Ed, Ed and Eddy: Southern Cali Swirl from Plane
WeatherMatrix Fan Michael Brennan posted this photo to the WeatherMatrix Facebook page today:
He said: "Friend of mine just posted this pic taken from his airplane window. Just after takeoff from LAX this morning. Assuming this is over the ocean just west of LA." It was such a small feature; it was hard to see on a state-level satellite before it got lighter and the eddy got more spread out.
But Scott Bachmeier of the CIMSS blog sent the image above, and an animation, saying, "the buoy and METAR data show that there was significant boundary layer shear there [changing wind direction near the Earth's surface], which helped created that short-lived eddy seen in the marine layer stratocumulus deck." Later in the day, the swirl still appeared on the Terra and Aqua satellites, along with several other similar eddies:
