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Where is it?In the middle of the Pacific Ocean
What ’s in the photo?A circular , overt - celled cloud above the ocean surface
A massive, lone cloud ring was spotted in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 2014. It reached roughly 280 miles across.
Which artificial satellite involve the photo?NASA ’s Terra satellite
When was it taken?Sept . 3 , 2014
This striking artificial satellite persona give away a giant , penny-pinching - perfect cloud circle that formed in the heart of the Pacific Ocean more than a decade ago . While this type of cloud is not uncommon , it is extremely rarefied to find one isolated and in the middle of nowhere , experts say .
This 2016 satellite image shows a band of open-celled clouds (top) next to a band of closed-celled clouds (bottom). Open cells have gaps at their center, while closed cells have gaps around their edges.
The strange structure , which is roughly 280 miles ( 450 klick ) wide , was blot " a few thousand kilometers southwest of the Hawaiian Islands " by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) onNASA ’s Terra satellite , according toNASA ’s Earth Observatory .
The fluffy ring is made up ofcumulus cloudsthat have been sculpted into aRayleigh - Benard convection cell — a meteoric phenomenon power by the rising and falling of tune that ’s been warmed or cooled to different temperature , live as convection .
There are two type of swarm cells : shut cells , which occur when cold air travel sinks around the cellular phone ' border , make cloud to form at their centers ; and opened cells , which occur when frigid air sinks at the cells ' center , triggering clouds to form around their mete , accord to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA ) . The cloud gang in the satellite picture was make by a shut cadre .
Cloud cells are normally hexagonal and usually look alongside other cells of the same type , creating noticeable pattern in the sky . Open - cell clouds often form wispy honeycomb - like lattices , but for some reason , this cell seems to be all on its own .
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The lonesome swarm ring was likely triggered by a parcel of warm atmosphere over a diminished island or patch of body of water that was superheated by the sun , according to the Earth Observatory .
" As the warm air became buoyant and rose , cumulus clouds and eventually patches of light rain probably train . The rain would have cooled the air beneath the cloud , cause a downdraft that beam rain - cool melodic phrase outward from the original location of the cloud , " Earth Observatory representative wrote . " When the rainfall - cooled air come across warmer gentle wind at the edge of the cellular phone , it likely drive the warm air up , which caused the band of agglomerate cloud to form . "
The swarm cell was site just to the south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone ( ICZ ) — a low - pressure knock near the equator where the craft winds trigger frequent thunderstorms and heavy rainfall . This may have also played a role in the cloud ’s initiation , according to the Earth Observatory .
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The sea surface to the east ( right ) of the swarm doughnut come out to have a metallic effulgence . This is the result of a sunglint , where sunlight jounce off the sea and like a shot back to an observing legal document in infinite . This can transform large patches of the oceaninto swirling silver mirrors .
Cloud cell were only discovered in 1961 , thanks to range from NASA ’s Television Infrared Observation Satellite 1 ( TIROS-1 ) satellite — the first full - weighing machine weather planet ever launched into blank . Before then , the intricate pattern of the cell had gone largely unnoticed by meteorologists , accord to the Earth Observatory .
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