Ocean

From Nicolas Reul IFREMER

As you are well aware, TC Chido, 7-16 Dec 2024, did some drastic damage in Mayotte. Actually it was the worst since 1934 with winds in excess of ~226 km/h. Above an optical image of the tropical cyclone

SMOS could monitor the Tropical cyclone (TC) while it was travelling from Madagascar towards Mayotte and measure the wind speed during the over passes.

 

The plot above shows, as a function of date, the sustained max windspeed with, indicated by a red line, the time of SMOS overpasses. The plots below depict the wind speed on two locations.

SMOS Surface Wind Speed Measurements just before TC Chido hit
North of Madagascar (12th Dec)

 

SMOS Surface Wind Speed Measurements just before TC Chido landed on Mayotte island (14th Dec)

the colour code is:

-Extent of the 34 kts winds
-Extent of the 50 kts winds
-Extent of the 64 kts winds