# Low pressure system over Iceland

- By: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Jacques Descloitres
- Date: Taken on 4 September 2003, 14:10
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/68992/low-off-iceland
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Low_pressure_system_over_Iceland.jpg)
- Rights: Public domain
- Picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Low_pressure_system_over_Iceland.jpg/1920px-Low_pressure_system_over_Iceland.jpg
- Who can see it: Kids profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

A beautifully-formed low-pressure system swirls off the southwestern coast of Iceland, illustrating the maxim that "nature abhors a vacuum." The vacuum in this case would be a region of low atmospheric pressure. In order to fill this void, air from a nearby high-pressure system moves in, in this case bringing clouds along for the ride. And because this low-pressure system occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, the winds spun in toward the center of the low-pressure system in a counter-clockwise direction; a phenomenon known as the Coriolis force (in the Southern Hemisphere, the Coriolis force would be manifested in a clockwise direction of movement). The clouds in the image resembled pulled cotton and lace as they spun in a lazy hurricane-like pattern. This huge system swirled over the Denmark Strait in between Greenland and Iceland. The image was taken by the Aqua MODIS instrument on September 4, 2003.