Extraordinary photos of mega Typhoon Maysak

From aboard the International Space Station, an astronaut snaps images of the super typhoon as it works its way through the northwest Pacific Ocean, giving viewers a glimpse of the awesome power of nature.

|
Samantha Cristoforetti/Reuters/ESA/NASA/Handout via Reuters
Typhoon Maysak is seen as it strengthens into a Category 5 hurricane in this picture taken by ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station March 31.

From afar, even the deadliest weather events can be a stunning sight.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforreti proved it Tuesday with photos of Super Typhoon Maysak, taken from aboard the International Space Station. The images of the storm as it carves a northwest path across the Pacific Ocean, through Micronesia, and towards the Philippines give a breathtaking glimpse of the awesome power of nature.

“Commands respect even from space,” Ms. Cristoferreti tweeted along with one of the pictures.

Down on Earth, storms like Maysak inspire more dread than awe.

A typhoon begins life as a tropical cyclone: “A rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

When a tropical cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour, it then becomes classified as either a hurricane, if it occurs in the Atlantic and northern Pacific; a cyclone, if it occurs in the Indian Ocean and south Pacific; or a typhoon, if it’s in the northwestern Pacific.

The Saffir-Sampson Hurricane Wind Scale, developed by wind engineer Herb Saffir and meteorologist Bob Simpson in the late 1960s, is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s (or cyclone’s, or typhoon’s) sustained wind speed.

Winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour classify as Category 1, 95 to 110 miles per hour as Category 2, and so on. A Category 5 carries winds of above 157 miles per hour – fast enough to rip off roofs, demolish homes, cause long-term power failure, and render an area uninhabitable for weeks or months, according to NOAA.

Hurricanes and typhoons can also be analyzed using the Dvorak technique, a method that determines sea surface and cloud temperatures using infrared and satellite imagery. Named after Vernon Dvorak, who developed it in the 1970s and 80s, the technique is used by analysts and computers to help estimate the intensity of a storm.

“It’s basically an inkblot test for hurricanes,” James Franklin, chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center, told The New York Times. “You can relate the appearance of the storm to intensity.”

Earlier this week, Maysak reached wind speeds of up to 160 miles per hour and was initially labeled a Category 5, Weather.com reported. The typhoon caused significant damage and killed 5 people as it made its way through an island in the Federated States of Micronesia, according to The Associated Press.

Winds have since dropped slightly, but in the Philippines, where Maysak is expected to make landfall Sunday or Monday, the government has issued a warning to tourists who have flocked to popular spots across the Southeast Asian nation ahead of Easter weekend, according to Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Extraordinary photos of mega Typhoon Maysak
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0401/Extraordinary-photos-of-mega-Typhoon-Maysak
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe