fuckyeahclouds // suggest one

cwnl:

Lenticular Cloud Over New Zealand

Image Credit: Chris Picking

What’s happening above those mountains?

Several clouds are stacked up into one striking lenticular cloud. Normally, air moves much more horizontally than it does vertically. Sometimes, however, such as when wind comes off of a mountain or a hill, relatively strong vertical oscillations take place as the air stabilizes.

The dry air at the top of an oscillation may be quite stratified in moisture content, and hence forms clouds at each layer where the air saturates with moisture. The result can be a lenticular cloud with a strongly layered appearance. The above picture was taken in 2002 looking southwest over the Tararua Range mountains from North Island, New Zealand.

(Source: ikenbot)

(Source: Flickr / lawatt)

(Source: alifeinblackandwhite)

if-you-leave:

mike stacey

fuckyeahfluiddynamics:

Last week, Birmingham, Alabama got treated to a special cloudy day, thanks to some Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, shown above. When a layer of faster moving fluid shears a slower moving fluid, this instability can form and cause some spectacular mixing. In this case, the lower, slower fluid was cool and moist enough to contain clouds, enabling us to see the effect with the naked eye. The same mechanism is responsible for the shape of breaking ocean waves and can even be seen in the atmospheres of gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter. (submitted by David B)

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c-h-a-o-s:

storm study 1, near Titz, 2011 (by Frank Toepfer)

black-and-white:

(by Hengki Koentjoro)