September 3, 2017

Spiraling Cloud Patterns Over Guadalupe Island

Spiraling Cloud Patterns Over Guadalupe Island

In 1912, physicist Theodore von Kármán first described a process that makes long, spiraling cloud patterns in the sky. These so-called “von Kármán vortices” arise when winds are diverted around a blunt, high-profile area, often an island rising from the ocean. The alternating direction of rotation in the air forms swirls in the clouds.

Satellites regularly spot these wind and cloud patterns around the world. On May 24, 2017, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured a natural-color image of such swirls on the lee side of Guadalupe Island. The volcanic island rises from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

According to Carlos Torres of the Autonomous University of Baja California, the pattern of the swirls depends on the wind intensity. The vortices are driven by the prevailing winds, which can change seasonally and cause differences in the direction and structure of the vortices.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
Explanation from: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/spiraling-cloud-patterns-over-guadalupe-island

2 comments:

  1. Nature must surely always in prescribed activities. No failure or elements of errors.

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  2. von Kármán vortex street forms under certain Reynolds' number conditions of a local stream. It is some form of a rhythmic resonance. Most frequently it occurs in the Jupiter's atmosphere. I observed it in my experiments with temperature density inhomogeneities of water. One should follow the local size, speed, and viscosity conditions (and know the scale) of the phenomenon.

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