14 DAY TRIAL // In this September 18 image of Typhoon Sanba, the eye of the massive storm can be seen passing over the Japanese island of Okinawa, on its way towards the Korean Peninsula. As clearly visible above, the cloud fronts generated by the typhoon already loom over South Korea.
NASA used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on its Terra satellite to capture this view of the storm, in natural colors. The outlines of various landscape features are shown in black.
Two days before this image was collected, on September 16, Typhoon Sanba was reported as producing sustained winds at speeds of up to 90 knots (165 kilometers per hour), while gusts were recorded as traveling at speeds of up to 110 knots (205 kilometers per hour).
Though Sanba still remains a powerful typhoon, its winds have died down over the past couple of days.