Tag Archives: atmospheric science

Incredible Photo of Condensation Vortices from NASA

This is just neat. I saw this photo on Facebook, and had to share it.

See the vortices? You may think it’s photoshopped. It’s not. The conspiracy theorist may think it’s the propellers spraying chemicals. They’re not doing that, either. So what is it?

As the propellers spin, they create a low pressure region as the propeller blade moves out of a space, which in turn causes the water in the air to condense. These are basically thin little clouds. Neat, isn’t it?

What was your first impression when you saw the picture?