By EurekAlert
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tropical cyclones typically don't form in the Southern Atlantic
because the waters are usually too cool. However, forecasters at
the Naval Research Laboratory noted that a low pressure system off
the coast of Brazil appeared to have tropical storm-force winds
yesterday.
On Wednesday, March 10 at 1400 UTC (9:00 a.m. ET) "System 90Q"
was located near 29.8 degrees South latitude and 48.2 degrees West
longitude, about 180 miles east of Puerto Alegre, Brazil. The Naval
Research Laboratory said on March 10 the system had maximum
sustained winds near 39 mph (35 knots) but has weakened today below
the tropical storm-force winds threshold.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-12
captured a visible image of System 90Q at 14:45 UTC (9:45 a.m. ET)
on March 11, and it appeared as a small circular area of clouds off
the Brazilian coast. GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and NASA's GOES Project, located at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of
the GOES satellite images.
System 90Q continues to move away from the Brazilian coast and
is expected to be absorbed in a mid-latitude cold front in the next
couple of days.
SOURCE
