Cyclone Idai

Wind measured by the Aeolus satellite while crossing the Cyclone Idai west of Madagascar on 11 March 2019. Red indicates wind blowing from east to west (easterlies) and blue indicates wind blowing from west to east (westerlies). Since Aeolus measures wind in the cloud-free atmosphere, and within thin clouds and on top of thick clouds, the measurements here are those surrounding Idai. The black patch is the part of the cyclone, which was covered by a thick cover of spiral-shaped clouds. The image shows strong easterly winds north of the hurricane (in red on the left of the image), with wind speeds up to 150 km per hour (above 40 m/s). In the upper right corner (altitude of 22–25 km), the tropical stratospheric easterly jet can be seen in red, and lower down on the right (altitude of 10–16 km) the sub-tropical westerly jet in the southern hemisphere is visible in blue.