[/caption]
Thick dust from the Sahara blowing over the ocean off the western coast of Africa encounters the islands of Cape Verde, forming a wake of swirling “vortex streets” visible by satellite.
These swirls are also known as von Karman vortices. When wind encounters the island, the disturbance in the flow propagates downwind in the form of a double row of vortices, which alternate their direction of rotation.
Such effects can be seen anywhere a liquid fluid — including air — flows around a solid body. They are named after engineer and fluid dynamicist Theodore von Kármán.
In the image above, the dust and sand is thick enough to nearly block out some of the islands entirely. See the full scale version here on the Chelys “EOSnap” Earth Snapshot site.
Image via EOSnap/Chelys SRRS (Satellite Rapid Response System).
The Sun is increasing its intensity on schedule, continuing its approach to solar maximum. In…
Does another undetected planet languish in our Solar System's distant reaches? Does it follow a…
It's that time again. NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) has announced six concepts that will…
On Friday, May 3rd, the sixth mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang'e-6) launched…
Earth is the only life-supporting planet we know of, so it's tempting to use it…
Multiple space agencies are looking to send crewed missions to the Moon's southern polar region…