Extraordinary Eddies

This image, taken on 4 July 2002, shows spiraling eddies known as von Karman vortices over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Such eddies form as air flows over and around objects in its path. In this case, these eddies were created when prevailing winds sweeping east across the northern Pacific Ocean encountered Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Credit

Image taken by the Landsat-7 satellite. Source: NASA Goddard Photo and Video flickr page. Courtesy of NASA/U.S. Geological Survey/Landsat-7/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

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