JANIRE ZURBANO ARRESE
The Canary Islands can become the winners of the contest organized by NASA to choose the Picture of the Year, with a photo of the archipelago where the islands seem to sail on the ocean. NASA’s Terra satellite looked down on the Canary Islands on June 15th, 2013. In the image, wavy, windsock-like tails stretch to the southwest from each of the islands. Prevailing winds in the area come from the northeast, and the rocky, volcanic islands create a sort of wind shadow. That wind, or lack of it, piles up waves and choppy water in some places and calms the surface in others. In other words, weather conditions make visible the way the prevailing winds in the archipelago, the trade winds (from the northeast), strike the northern coast of the mountainous islands, leaving the south in calm.
This photo has already surpassed two rounds of online voting system and now competes in the quarter-finals against an image taken by Suomi NPP satellite of a massive rupture of sea ice in Alaska (USA). NASA's followers can vote online until tomorrow morning on this link.
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Canary Islands “sailing” across the Atlantic Ocean, candidate for NASA’s Picture of the Year
The picture shows how the trade winds strike the northern coast of La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria
