Caroline Morley, online picture researcher
(Image: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response)
You wait ages for a spectacular weather pattern, and then two turn up at once. This satellite image shows both "glories" - the rainbow-like lines stretching diagonally through the centre of the image - and von Karman vortex clouds. We can see the Pacific island of Guadalupe in the top right corner in this image from NASA's Aqua satellite taken on June 20 this year.
The glories are caused by diffraction of light back towards its source. The layer of stratocumulus clouds normally reflects a portion of solar energy into space and in this image the clouds are diffracting the sunlight back to the satellite splitting the light into its constituent colours. It has been suggested that enhancing the reflective property of stratocumulus clouds through geoengineering could help negate climate change. These glories look to us like the famous "double rainbow all across the sky" captured in Yosemite.
Von Karman vortices are linear series of alternating spiral eddies formed by a fluid moving round an obstacle, in this case it is the clouds moving around the island.
And Guadalupe, lest we forget the only bit of rock in this image, is a volcanic island located off the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
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