Post by swamprat on Jun 2, 2017 8:49:49 GMT -6
Clouds that look like ocean waves
By Eleanor Imster
May 29, 2017
Photo via Yoav Naccache
Seen in Tupper Lake New York – Adirondack Mountains. Photo credit: Paul Chartier
They’re called Kelvin Helmholzt clouds, aka billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds, and they look like breaking ocean waves.
Here’s a special kind of cloud known to scientists as a Kelvin Helmholtz cloud. These clouds look like breaking ocean waves, with the rolling eddies seen at the top of the cloud layers usually evenly spaced and easily identifiable. Kelvin Helmholtz clouds are named for Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied the physics of the instability that leads to this type of cloud formation.
A Kelvin Helmholtz instability forms where there’s a velocity difference across the interface between two fluids: for example, wind blowing over water.
You’ll often see the characteristic wave structure in this type of cloud when two different layers of air in our atmosphere are moving at different speeds. 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, when there’s a difference in densities of the air, for example, during a temperature inversion. They’re often good indicators of atmospheric instability and the presence of turbulence for aircraft.
It’s widely believed that these waves in the sky inspired the swirls in van Gogh’s masterpiece Starry Night.
earthsky.org/earth/kelvin-helmholzt-clouds?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=a0940a1a96-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-a0940a1a96-394368745&mc_cid=a0940a1a96&mc_eid=9b2daed519
By Eleanor Imster
May 29, 2017
Photo via Yoav Naccache
Seen in Tupper Lake New York – Adirondack Mountains. Photo credit: Paul Chartier
They’re called Kelvin Helmholzt clouds, aka billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds, and they look like breaking ocean waves.
Here’s a special kind of cloud known to scientists as a Kelvin Helmholtz cloud. These clouds look like breaking ocean waves, with the rolling eddies seen at the top of the cloud layers usually evenly spaced and easily identifiable. Kelvin Helmholtz clouds are named for Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied the physics of the instability that leads to this type of cloud formation.
A Kelvin Helmholtz instability forms where there’s a velocity difference across the interface between two fluids: for example, wind blowing over water.
You’ll often see the characteristic wave structure in this type of cloud when two different layers of air in our atmosphere are moving at different speeds. 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, when there’s a difference in densities of the air, for example, during a temperature inversion. They’re often good indicators of atmospheric instability and the presence of turbulence for aircraft.
It’s widely believed that these waves in the sky inspired the swirls in van Gogh’s masterpiece Starry Night.
earthsky.org/earth/kelvin-helmholzt-clouds?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=a0940a1a96-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-a0940a1a96-394368745&mc_cid=a0940a1a96&mc_eid=9b2daed519