Aleutian Islands area of Alaska from Skylab

SL4-140-4111 (14 Jan. 1974) --- The Aleutian Islands area of Alaska, as photographed from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit by one of the Skylab 4 crewmen. The camera used was a hand-held Hasselblad, with SO-368 medium-speed Ektachrome. Here is another macro scale phenomenon which is difficult to observe except from a space platform. The Aleutian Islands and clouds with very elaborate van Karman vortices was photographed on Jan. 14, 1974. In addition to the vortices the waves in the clouds due to the mountains on the islands are very evident. In fact, the easiest way to find the mountains is to start with their atmospheric disturbance and work back to the mountain. Photo credit: NASA