image: On Oct. 19, 2015, at 01:25 UTC the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite saw Typhoon Champi in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. view more
Credit: NASA Goddard's MODIS Rapid Response Team
Typhoon Champi was near Iwo To island, Japan when NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites gathered data on the weakening typhoon.
Typhoon Champi still maintained an eye on visible imagery taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Oct. 19 at 01:25 UTC. At that time, the storm also appeared symmetric as powerful bands of thunderstorms spiraled into the low-level center, but the storm was weakening.
On October 20 at 0329 UTC (Oct. 19 at 11:29 p.m. EDT) NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Champi after it had weakened somewhat. The AIRS instrument or Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument that flies aboard Aqua looked at the storm in infrared light, and gathered temperature data. In the AIRS image, the eye was no longer visible, and a large band of thunderstorms wrapped into the center from the northwest, north of the center to the east. Another band of thunderstorms wrapped outside the center from the east-southeast to the west-southwest and spiraled into the low-level center.
At 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) Champi was just southwest of the island of Iwo To, Japan and moving to the northeast. Maximum sustained winds dropped from 90 knots (103.6 mph/166 kph) just six hours before, to 80 knots (92 mph/148 kph). Champi is on a weakening trend.
At 11 a.m. EDT, NOAA's National Weather Service reported weather conditions at Iwo To noted conditions were mostly cloudy with winds from the east-south at 28 mph (24 knots) gusting to 44 mph (38 knots).
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Champi to maintain typhoon status as it passes close to the island and heads out into the open waters of the northwestern Pacific Ocean over the next five days. Champi was centered near 22.3 north latitude and 140.0 east longitude, about 172 nautical miles south-southwest of Iwo To. Champi has tracked northward at 4 knots (4.6 mph/7.4 kph) and is generating rough seas with wave heights to 9.1 meters (30 feet).
Champi is moving slowly to the northwest and will gradually weaken before becoming an extra-tropical system after passing Iwo To.
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