Satellite stares into Hurricane Jose's eye, revealing whitecaps on the ocean below
While Hurricane Irma has garnered the most headlines in the past few days, the next storm that needs to be watched is already lurking in the Atlantic.
Hurricane Jose narrowly missed hitting Barbuda and Anguilla on Friday and Saturday, avoiding a doomsday scenario for those islands, which were ravaged by Hurricane Irma only a few days prior.
A new, striking satellite photo taken by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A satellite, shows off Hurricane Jose's extreme power.
Within Jose's eye, you can see swirling low-level clouds that make up mesovortices spinning within the eye of the most powerful hurricanes, like Jose. This is a research interest for severe storm scientists, who are trying to understand how these pinwheeling clouds form and function.
The photo was posted to Flickr by Antti Lipponen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. (Lipponen is also responsible for creating a viral global warming emissions graphic that circulated online beginning on Aug. 1.)
The European Space Agency also released other images of Hurricane Jose.
At one point, the Atlantic Ocean basin had spun up three hurricanes, Katia, Irma, and Jose, at the same time, setting a milestone.
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Last week, both Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Jose had winds of 150 miles per hour or greater, which was the first time that has happened on record in the Atlantic.
Hurricane Jose is forecast to meander in the western Atlantic during the next several days, and its ultimate fate is unclear. It could potentially affect the Bahamas or the U.S. late this week, but that is far from clear as of Monday.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
