Video capture of a mysterious phenomenon of swirling clouds off the coast of Mexico

Weather of Arabia - A satellite belonging to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected a mysterious vortex cloud phenomenon called "von Carman" over Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Mexico on May 8, and many have questioned the reason and how these vortexes appeared over the Pacific Ocean.

Von Karman vortices

The mysterious von Karman vortices are named after Theodor von Karman, the American-Hungarian physicist and one of the first scientists to describe this phenomenon. The von Karmann eddies form when fluid flow (in this case air) is affected by an action, usually a mountain or an island.

When wind-driven clouds meet an island or an elevated area, they flow around clockwise and counterclockwise to form beautiful spindle vortices, and multiple swirls appear in the direction of wind movement or at the front of these ground obstacles, which are so distinctive that they can easily be spotted in pictures. Visible satellites.

In the case of satellite images captured off the coast of Mexico this month, the land obstacle turned out to be the island of Guadalupe. As the winds moved from the west toward the east across the island, the air and clouds were forced to move around and spin, causing these amazing swirls.

Where the von Karman vortices occur

Von Karmann's vortices are more apparent if there is a thin surface of clouds within the airway. The clouds reveal beautiful details of turbulent flow, as fingerprints appear on a thin layer of dust. However, the von Karmann vortices could not occur anywhere.

The regions in the world where this phenomenon can occur the most are regions of trade winds, where trade winds are usually found between about 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south of the equator. However, this phenomenon does not necessarily form near the equator.

Satellite sensors have detected von Carman vortices around the world before, including near the coast of Chile, in the Greenland Sea, in the Arctic, and even near a tropical storm. But it can occur anywhere in the world if the requirements for the occurrence of Von Karman's vortex phenomenon are met, which include:

• A ground obstruction, such as an island in close proximity to an airflow.
• Suitable wind speed.
• Cloud cover of suitable thickness to help identify or show wind movement (fingerprint).