photo #5731088

This image of Earth, taken in late December 2023 by instruments aboard NASA’s Terra satellite, shows the Russian island of Sakhalin on the left covered in snow. The rest of the image is filled with the Sea of Okhotsk, regions of which are covered with sea ice but mostly with long rows of Cumulus radiatus clouds. These stretch out from the land across the waters near this north-eastern edge of Asia. Such low-altitude clouds neatly arranged into rows with gaps between them are often referred to as cloud streets.They developed as very cold, dry air flowed off the continent and out over the comparatively warmer ocean surface. The low air warmed and picked up moisture as it did so. This gave it enough buoyancy to float upwards and form Cumulus clouds. But an invisible lid of warmer air above meant the air couldn’t keep rising and instead had to sink back down around the clouds, creating gaps between them. The prevailing winds arranged everything into long, parallel rows of rising and sinking air to form a multi-lane superhighway in the sky.This image was suggested by Myra Boenke (Member 62,175).