Yesterday over at "The Vane," which is a blog run by the Gawker network, author Dennis Mersereau posted a beautiful gif of Earth as seen from a Japanese weather satellite that takes a picture every eight minutes. It captured the birth of fraternal twins in the Pacific Ocean, Typhoon Goni and Typhoon Atsani, and Atsani is already a super typhoon with 165 mph winds. There's something about the power of these storms that fascinates me: how the winds organize around an area of extremely low barometric pressure and relative calm (called "the Eye") and how they draw their strength from sunlight heating the ocean. The Typhoon Twins are especially serene to look at from space in this gif...they almost make a face: two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Maybe it's the visage of the Hindu Goddess Shiva who is both creator and destroyer. I leave you with this .gif from The Vane. May you stare at it as much as me.
I don't think those will be very cute to the people in their path.
ReplyDeleteOf course not. I just really like the picture. Destructive storms are a terrible scourge to all who are in their path.
DeleteI've often wondered if things like fires and tornadoes and hurricanes are alive. They do qualify for Aristotle's definition of life. And those two storms do appear to be looking at us.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great gif so long as one doesn't think about the destruction those cause.
ReplyDeleteReally great gif. It's scary to think about where those typhoons will hit but there are cool to look at from space.
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