Wave clouds
Something lovely to contemplate over the weekend.
They’re called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds:
When two different layers of air are moving at different speeds in the atmosphere, a wave structure will often form. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like rolling structures. The clouds often form on windy days where there is a difference in densities of the air, such as in a temperature inversion.
Beautiful and a nice respite from politics. I enjoy reading your blog and enjoy the bits of beauty and comedy in the midst of your insightful commentary.
this is so beautiful and makes everything going on in this crazy world seem so small.
thank you for posting this, Neo!
Reminds me of the hamon on a blade that is differentially hardened/tempered. The metal that cools slower is separated from the part that cools faster by a wave pattern.
Nice clouds. I agree; it’s good to get away from politics. In fact, it’s essential in order to maintain mental health.
I’ll assume that this is an open thread, and take a minute to talk about one of my interests, which is space flight. I’ve been a space buff ever since I was a little kid growing up in the 60s, during the Gemini and Apollo era.
I enjoy following space flights. They’re my lifeline to sanity, and offer a glimmer of hope for the future. They showcase the best of humanity, and what we’re capable of.
Here’s an article about the upcoming flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus cargo ship to the ISS:
Antares rolled out ahead of ORB-D mission — 24 hour delay
It’s currently scheduled for launch from Wallops Island, VA on Wednesday around noon. The first flight of Antares in April was a success. It carried a dummy payload. This one will carry an actual spacecraft that will dock with the ISS if all goes well.
It’s interesting that Antares’ first stage engines were originally built for the ill-fated Soviet N-1 moon rocket back in the 1960s. When that project was cancelled, the government ordered all of the hardware destroyed. Some project managers disobeyed that order and hid scores of the engines in a warehouse, where they sat for decades until they were rediscovered after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian engineers who designed and built those engines are in their 70s by now, at least those who are still alive. Can you imagine how they must feel seeing them finally flying into space after all these years?
What a delight. Thanks, Neo
Well that’s unusual. Never seen any clouds like that and if I did I would first think they were man made, like the spiraling vortexes one sees at the ends of wings as a plane flies through dust or fog.
A plus one on adding something to my knowledge base.
Quite visually wonderful. But why Kelvin-Helmholtz? Kelvin died in 1907, Hekmholtz in 1894,
It is for the mathematics that Kelvin and Helmholtz worked out that describes the wave.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin%E2%80%93Helmholtz_instability
In the above case, you have adequate water vapor to form clouds. In sometimes, the atmosphere is too dry, and such clouds do not form. However, the wave action still occurs, and an airliner encountering such will call that clear air turbulence.
Those are very interesting and beautiful…I agree with the “thank-you” for the respite from all the rest.
Here’s one that attracted local attention a few years ago. My first thought was not that they looked like waves but like some kind of huge creatures marching across the sky.
IRA Darth-
Thanks for the link.
And thanks to Neo for introducing us to the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability.
If the interaction axis is rotated 90 degrees, in line with the horizontal, in white water this occurs all the time and the waves form eddies. Now when I see eddies, I shall think KHI.
Physics uber alles!
Surfable?
Those clouds are pretty but they are bitch to fly near
Rarest natural sight I ever witnessed: a Thunderbird.
This is an exceedingly rare variation on the classic rainbow — of which two were also in the sky: primary and echo. (The echo reverses the color sequence — and itself is uncommon.)
It’s a jaw-dropper because the optical effect is identical to the ancient Indian jewelry — which until then I thought was entirely notional — not connected to reality.
It had a ‘head’ a ‘beak’, two wings, and a fanned tail. What made the bizarre even more strange is that we were standing on Indian tribal land at the time — all thirty of us. No-one had a camera. Dang!
I read somewhere that thunderbirds are so rare that photos scarcely exist. I can tell you that they are connected to a weather front moving in. Hence, the Indian desire to see a thunderbird — for rain is sure to follow — even out of season.
That night it was raining steady and strong.
As to how the sky could break out the colors in such a dramatic form… I don’t have a clue. While the wings and tail fan were symmetrical — as was the head — it was startling to see a colored beak, so proportionate breaking off to just one side. That it looked like a bird with wings miles on a side — a thunderbird — had us gobsmacked. The thunder aspect became apparent when the weather front rolled in.
So, the thunderbird is not an Indian myth. It’s just a once in a lifetime optical illusion.
I did hear one electrical engineer say during a thunderstorm, his doors were open and a lightning bolt came through one door and out the next one, with him in the middle of the house staring at it.