Image of the week: Swirling cloud patterns near the Canary islands

Image of the week: Swirling cloud patterns near the Canary islands Craig MacDonald Tue, 10/03/2026 - 14:32

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Image of the week: Swirling cloud patterns near the Canary islands

Watching our Earth from space

This week’s image of the week focuses on wave-like cloud swirls southwest of the Canary islands. The image was captured by the Meteosat-12 satellite in geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Earth.

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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 FCI instrument onboard Meteosat-12 on 9 March 2026.

The Meteosat weather satellites provide imagery for the early detection of fast-developing severe weather, weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

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

Access weather data from the EUMETSAT User Portal

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Previous image of the week

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This week’s image is of Saharan dust moving north over the Mediterranean towards Greece, as seen from the Meteosat-12 geostationary weather satellite 36,000km above the Earth.

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

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