Clouds swirled in the southern Atlantic Ocean, northwest of St. Helena, in mid-November 2012.
Published Nov 25, 2012
Winds flowing around Heard Island in the southwestern Indian Ocean shaped the clouds into a line of spirals.
Published May 8, 2016
This Valentine in the sky is the visible expression of fluid dynamics at work.
Published Feb 14, 2019
Wind flowing past an island created this spiraling cloud pattern off the coast of Greenland.
Published Apr 13, 2012
Known as von Kármán vortices, the remarkable curling patterns can form nearly anywhere that fluid flow is disturbed by an object.
Published Jun 7, 2015
Von Kármán vortices make another appearance near the Canary Islands.
Published Jul 11, 2020
The Aqua satellite captured this image of von Kármán vortices downwind of Isla Socorro.
Published Aug 19, 2013
It is so small that you cannot see it on Google maps, but Landsat Island has a unique story of discovery and naming.
Published Apr 10, 2018
The ghostly white shapes northeast and immediately southwest of Wrangel Island are sea ice. Over the course of the satellite record, Arctic sea ice has advanced and retreated past Wrangel Island many times. From 1979 to 2000, the sea ice edge at the end of summer generally fell somewhere in the vicinity of Wrangel Island, but this is not the first summer when the sea ice edge has retreated well north of the island.
Published Aug 29, 2008
A common cloud pattern, known as von Kármán vortices, makes an appearance at night.
Published Aug 19, 2019
Chains of swirling clouds stream behind islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Published Aug 13, 2017
These Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) images from June 11, 2000 demonstrate a turbulent atmospheric flow pattern known as the von Karman vortex street.
Published Dec 7, 2000
Akpatok Island lies in Ungava Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. Accessible only by air, Akpatok Island rises out of the water as sheer cliffs that soar 500 to 800 feet (150 to 243 m) above the sea surface. The island is an important sanctuary for cliff-nesting seabirds.
Published Feb 25, 2002
The troughs and ridges of atmospheric waves created a distinctive pattern in the clouds.
Published Nov 30, 2014
The island once looked very different from how it does today.
Published Apr 16, 2017
This natural-color image shows Henrietta Island, with a smooth, dome-capped surface and a rugged coastline, illuminated by low-angled sunlight.
Published May 3, 2009
