NASA finds heavy rain potential in tropical storm Sarai

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) finds heavy rain potential in tropical storm Sarai in the Southern Pacific Ocean, said NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in a release on Friday.

By using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed the cloud top temperatures in the storm to determine its strength, the release said.

The AIRS imagery showed the strongest storms circling the center of circulation, just west of Fiji and in a thick band of thunderstorms northeast of Fiji, and there is tropical cyclone alert in Tonga, according to NASA.

Typhoons and hurricanes are the most powerful weather event on Earth. One of the ways NASA researches tropical cyclones is using infrared data that provide temperature information.

Launched on May 4, 2002, the AIRS instrument is one of six instruments flying on board NASA's Aqua satellite.