The photos clicked by the astronaut over two days from the International Space Station show the formation of the cyclone in the Arabian Sea
Photo: Twitter/@Astro_Alneyadi
UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi has shared fresh photographs of tropical cyclone Biparjoy that he has captured from the International Space Station (ISS). The cyclone is headed towards the coastline of western India and southern Pakistan. It is expected make landfall on June 15, impacting India’s western state of Gujarat and the densely populated city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The pictures, shared by the astronaut on Twitter, show cyclonic formation in the Arabian Sea. “As promised in my previous video here are some pictures of the cyclone Biparjoy forming in the Arabian Sea that I clicked over two days from the International Space Station,” the caption read.
A couple of days ago, Sultan Al Neyadi shared a stunning video from space. “Watch as a tropical cyclone forms over the Arabian Sea from these views I captured. The ISS provides a unique perspective on several natural phenomena, which can assist experts on Earth in weather monitoring,” he tweeted.
Sultan AlNeyadi is on a six-month space mission aboard the ISS. Earlier in June, he reached the halfway mark of space mission – the longest by an Arab country.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which categorised Biparjoy as a “very severe cyclonic storm” on June 14, has issued a red alert for the coasts of Saurashtra and Kutch in the western Gujarat state. Several parts of Kutch and Devbhumi districts witnessed heavy to very heavy rainfall this week ahead of the landfall.
As per NASA, the southern region of Pakistan will get affected due to the cyclonic storm.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department, in a statement, said, “Maximum sustained surface winds are 150-160km/hour, gusts 180km/hour around the system centre and sea conditions being phenomenal around the system centre with a maximum wave height of 30 feet.”
In India, more than 74,000 people have been moved to shelters in eight coastal districts of Gujarat. The Indian Railways has also cancelled 76 trains in view of the storm while the Dwarkadhish Temple and Somnath Temple will remain closed for devotees on June 15.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has advised fishermen not “to venture in the open sea till the system is over by 17 June.”