Cloud vortex streets off the Cape Verde Islands - related image preview

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Cloud vortex streets off the Cape Verde Islands

Fanciful swirls in the clouds behind the Cape Verde Islands are cloud vortex streets. The pattern is created when air moving over the flat ocean surface is pushed over and around the islands, not unlike the swirls created by a pebble in a stream. The clouds have taken the shape of the displaced air in this image, which was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite on January 5, 2005. The Cape Verde Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of western Africa.


Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published January 28, 2005
Data acquired January 5, 2005

Source:
Terra > MODIS