Despite remaining offshore, Hurricane Simon battered Mexico's Pacific coast with powerful winds and flooding. At the same time, NASA satellites captured an extraordinary sight high above the storm: enormous waves rippling through Earth's upper atmosphere. Hurricane Simon was the latest in a series of powerful tropical cyclones to sweep across the Eastern Pacific during the 2026 hurricane season.
On October 11, 2026, the Category 4 hurricane moved dangerously close to Mexico's coastline as it traveled north-northwest, with sustained winds reaching 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour. Hurricane Simon Batters Mexico's Pacific Coast At approximately 2:30 p.m. local time (20:30 Universal Time) on October 11, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument aboard NASA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of the massive storm. At that moment, Simon's eye was located roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) offshore, between the coastal cities of Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), sustained winds had weakened to approximately 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour by the time the image was taken. However, the hurricane's powerful inner core was still moving close enough to threaten communities along the coast. The Sierra Madre mountains appeared to help limit Simon's strength, with the rugged terrain reducing the storm's intensity and shrinking the area affected by its winds.
Even so, the hurricane brought torrential rainfall and flooding to coastal communities, including the port city of Manzanillo. The heavy rain also increased the threat of dangerous mudslides in mountainous regions, according to news reports. NASA Captures Strange Waves Above the Hurricane While Simon churned across the Pacific, satellites detected something remarkable happening far above the clouds.
During the early morning of October 11, the storm generated rippling disturbances that traveled into Earth's upper atmosphere. A nighttime satellite image, captured by the VIIRS instrument aboard NOAA-21, revealed atmospheric gravity waves spreading outward from the hurricane. These waves are created by intense activity within the storm.
Near the hurricane's eyewall, the release of latent heat fuels powerful convection, causing warm, moist air to surge upward and form towering cumulonimbus clouds. The strong updrafts inside these clouds can disturb the surrounding atmosphere, generating waves that travel upward into the stratosphere and mesosphere. Unlike ocean waves, which move through water, atmospheric gravity waves are disturbances that propagate through the air, with gravity acting as a restoring force.
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