New Delhi/Dubai, Jun 15 (IANS): Sultan Alneyadi, the first Arab astronaut to undertake a spacewalk, has captured images of the cyclone Biparjoy from the orbiting lab.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclone Biparjoy, meaning "destruction" in bengali, is all set to make a landfall at Saurashtra and Kutch coasts and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by Thursday evening.
"Here are some pictures of the cyclone Biparjoy forming in the Arabian Sea that I clicked over two days from the International Space Station," he wrote on Twitter.
"Watch as a tropical cyclone forms over the Arabian Sea from these views I captured.
"The ISS provides a unique perspective on several natural phenomena, which can assist experts on Earth in weather monitoring."
He also urged everyone to "stay safe".
Meanwhile, the IMD also predicted that gale wind speed reaching 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph are prevailing along and off Porbandar and Devbhoomi Dwarka district coasts.
A total of 74,000 residents have been evacuated from vulnerable areas, specifically 120 villages situated within 10 kilometres of the seashore in Kutch district.
Over 20,000 animals have been shifted to safer locations, adequate supply of rations at all shelter homes is ensured and 50 teams have been deployed for road clearance operations.
Alneyadi from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is part of the NASA-SpaceX crew-6 mission which landed on the International Space Station (ISS) in March. He became the first Arab astronaut to walk in space after the end of a seven-hour-long spacewalk on April 29.
He is expected to be on board the space station till September 2023.