Though this may look like a snake swimming through water, it's actually a phenomenon known as a vonKármán vortex street. Here, Guadalupe Island is disrupting the flow of wind, causing the air and subsequent clouds to rotate in a spiral pattern. More:
formations all over the world. In addition to Guadalupe Island, the Cape Verde Islands and the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa are common spots for von Kármán vortices to form.
NOAA’s geostationary satellites, GOES-16 and GOES-17, orbit 22,236 miles above Earth’s equator at the same speed Earth rotates. This means the satellites have a constant view of the same area and are able toNOAA’s polar-orbiting satellites, Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, orbit from pole to pole, imaging the entire Earth at least twice daily.They are positioned just 512 miles above Earth’s surface, allowing them to capture ultra-high resolution views of von Kármán vortices.