Other Vortices A Selkirk Island, Chile story
Coasts
Water
Selkirk Island is not the only place where Landsat has seen vortex streets. Other places where this phenomenon is common are nearby Robinson Crusoe Island; the Kuril Islands, Russia; Guadalupe Island, off the western coast of Mexico; and the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The reason for the cloud patterns is the same: tall, steep-sided islands that affect the motion of passing clouds. That first image over Selkirk Island in September 1999, however, is still the clearest vortex street Landsat has recorded.
Location
Jan. 12, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 5/83) — Robinson Crusoe Island
Aug. 12, 2002, Landsat 5 (path/row 40/40) — Guadalupe Island
Jan. 20, 2015, Landsat 8 (path/row 40/40) — Guadalupe Island
July 1, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 40/40) — Guadalupe Island
Aug. 18, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 40/40) — Guadalupe Island
Sep. 3, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 40/40) — Guadalupe Island
June 4, 2008, Landsat 5 (path/row 85/24) — Aleutian Islands
June 4, 2008, Landsat 5 (path/row 85/24) — Aleutian Islands close up
July 28, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 85/24) — Aleutian Islands
Nov. 15, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 85/24) — Aleutian Islands
July 4, 2002, Landsat 7 (path/row 79/24) — Aleutian Islands
May 4, 2005, Landsat 7 (path/row 101/26) — Kuril Islands
Sept. 5, 2001, Landsat 7 (path/row 102/28) — Kuril Islands
May 6, 2000, Landsat 7 (path/row 101/26) — Kuril Islands
May 6, 2000, Landsat 7 (path/row 101/26) — Kuril Islands close up
Apr. 19, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 101/26) — Kuril Islands
Selkirk Island, Chile Additional Imagery & Stories
A Note on the Images
The Landsat images that are shown on Earthshots are combinations of three different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Typically, the images...
More Selkirk Cloudscapes
Since its launch in 1999, Landsat 7 has not again seen such nice vortices over Selkirk Island. A single vortex formed on March 25, 2000, from a simila...
Rare Clear Views
April 19, 2009, could have been a rare clear view of the island, but some of the data are missing because of Landsat 7’s Scan Line Corrector (SLC) mal...
Reflectivity of Water
Have you noticed that in these images, clouds look white but the ocean looks black? Both are made of the same substance, water—why would they appear a...