A tropical cyclone storm which is formerly known as tropical cyclone 15s is continuing to strengthen over the Southern Indian Ocean. An Aqua satellite from NASA has captured an image of the storm, in which it is showed that the storm has developed an eye. Tropical cyclone 15s is now called tropical cyclone Ernie.
As written in NASA, the aqua satellite from NASA passed over the tropical cyclone Ernie on 7th April 2017 at 0645 UTC, when it took the image of the storm. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, known as the MODIS took the image of the cyclone from the satellite. It is clearly visible from the image that the storm has already developed an eye, strengthening it to form into a hurricane.
An eye of any storm or cyclone is the area which is roughly circular in shape having normally 40-65 km of diameter measurement. It can be called as the center of strong tropical cyclones. If any storm has developed an eye in the center, it clearly means that the storm is strengthening itself and it is becoming more powerful. The eye is the portion of the storms that has minimum barometric pressure.
Phys.org reported that the eye of the tropical cyclone Ernie was surrounded by thick bands of powerful thunderstorms. This is the 15th tropical cyclone at the Southern Indian Ocean. As per records from the aqua satellite, Ernie's maximum sustained winds were having a speed of nearly 175 km/h, equal to 95 knots. It is continuing to move towards the south at a speed of 5 knots, equal to 9.2 km/h.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center has expected that cyclone Ernie will weaken after moving in a south-south-westerly direction from its current position. The current location of the storm is near 15.4 degrees south latitude and 110.3 degrees east longitude.
