Signatures of 3 co-evolving 2015 major Hurricanes from 22 Aug to 9 Sep in the East and Central tropical Pacific as seen from SMOS, SMAP and AMSR-2 observations (beyond others)
This year sees a strong El Niño event which causes much higher temperatures than normal in the upper layers of the Tropical East Pacific. The available surplus heat favors an increased occurrence of Tropical Cyclones and storms. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this season has been ranked as the fifth most active hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific since 1971. In a normal season, the average number of Major Hurricanes (Category 3 and plus in the Saffir-Simpson scale) is expected to be 3 whereas this year already 8 Major Hurricanes have occurred. At the end of August, three Category 4 hurricanes (named Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena) developed in parallel in the vicinity of Hawaii which MODIS and SMOS sensors were well able to capture.