Residents in eastern India and Bangladesh are still assessing damages from Cyclone Aila after it made landfall as a minimal Category One hurricane/cyclone on May 25th — on May 27th, estimates from those countries placed the total death toll at 130 people and that number is expected to rise, making Aila the deadliest tropical cyclone so far in 2009.
NASA‘s Terra and Aqua satellites were both flying overhead on May 25th and captured a visible and infrared image of the storm, the day Aila made its deadly landfall. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a visible image of Aila at 12:55 a.m. EDT (4:55 UTC) on Monday, May 25th, while it was moving inland. The city of Kolkata (also known as Calcutta) — the second largest city in India, suffered heavy damage. Aila made landfall with sustained winds between 65 and 75 mph (74 mph is the lowest threshold for a category one hurricane). When landfall occurred, it brought with it a deadly storm surge between 10-13 feet high along the east Indian and western Bangladesh coastlines.
Aila‘s heavy rains and storm surge flooded many areas, destroying homes and mud huts, and leaving others stranded on rooftops or rafts. Drinkable water has been an issue of concern, but the Indian army is now operating 278 water purification machines according to a report on DNAindia.com. NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Aila on May 25 at 4:11 p.m. EDT (20:11 UTC). Aila is the round area of blue and purple (high clouds) on the border of eastern India and Bangladesh. The infrared image clearly shows a large temperature difference between the storm’s cloud-tops and the warm land temperatures of central India. In this image, the orange temperatures are 80F (300 degrees Kelvin) or warmer. Cyclone Aila’s lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops. Those temperatures are as cold as or colder than 220 degrees Kelvin or minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (F). The blue areas are around 240 degrees Kelvin, or minus 27F. Aila has since dissipated over land. (Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
