Interesting cloud patterns were visible over the Aleutian Islands between Alaska and Russia last month. Turbulence, caused by the wind passing over the highest points of the islands, produces the pronounced eddies that swirl the clouds into a pattern called a vortex "street". Here, the clouds have aligned in parallel rows or streets. Cloud streets form when low-level winds move between and over obstacles causing the clouds to line up into rows that match the direction of the winds. At the point where the clouds first form streets, they are very narrow and well-defined. But as they age, they lose their definition, and begin to spread out and rejoin each other into a larger cloud mass.
Photograph: Modis/Aqua/Nasa
The Guardian
Comments