On September 27, 2022, after landing in the west of Cuba , Category 3 Hurricane "Ian" entered the Gulf of Mexico, and its trajectory aimed at Florida , which seemed to be heading towards the west coast of the state. NASA's Terra satellite obtained the natural color image of this account of Hurricane Ian at around noon local time on September 27, 2022 (16:00 World Time) using its resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) (modalone).
image taken a few hours after Hurricane Ian left the northwest coast of Cuba. The wind speed at this time is about 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers) - slightly weakened after passing the island, but is still a powerful Category 3 hurricane.
Although tropical cyclones are atmospheric phenomena, most of its terrible power comes from the ocean. The ocean is a rich source of moisture that provides energy to the growing storm cloud . Just as important, they are huge heat energy reservoirs that can be moved from the sea to the sky.
On September 27, 2022, when Hurricane Ian hit western Cuba and headed towards the west coast of Florida , it moved on a rich "power source" in the Gulf of Mexico. While sea surface temperature is only one of the factors that affect hurricanes, they are important predictors of whether the ocean is ready to maintain an active hurricane. Warm waters and low wind shear in the Gulf of Mexico may help the hurricane recover its strength in the coming day before landing along Florida's west coast.
NASA Earth Observatory Pictures, taken by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
