image: Aila recently became the first cyclone of the 2009 cyclone season in the North Indian Ocean just before making landfall in far eastern India in the northern Bay of Bengal. So far the storm is being blamed for 275 deaths in India and Bangladesh, but more are expected.
This image shows Aila just as it was becoming a tropical storm. The image was taken at 21:20 UTC May 23, 2009 (2:50 a.m. May 24 local time) and shows the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within the storm. Rain rates in the center swath are from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar, the first precipitation radar in space, while rain rates in the outer swath are from the TRMM Microwave Imager. The rain rates are overlaid on infrared data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner. At this stage, the center is not very well defined; however, the developing cyclonic circulation is evident by the curvature in the rain bands. Aila would officially became a tropical storm less than 3 hours after this image was taken.
Credit: NASA