Every year, the Pacific Ocean is affected by numerous tropical cyclones that affect large communities throughout the region. In February 2005, among several cyclones that formed that year, tropical cyclone Olaf originated in the South Pacific and passed over American Samoa, causing the evacuation of more than 1,000 people and temporary communication outage.
The dimensions and magnitude of Olaf can be depicted from the images below. The QuikSCAT satellite winds composite (13 - 15 February, 2005) shows Olaf's well-defined wind circulation structure and patterns as measured by the sensor. Additionally, the satellite image collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on 15 February reveal Olaf's structure and clockwise air circulation pattern.
