image: Tropical Storm Daphne was born on April Fool's Day in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, as low pressure System 95P consolidated and organized. NASA's Terra satellite passed over Daphne after the storm was named. Daphne had already caused severe flooding in areas of Fiji. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Daphne when it was over the North Fiji Basin on April 1, 2012 at 2300 UTC (7 p.m. EDT). On April 2 at 0300 UTC (April 1, 11 p.m. EDT), Tropical Storm Daphne had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/64 kph). Those tropical-storm-force winds extend as far as 200 nautical miles (230 miles/370 km) from the center, making Daphne a good-sized storm, more than 400 nautical miles (460 miles/741 km) in diameter. Daphne's center was located about 340 nautical miles (391 miles/630 km) west-southwest of Suva, Fiji, near 19.8 South and 172.7 East. Daphne was moving to the east-southeast near 18 knots (20.7 mph/ 33.3 kph). Forecasters expect Daphne to continue moving to the east-southeast and maintain strength over the next day or two. view more
Credit: Image: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team Caption: NASA Goddard, Rob Gutro