BajaNomad

Cloud Formations, Baja California

BajaNews - 7-10-2011 at 11:18 PM

http://www.irishweatheronline.com/features-2/world-from-spac...

By Mark Dunphy
Sun Jul 10

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the eastern Pacific and Baja California, Mexico, on Saturday 9 July 2011.

According to Irish Weather Online’s Fergal Tierney: “The striking cloud formations featured in this satellite image relate to a sheet of stratocumulus, caused by an inversion just above a turbulent boundary layer. Without the inversion, the clouds would develop further into cumulus mediocris or congestus, but the inversion puts a cap on their development and instead causes them to spread out horizontally.”

“The cloud pattern around the island (Isla Guadalupe), located to the west of Baja California, is a Von Karman vortex pattern, caused by the interaction of the island with the northerly flow”, Fergal added.

Just a few hundreds miles south of Guadalupe, Tropical Storm Calvin continued to weaken during Saturday.

[Edited on 7-11-2011 by BajaNews]

USA5-2011190-aqua-1km2.jpg - 50kB

Mexitron - 7-11-2011 at 06:52 AM

Pretty!