Antarctic Vortex Streets: Spirals Form Behind Peter I Island
NASA's Earth Observatory highlights a Landsat 8 image showing von Kármán vortex streets forming downwind of remote Peter I Island in the Bellingshausen Sea, created by Antarctic winds that bend around the island; the spiraling cloud patterns reveal atmospheric eddies around the ice-cloaked volcano, and the piece also notes the island's discovery in 1821, its shield-like summit crater, and past reconnaissance like Operation IceBridge in 2011.