This fascinating video from the American Chemical Society answers that question but unfortunately provides no answers about why so many clouds look like bunnies.
A cloud weighs as much as 300 cars so why doesn't it fall on our heads?
Now even clouds are vaping
Photographer unknown. (via r/mildlyinteresting) Read the rest
This timelapse of clouds in a valley looks like the ocean
Lars Leber shot this timelapse of "low clouds over Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. Cheyenne Mountain is visible in the background." Read the rest
Stormchaser films a new cloud type during spectacular sunset
Earlier this month, stormchasing photographer Mike Olbinski witnessed stunning and rare undulatus asperatus clouds roiling above the setting sun. 4K and headphones highly recommended. Read the rest
Mesmerizing video of newly categorized type of cloud
A few days ago in North Dakota, storm chaser Mike Olbinski made this absolutely incredible time-lapse video of undulatus asperatus clouds. This class of cloud is the first cloud category added to the International Cloud Atlas since 1951. Olbinski writes:
We were chasing northeast of Bismarck, North Dakota and as storms were dying out, we decided to go for a lone cell on the backside of a line of storms. We knew it had a hail core on it and we were hoping that we might get some nice sunset color at least on the storm as it moved past us, and hopefully some lightning bolts. But we had no idea what we were about to encounter. The clouds were taking on a very different, curvy, wave-like appearance and suddenly we knew what we were seeing.
Undulatus asperatus clouds are a rare phenomenon and actually the newest named cloud type in over 60 years. I've seen tons of photos of them, but never anything like what we witnessed last night. We had a storm with hail in front of us and flashing lightning which was fantastic. But then we had this layer of undulatus clouds flowing across our view. Watching them was amazing already, but then the sun slowly appeared from behind some clouds to the west and lit up our storm like nothing we've ever seen before. We were like kids in a candy store. Running around, doing our best to capture it from every possible angle.
Alessandro Puccinelli's 'Intersections,' where violent seas and skies collide
Photographer Alessandro Puccinelli is mesmerized by powerful waves. His photo series Intersections captures the fleeting moment when the ocean and the clouds appear to become one. Read the rest
Unusual cloud seen in Australia
Ilya Katsman shot this photo of clouds forming parralel lines over Australia. Read the rest
Incredibly strange spherical cloud spotted in Japan
Twitter user @pmxpvrtmx posted images of an astonishing spherical cloud over the city of Fujisawa, south of Tokyo.
"When I saw the cloud it was an even more spherical shape, so I regret not taking the photo more quickly," she told Rocket News 24.
While it's certainly an amazing photo, the roundness may be an illusion. An individual in Fujisawa posted a photo reportedly of the same cloud from a different angle.
"While I can’t verify the origin of this image (just above), or whether it was even of the same cloud, it appears that the cloud only appeared spherical from one direction," University in Melbourne atmospheric scientist Todd Lane told ScienceAlert. "That is, the photographer was lucky to be in the right place to capture an interesting image of what is likely an uninteresting cloud. It looks to me to be some form of cumulus fractus cloud."
日曜日の午後3時に湘南台で奇妙な雲を見たとFacebookで投稿がありました。確かにこんなの、見たことがない…！ pic.twitter.com/we1j5i2vKD
— poppy (@pmxpvrtmx) December 6, 2016
On the once and future history of clouds
James Bridle (previously) honors the The Cloud Index, "a tool for actionable weather forecasts" at London's Serpentine Gallery, with a lyrical longread about the history of clouds, science, war and computation. Read the rest
Trippy 'roll cloud' hovers over Lake Michigan
Nick Nerbonne captured “A rare and very unique 'roll cloud' along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.” Read the rest
Video of one year on Earth, from one million miles away
One million miles from Earth, hanging in space between Earth's gravitational pull and the sun's, is the DSCOVR satellite and NASA's incredible EPIC camera. Every two hours, EPIC takes a photo of Earth "to monitor ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth." The above video combines one year of those images.
From the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:
The primary objective of DSCOVR, a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, is to maintain the nation’s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA.
Strange and beautiful clip of a huge "shelf cloud"
Stormchaser/photographer Nick Moir posted the gorgeous video clip below of a shelf cloud off Sydney, Australia. The whole shot is quite surreal, as if the cloud background was digitally added later.
Massive shelf cloud off #sydney #storm pic.twitter.com/75y4NZ2641
— Nick Moir (@nampix) November 6, 2015
Incredibly strange and sublime cloud portal with a rainbow inside
big_mac_heart_attack posted this gorgeous example of a "fallstreak hole" with a rainbow in a cloud formation over eastern Victoria, Australia. They are rare enough that some people think they are evidence of UFOs. Unfortunately, that isn't usually the case. From Weather Underground:
Read the restFallstreak holes form in these high to mid-level (cirrocumulus or altocumulus) clouds which are comprised of tiny water droplets that are below the freezing temperature but have not yet frozen (called supercooled water droplets). Airplanes passing through the cloud help the supercooled water droplets freeze. Air expands and cools as it passes over the wings and the propellor blades, decreasing the ambient temperature just enough to allow the droplets to freeze. The ice crystals grow and start to fall, while causing the water droplets around the ice crystals to evaporate. This leaves a large hole in the cloud with brush-like streaks of ice falling below it.
Awe-inspiring clouds chased and filmed
This is the best time-lapse cloud show I've seen, given power by Mike Olbinski's eye and meaning by Kerry Muzzey's The Secret History.
Technical details...everything was shot on Canon 5D3's, along with an array of Rokinon lenses. I got sick of lens-twisting (mostly of FORGETTING to lens twist) so I mainly used those manual lenses on this trip. Everything was processed using LR Timelapse, Lightroom, After Effects and Premiere Pro.
Cloud computers are computers you can only use with someone else's permission
As Adobe Creative Suite struggles with its license-server outage, stranding creative professionals around the world without a way of earning their living, a timely reminder: a cloud computer is a computer you're only allowed to use if the phone company and a DRM-peddling giant like Adobe gives you permission, and they can withdraw that permission at any time. Read the rest
