Von Kármán Vortex Street, Selkirk Island, Off South America

[Guest just Mal]

In the photo, the Alejandro Selkirk Island, off the Chilean coast, is acting like the cylinder. A vortex street is shown disrupting a layer of stratocumulus clouds which are low enough to be affected by the island, which is nearly 1.6 km above sea level and 1.5 km in diameter. When the wind-driven clouds run into the obstacle of the island, they flow around it clockwise and anticlockwise to form the beautiful spinning eddies, advecting hundreds of kilometres downwind.

 

The image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite in September 1999. Credit: Bob Cahalan/NASA, USGS

 

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gallery-clouds/; http://weathervortex.com/wakes.htm

 

 

 

[siznaudin]

Yes - they're amazing features ... and depending on what one smokes while setting up the camera - voila!

 

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