It is earth day. I’m at my desk at work still so instead of sharing some creative or clever idea for earth friendly crafting (my opinions can be summed thus: yay recycling!) I will share some images of the earth that fascinate me. And yes, it is an atmosphere-centric view, but that is what you get from someone who studies climate all day.

First up: Atmospheric vortices.

A vortex on a large scale, Hurricane Katrina at landfall

Image From Earth Observatory

Also amazing is this video of the entire 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season. Link

von Karmon vortex sheet in the atmosphere

From Earth Observatory
It blows my mind that these features from tank experiments actually show up in the real world. Wow!

Next: Thunderstorms

Thunderstorms look like boiling water! It is unlikely that I will ever get over that. These are over the Amazon. Link

here is another one over Africa

Image from Earth Observatory

Also fantastic is this sequence of images showing the onset of the rainy season over the Amazon. Link

And finally: Crazy fantastic landscapes

Agricultural Patterns

Image from Earth Observatory
This set of images makes me wonder how I can possibly expect to represent crops in large grid cell climate models. It also makes me think about the patterns that humans exert on the landscape. Just look at Kansas!

North Slope of Alaska

I have this on my screensaver and it is impressive how many heads it turns. Tundra, lakes AND the arctic ocean all in one. Link

So I hope that you made it through this extremely craft-free tour of earth images from space. I understand that most people don’t find these all as amazing as I do, but then most people don’t choose to spend all day thinking about it either :)

Happy Earth Day!