Tropical depression 03W intensified into a tropical storm over the past 24 hours and was named storm Muifa. It turned into a storm when it entered into the Philippine Area of Responsibility. The tropical depression was first formed on April 24, 2017. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM) was used to have a greater understanding of the storm movement and intensity.
GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA. This core satellite got a 3-D view of the storm. The data collected by the 3-D examination of Storm Muifa showed that the tall convective storm tops were reaching altitudes of 17.8km (11miles). It detected that the storms were forming a convective cluster that was dropping the precipitation at high rates rapidly.
Storm Muifa is one of the first tropical storms of the 2017 North West tropical cyclone season. According to NASA, it is expected to move towards the North East in the next 12 to 24 hours. It will first track North West and around the western edge of the subtropical ridge. After which it will accelerate to the northeast where Muifa will move away from Phillipenes toward Iwo Jima, Ogasawara Archipelago (Bonin Islands).
On 26 April, the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) said Muifa was located near 14.2 degrees north latitude and 134.1 degrees east longitude, about 754 nautical miles south-southwest of Iwo To, Japan. Phys.org stated that Storm Muifa was moving to the north-northwest at 6 knots (6.9 mph/11.1 kph) and had maximum sustained winds near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph).
NASA's Aqua Satellite provided an infrared image which measured very high temperatures at 210 kelvin. This is a very high temperature indicating very strong storms in the troposphere. The outflow and low vertical wind shear are high which will make storm Muifa to intensify at 92.6kmph(57mph). Later, it might start a weakening trend and end somewhere near south of the archipelago.
