Excellent question and I've noticed that feature to, most especially on the GOES vis loops... but I'm not sure... it is interesting.. one would like to think of it as an eye... but sometimes the sat pixs are deceiving somewhat... recon could certainly answer the question... to say that its has an eye would imply that its a hurricane... I'm not sure there is any data on Irene that supports it being a hurricane... I know I didn't answer your question because I am not sure whether it is an eye or not... gut feelings say no, center perhaps, but no eye feature... but I've been wrong more times than right ...