NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Sept. 3, 2008

Karina's Life Is Short, Now a Remnant Low

Credit: NASA JPL
> Larger image Karina formed on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and by Wed. Sept. 3, she's already at death's door in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

At 11:00 a.m. EDT, Sept. 3, Karina, that had a brief life as a tropical storm, now has maximum sustained winds near 30 mph, making her a remnant low pressure system. She's located near 20.2 degrees north latitude and 114.0 degrees east longitude, or about 325 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California (seen in this satellite image on the far right).

Karina is moving west near 5 mph, and her minimum central pressure is 1005 millibars. She's expected to weaken further today.

What Does This NASA Satellite Image Show?

This infrared image of Karina was created by data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), an instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The image was created on Sept. 3 at 9:29 UTC (5:29 a.m. EDT).

The AIRS images show the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with very small area of high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of Karina's remnants. The AIRS data creates an accurate 3-D map of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and clouds, all of which are helpful to forecasters.

The infrared signal of the AIRS instrument does not penetrate through clouds. Where there are no clouds the AIRS instrument reads the infrared signal from the surface of the ocean waters, revealing warmer temperatures in orange and red.

Text credit: Rob Gutro/Goddard Space Flight Center