November 2, 2024

Twists of Nature: Spectacular Swirls in the Sky and Sea Around Norway’s Remote Bear Island

In this image, remote Bear Island (also called Bjórnóya)– the southernmost island of Norways Svalbard archipelago– helped set off the spiraling cloud pattern. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASAs Aqua satellite obtained the image on July 13, 2023.
Foxes, seals, and sea birds are more various and common than either individuals or bears on the little island.

A Spectacular Display at Bear Island
In this image, remote Bear Island (likewise called Bjórnóya)– the southernmost island of Norways Svalbard archipelago– helped set off the spiraling cloud pattern. At the very same time, another visually sensational phenomenon peeked through a break in the clouds: the tendrils of a phytoplankton blossom circulating in the surface area currents of the Norwegian and Barents Sea. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASAs Aqua satellite got the image on July 13, 2023.
Wildlife of Bear Island
Despite the name, polar bears just occasionally visit Bear Island. A handful of staffers at a meteorological station are the only people who spend much time on the island.
Foxes, seals, and sea birds are more various and typical than either people or bears on the small island. According to the Ramsar Sites Information Service, more than one million seabirds gather there throughout the reproducing season. Amongst them are the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), pink-footed geese (Anser branchyrhynchus), and the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis).
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS information from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

Satellite picture of Norways Bear Island got on July 13, 2023, by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASAs Aqua satellite reveals Von Kármán vortices in the clouds and swirling tendrils of a phytoplankton flower in the Norwegian and Barents Sea.
Fluid dynamics placed on a magnificent show around Norways remote Bear Island.
Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American physicist, is popular within NASA for helping discovered the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In climatic science circles, he is most commemorated for his research on fluid turbulence and his pioneering work on a phenomenon that came to be known as von Kármán vortices.
Development of von Kármán Vortices
Von Kármán vortices look like long direct chains of spiral eddies and can develop nearly anywhere that fluid circulation is interrupted by an item. The environment acts like a fluid, so the wing of an aircraft, a bridge, and even an island can cause the vortices to form.