Where the streets have no name

by Gareth on February 26, 2009

JanMayenvortexsmall.jpg

Not much of a climate connection here (though Greenland and sea ice are in the picture), but regular readers will know that I’m fond of looking down on the Earth from space. This image from NASA’s Earth Observatory shows a beautiful von Karman vortex street downwind of Jan Mayen island in the Greenland Sea (600 km N of Iceland, 500 km E of Greenland), surrounded by more conventional cloud streets running south off the sea ice. Click on the image for more detail, and check out the Wikipedia page for an excellent animation showing how the vortices form, and more pictures. We get them too: here’s a NASA satellite image from 2002 of a similar vortex street forming to the west of Mt Taranaki:
Taranakivortex.jpg

Normal climate service will resume shortly…
[Pet Shop Boys]

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

AndrewH February 26, 2009 at 11:46 pm

PSB? WtF!

Gareth February 26, 2009 at 11:54 pm

Bono’s banned.

AndrewH February 27, 2009 at 7:57 am

Why, what has he done?

Nice pic’s btw….I assume Taranaki is subject to a South-easterly. Uncommon I would have thought. A day of rest for the surfies,

cindy February 27, 2009 at 9:27 am

did you ban Bono because you stole his words?

… or are you a ballet fan?

Gareth February 27, 2009 at 11:22 am

Stole? No, “fair use” covers it.

Sometimes it’s just nice to go for the less obvious choices…

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