Tropical Storm Alenga Intensifies

TRMM image of tropical storm Alenga

The TRMM satellite again passed over intensifying tropical storm Alenga in the South Indian Ocean on 5 December 2011 at 2103 UTC. As expected Alenga had become better organized with TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) seeing scattered bands of heavy rainfall spiraling into the center of the storm. Alenga is expected to move south-eastward over the open waters of the South Indian Ocean and reach minimal hurricane force on 7 December 2011.

TRMM radar image of tropical storm Alenga

A 3-D image using TRMM PR is shown above. Very powerful storms are shown reaching heights of about 16 km (~9.9 miles). TRMM PR found a reflectivity value of 53.67 dBZ which is an another indication that very heavy rainfall was occurring in those storms.