The Aqua satellite captured this image of von Kármán vortices downwind of Isla Socorro.
Published Aug 19, 2013
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
Clouds off the Chilean coast show a unique pattern called a “von Karman vortex street.”
Published May 30, 2000
Winds flowing around Heard Island in the southwestern Indian Ocean shaped the clouds into a line of spirals.
Published May 8, 2016
Chains of swirling clouds stream behind islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Published Aug 13, 2017
Mountain peaks slice through the clouds and air masses, creating Von Karman Vortices.
Published Nov 6, 2016
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
Named Isla de Aves in Spanish, (meaning “Island of the Birds”) Aves Island lies west of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. It provides a nesting site to green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and, of course, birds. Because the abundant bird droppings, known as guano, could be used in fertilizer and gunpowder, guano miners worked on the island until they depleted the supply. Since its discovery by Europeans, likely in the late 16th century, Aves Island was subsequently claimed by several European nations. The island is currently claimed by Venezuela, although disputes about ownership of the island, and the surrounding exclusive economic zone in the Caribbean, continue today.
Published Jun 19, 2006
In the western Pacific Ocean, a new volcanic island that formed in the shadow of Nishino-shima has merged with it. The island has doubled in size as the eruption continues.
Published Apr 4, 2014
Nishinoshima has grown to twelve times its original size.
Published Nov 29, 2015
