Hurricane Fabio Spotted from Space

Hurricane Fabio seen in a false-color image taken by NASA's Aqua satellite on July 15, 2012. (Image credit: NASA)

The spiraling cloud of Hurricane Fabio, the fifth hurricane of the eastern Pacific's 2012 hurricane season, were spotted by NASA's Aqua satellite yesterday afternoon (July 15).

Fabio began as a tropical depression on July 12 and rapidly strengthened into a tropical storm, becoming the sixth named storm of the 2012 season for the East Pacific basin. Named storms include tropical storms and hurricanes.

Fabio is located about 700 miles (1,130 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. The storm is not a direct hazard to land, but it is stirring up swells that could cause dangerous rip tides and surf along Baja California's west coast, according to the latest update from the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Andrea Thompson is an associate editor at Scientific American, where she covers sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to that, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered Earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a bachelor of science and and masters of science in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.