Island Effect, Greenland Sea

Jan Mayen island is creating spectacular von Kármán vortices in a otherwise uniform set of parallel cloud streets in the Greenland Sea. Like the islands on the first page of this gallery, Jan Mayen is interrupting the flow of air and causing the clouds streaming by to break into eddies swirling in opposite directions in its wake. The coast of Greenland and protruding sea ice is visible in the upper left of this image taken in February 2009 by the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Image: Jeff Schmaltz/NASA

See Also:

• Stunning Views of Glaciers Seen From Space
• Erupting Volcanoes on Earth as Seen From Space
• Asteroid Impact Craters on Earth as Seen From Space
• Sublime Sand: Desert Dunes Seen From Space
• Out of the Blue: Islands Seen From Space
• Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space

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