Earth-spanning super typhoon Bopha pictured from space

Flora Graham, deputy editor, newscientist.com

(Image: NASA)

The locals are calling it Pablo. Its international name is Bopha. Whatever the name, this typhoon is a frightening sight as it looms over the Philippines. This image was captured on 2 December from the International Space Station.

Bopha peaked with winds over 260 kilometres per hour as it approached the country, where it has displaced 40,000 people into shelters, wiped out villages and left hundreds dead or missing.

The Philippine island of Mindanao is hardest hit, less than a year after 1200 of its people were killed by tropical storm Washi.

Also visible in the photo are the ISS's Permanent Multipurpose Module on the left, and the Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1 on the right.

This storm is Pablo to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center uses the name Bopha. Its location in the north-west Pacific Ocean is what makes Bopha a typhoon rather than a hurricane - that's the only difference between the two. With such high wind speeds Bopha is equivalent to a category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more about the wild weather set to batter the planet in "Climate downgrade: Extreme weather".

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/264cb20c/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C120Csuper0Etyphoon0Ebopha0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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