashore over Japan on about October 30.

The large image is the highest-resolution version of the image. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.