Satellite Observes "12-12-12"

Today's date of December 12, 2012 has been a special one for many people who enjoy numerology, and even NOAA's GOES-15 satellite got into the act. The date 12-12-12 is the last major numerical date in this century for those using the Gregorian or Christian calendar.

NOAA's GOES-15 satellite captured a visible image of the Pacific Ocean on 12-12-12 at 1200 UTC, tossing in a "bonus 12," said Dennis Chesters, project scientist of NASA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. where the image was created. The time 1200 UTC means Universal Time Coordinate, and during standard time the U.S. East coast is 5 hours behind that, meaning that the GOES-15 image was captured at 7 a.m. EST.

The image does show something numerically significant, the fourth tropical cyclone in the southern Pacific Ocean. Newborn Tropical Storm Evan was born today, Dec. 12, 2012 at 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST) and appears as a rounded area of clouds in the bottom left corner of the image. Tropical Storm Evan is about 145 nautical miles west of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa. For more about Evan, visit NASA's Hurricane page at: www.nasa.gov/hurricane.

Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project/Dennis Chesters
Text Credit: NASA Goddard/Rob Gutro

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.