Hole punch cloud
in [Digital Cameras]
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From: Nervous Nick on 10 Feb 2010 20:52 Nothing technical or anything. I stopped my car in traffic a few days ago and got out to take a snapshot of this bizarre cloud formation just before sunset. I thought some here might like it. The composition could be better, but it was a grab shot that I was lucky to get at all. I tweaked the curves in PS a bit and cropped it minimally, and sized it for the web. http://www.kriho.com/phenom/cloud_hole.jpg AFAIK it's not really known what causes these types of formations. -- YOP...
From: NameHere on 10 Feb 2010 21:32 On Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:52:43 -0800 (PST), Nervous Nick <nervous.nick(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Nothing technical or anything. > >I stopped my car in traffic a few days ago and got out to take a >snapshot of this bizarre cloud formation just before sunset. I >thought some here might like it. The composition could be better, but >it was a grab shot that I was lucky to get at all. I tweaked the >curves in PS a bit and cropped it minimally, and sized it for the web. > >http://www.kriho.com/phenom/cloud_hole.jpg > >AFAIK it's not really known what causes these types of formations. They can be caused by any minor updraft that is drier than the air layer in which the alto-cumulous clouds formed. Forming a pocket of air too dry to condense into clouds. Even a small elevation rise of the ground of that same diameter might be enough to push a lower layer of drier air into the moister higher layer as it passes underneath it in a slow laminar flow. Check any topographic maps to see if the land rises beneath the clouds where you photographed that formation. When the opposite effect happens it's called a "lenticular cloud". Lenticular = lens-shaped. A bump/bubble of warmer more moist layer of air rises up into a colder layer and condenses into crisply defined dense circular shapes, relatively smaller in diameter than most other clouds in the area. The origin of many a UFO report. Some of them are quite astounding looking, having several stacked disks of varying graduated sizes. Especially interesting looking when lit by a setting or rising sun, the times of day when they are more commonly seen, when prevailing winds tend to die down enough to allow them to form. (Also the reason hot-air balloon launches are generally scheduled for those times of day.) Lenticular clouds are also more common over mountainous and hilly terrain where the slow laminar air-flows can be pushed up into colder air layers directly above the higher areas of land. Over the years I have a photographed a collection of lenticular clouds myself. One of my more favorite photos is of about 5 stacked and graduated-in-size disks. Taken around noon while I was out in a large open area of water in the 10,000 Islands area of the Everglades while kayaking. I was surprised to see one that intricately formed at that time of day and especially over such flat land and waters. The other surprising thing was there were very few other clouds in the sky and all very distant. I've never seen one like it before nor since. If something like that had formed over any populated area then people calling into news-centers to report a giant UFO invasion would have been guaranteed.
From: Bruce on 10 Feb 2010 23:17 On Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:52:43 -0800 (PST), Nervous Nick <nervous.nick(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Nothing technical or anything. > >I stopped my car in traffic a few days ago and got out to take a >snapshot of this bizarre cloud formation just before sunset. I >thought some here might like it. The composition could be better, but >it was a grab shot that I was lucky to get at all. I tweaked the >curves in PS a bit and cropped it minimally, and sized it for the web. > >http://www.kriho.com/phenom/cloud_hole.jpg > >AFAIK it's not really known what causes these types of formations. Looks like it could be Artex. ;-)
From: DanP on 11 Feb 2010 05:13 On Feb 11, 2:51 am, Nervous Nick <nervous.n...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Wow, thanks for the info. Any links to your photos? I'd esp. like to > see the stacked lenticulars. > > -- > YOP...- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - This is one he posted in December http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/3060429818_b01dbdb8ac_o.jpg DanP
From: MadHatter on 11 Feb 2010 13:35
On Feb 10, 6:51 pm, Nervous Nick <nervous.n...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Wow, thanks for the info. Any links to your photos? I'd esp. like to > see the stacked lenticulars. > > -- > YOP... How about this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanswan/3085338823/sizes/o/in/set-72157609656386471/ |