Earth from space: Svalbard's radioactive 'Bear Island' surrounded by rare cloud swirls and a giant algal bloom
A 2023 satellite image captured a pair of peculiar phenomena painting parallel swirls in the sea and sky around Norway's Bear Island, which is surrounded by extremely radioactive waters left behind by a doomed Soviet submarine.
This striking satellite shot shows a pair of simultaneous phenomena painting parallel swirls in the sea and sky surrounding Bear Island. The isolated land mass, also known as Bjørnøya, is located in Norway's Svalbard archipelago and is surrounded by highly radioactive waters that may endanger local wildlife — which, ironically, does not include many bears.
In the upper left corner of the image, a gap in the clouds is trailed by a series of interlinked cloud swirls that appear to have been platted together like a pretzel. These swirls, known as von Kármán vortices, are formed when clouds get caught up in an airflow that has been disrupted by a tall landmass, most often above an ocean, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
In this case, the vortices are created by clouds passing over Miseryfjellet, the largest mountain on Bear Island. Miseryfjellet, which translates to "misery mountain," has three peaks: Urd, Verdande and Skuld, named after a trio of deities from Norse mythology, known as the Norns. The tallest peak, Skuld, stands around 1,759 feet (536 meters) above sea level.
