Remote Sensing and GIS

Solitary Circulation

(NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response)

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of a strange system off the coast of Morocco on July 10, 2016. “It looks like a hurricane, but it's not," Van Diedenhoven said. Instead, the system is very small—about 100 kilometers across—and is made up of shallow clouds. “Hurricanes have a greater vertical extent. This is really just a cute, dynamic feature in the atmosphere." (Source: Earth Observatory)