Lightning illuminates the center of Cyclone Bansi last week.(Photo: NASA/Sam Cristoforetti)
A fantastic shot of lightning illuminating the inner core of Cyclone Bansi made weather news over the weekend.
The magical photo was snapped last week by Samantha Cristoforetti (
@AstroSamantha) an Italian astronaut while on board the International Space Station. It was taken while the storm was spinning in the Indian Ocean.
As noted by Jason Samenow at the
Capital Weather Gang, "the lightning reveals the cyclone's beautiful structure – from the stadium effect within the eyewall (clouds of the eyewall curving outward with altitude) to the tight spiral bands surrounding it."
Cyclone Bansi peaked in intensity as a Category 4 equivalent twice last week, before weakening, according to the Weather Channel.
I wrote an article five years ago about a link between lightning and the strongest winds in hurricanes. In a paper published in the journal
Nature Geoscience in 2009
, scientists found a significant increase in lightning about a day before the most intense winds in the hurricanes they studied.
USATODAY
Lightning may predict hurricane intensity - USATODAY.com
There are no tropical storms, hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones anywhere on Earth as of today, though a weakening Tropical Depression Mekkhala is spinning near the Philippines.
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