A low pressure area in the northern hemisphere: Click on the image to enlarge it - its worth it. Courtesy NASA Earth Observatory.
This photograph was taken from the cupola of the International Space Station and shows a VAST low pressure area, across the eastern Pacific ocean. What strikes me about this view is the beautiful spiral pattern which has formed. And yet, on the ground at each location within the picture, there would be no evidence of the vast spiral formation of which the local weather was just a small component.
And this seems to be a metaphor for what we seek in our effort to understand Earth’s climate. We are searching for the abstract perspective that would reveal specific patterns in otherwise apparently random weather.
That’s all – its time for bed. Read here for more detail about the picture on NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Tags: Earth Observatory, NASA, The Big Picture
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