File:Ship Wave Clouds over the North Sea - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg
Ship_Wave_Clouds_over_the_North_Sea_-_NASA_Earth_Observatory.jpg (720 × 480 pixels, file size: 134 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Captions
Summary edit
| Description |
To download the full resolution and other files go to: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76524&src=... If air were visible, it would be a thing of mesmerizing beauty and motion. Air courses in streams and eddies; it rises and falls and flows. This image, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on November 9, 2011, offers a rare snapshot of motion in the atmosphere. Currents of air shaped an otherwise uniform layer of marine clouds over the North Sea. Air moving over the ocean flows smoothly over the water because it encounters no obstacles. When the air meets an island, it has to lift up over the land. What goes up must come down, and the air sinks again. The motion sets up a wave pattern that continues for some time until the energy is dissipated. Like the ripples when you toss a stone in calm water, the waves are most distinct near the source (the island) and gradually become less distinct at a distance. The rippling air shapes the low clouds in this image. The clouds at the top of the wave are brighter than clouds in the trough. Such clouds are often called ship-wave clouds because they resemble the waves created by a ship cutting through calm water. In the North Sea, air encounters a number of obstacles that create wave patterns. In some cases, as over the Faroe Islands, the wave patterns compliment one another, resulting in a wide swath. But in other cases, the waves created by one island or islet interact with waves created by another. The result is a mishmash of circular waves in a classic interference pattern. Observing similar interference patterns in water helped scientists understand the wave nature of light. In the early 1800s, Thomas Young identified interference patterns when two beams of light interact. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. The Earth Observatory's mission is to share with the public the images, stories, and discoveries about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA research, including its satellite missions, in-the-field research, and climate models. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Add us to your circles on Google+ |
| Date | |
| Source | Ship Wave Clouds over the North Sea |
| Author | NASA's Earth Observatory |
| Camera location |  | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap |  |
|---|
Licensing edit
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
|
This image was originally posted to Flickr by NASA Earth Observatory at https://www.flickr.com/photos/68824346@N02/6400115259. It was reviewed on 2 July 2012 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0. |
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 17:18, 2 July 2012 | | 720 × 480 (134 KB) | Dzlinker (talk | contribs) | == {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description=To download the full resolution and other files go to: [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76524&src=flickr earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76524&src=...] If air were visible,... |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
