On 16-12-2010, in Picture stories, by phil The wind and the
general flow of air and ocean currents around our planet is of
great importance to aviators and sailors alike. It is often hard
to visualise exactly what is going on. Satellite pictures can
show us a lot, not only for illustrating the weather forecasts
we all see on TV, but sometimes also for helping us to visualise
what is happening. I was looking through a few satellite
pictures recently and was struck by how similar fluid flow looks
in different scales, whether it is in the atmosphere or in the
oceans. We are all used to looking at the water in rivers and
streams and seeing all the little eddies but we are not so
familiar with what happens on a larger scale. The first four
satellite photos below show what is happening in the sea. In the
first two the swirling currents are made visible by the plankton
in the water, and in the second two by the drifting ice. For
those of us who sail, it explains the odd changes of current a
boat can be subjected to