Cloud Vortices Off Cheju Do

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Saturday, 27 January 2007, 06:40 CST Download full size image

This image from January 19, 2007, was acquired by the MODIS on the Terra satellite. Featured in the image are von Karman cloud vortices off Cheju Do Isand, which is off the southwest coast of South Korea.

The highest point of the island is interacting with wind-driven clouds, causing the clouds to flow around it in large, spinning eddies. Cheju-do Island is actually home to Mt. Halla, Korea's tallest mountain, at 6400 feet. It is likely that the vortices are forming off this mountain!

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