image: On Jan. 27 at 1402 UTC, the TRMM satellite found heavy rainfall (white) occurring east of the center of circulation in excess of 1.6 inches per hour. The cloud data is from Europe's METEO-7 satellite. view more
Credit: NASA/JAXA/NRL/ESA
The eighth tropical cyclone of the Southern Indian Ocean season has formed far from land, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite saw some heavy rain east of the storm's center.
The TRMM satellite is managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA. TRMM flew over Tropical Cyclone Diamondra on January 27 at 1402 UTC (9:02 a.m. EST) and measured rainfall rates within the storm. TRMM found heavy rainfall occurring east of the center of circulation in excess of 1.6 inches per hour.
Diamondra formed late on January 26 and by 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST), the storm's maximum sustained winds had strengthened to 45 knots (51.7 mph/83.3 kph). At that time, Diamondra was centered near 18.1 south latitude and 77.9 east longitude, or about 732 nautical miles (842 miles/1,356 km) south-southeast of Diego Garcia. The tropical storm was moving to the south-southeast at 6 knots (6.9 mph/11.1 kph).
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects the storm to strengthen to 60 knots by January 29 and then weaken as it moves into cooler waters and encounters strong vertical wind shear.
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