The Operational Land Imager instrument on NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite spotted vast cloud vortices swirling across the Southern Ocean downwind of Peter I Island off the coast of Antarctica. The marine Stratocumulus clouds were arranged into these enormous spiralling eddies, known as von Kármán vortex streets, as strong winds blew around the island’s volcanic peak. This is nature’s lesson in braiding hair.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, taken on February 11, 2026.