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Satellite Sees Hurricane Merge With Cold Front
published
This visible image of Hurricane Rafael in the North Atlantic was taken from the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite on Oct. 17 at 1440 UTC (10:40 a.m. EDT). Rafael's northwestern fringe clouds were brushing Nova Scotia, Canada (top left).
(Image credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team)
Hurricane Rafael ended its run as a tropical cyclone yesterday (Oct. 18), when it merged with a cold front off the coast of Nova Scotia, an event caught by NASA's Terra satellite.
Rafael became an extra-tropical cyclone the previous day as it moved northward in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones (the generic term for hurricanes, tropical storms and typhoons) are fueled by warm tropical ocean waters and moisture-filled warm air that drives the overturning in the atmosphere that create thunderstorms; extra-tropical storms have shifted to become cold systems that are just like the low pressure system that sweep across the mid-latitudes and bring storms with them, a NASA release stated.
