Image of the week: Cloud patterns near the Canary islands

Watching our Earth

This week’s image of the week focuses on wave-like cloud swirls southwest of the Canary islands.

Last Updated

23 July 2025

Published on

23 July 2025

The cloud patterns are known as von Kármán Vortices and are formed over the ocean when islands disrupt the wind flow. The strength of the wind affects the patterns of the swirls.

Von Kármán vortices are named after Theodore von Kármán, the pioneering Hungarian-American physicist and aeronautical engineer.

Von Kármán vortices image

This image was captured by the OLCI instrument on one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 12 July 2025.

EUMETSAT operates the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, in cooperation with ESA, and delivers the marine data on behalf of the European Union.

More info

Spot cloud vortices from Meteosat-12 on our Earth view livestream.

Access weather data from the EUMETSAT User Portal.

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