Former Canadian astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station Chris Hadfield describes atmospheric weather patterns from low Earth orbit.
“We saw some huge tropical storms, typhoons, hurricanes, cyclones—they have different names around the world. We saw them from space; astronauts always do, because there’s always one somewhere. Most of the ones I saw were in the Indian Ocean, north of Australia, or along the African coast, and they look like a gigantic, nasty boil, or a great skin aberration—a huge, festering mess of a thing that’s happening. But you’re detached from them. They almost have a beauty to them. Maybe it’s how a doctor looks at a big wound: to the person that’s there with the wound, it’s a terrible thing, but if you’re a clinician and you’re looking at it from above, you see the reasons behind it, the big picture of it.”
Special thanks to Twitter user loudmouthjulia for supplying the questions. Thanks!
