Photos of Clouds and Skies (That you took yourself)
- Thread starter Mick West
- Start date
Some regularly spaced ripples on the back edge of Storm Doris at Woolacombe in Devon. And some contrails and a paraglider for good measure.
Graham2001
Active Member
Did some looking into the term you quoted Mike and it looks like it, along with Contrails has just been added to the Cloud Atlas in the last few months, one thing that I always think of when seeing images like the one above and also the one used in the Cloud Atlas, is all the times that TV media when talking of industrial pollution use shots of cooling towers billowing steam into the air as a visual shorthand for 'nasty chemicals'. I think these new clouds are going to have a bit of a perception issue.
Last edited:
Nice example of how clouds can look drastically different in colour depending on the lighting. Photo taken heading east with the evening sun low behind (and to the left of) the car. Even small fluffy cumulus clouds look almost black while the more distant ones are bright white.
Last edited:
It's one of this things that you simply don't notice and yet happens quite often. A few days ago someone asked me about a "odd small black cloud", pointing it out in the sky. It was just a cloud like this - low cloud shadowed by some distant cloud bank.
Yes this one was on a day with lots of towering convective clouds, heavy downpours interspersed with sunshine. Made for some good cloudscapes, but the contrast in colours here caught my attention.
Marin B
Active Member
Cumulus mediocris homogenitus
I'm not sure if this is another Cumulus mediocris homogenitus, or a natural cloud that is coincidentally near the same refinery as the cloud in my last post. This time the vantage point is in the hills east of the cloud (the earlier cloud was taken about the same distance away west of the cloud. As I got closer to the cloud, the shadow was actually about a quarter mile SW of the refinery, and I couldn't see any steam rising from the refinery. So maybe just a coincidence that the only cumulus for miles around just happened to be close to the refinery?
Unusual ripples in a cloud this evening, and a broken contrail over at the side. (And a few swallows.)
Fallstreak hole and contrail/distrail his afternoon in Fleet, Hampshire (UK).
Quite a striking wave pattern this evening.
Panorama showing the extent of the pattern:
And a little while later, around sunset, looking eastwards. There very sharp edge to the cloud is visible in the distance: it was mostly clear in the early evening and then this rippled cloud came over from the west with a very defined edge to it.
Some quite unusual shaped clouds today over the music festival I went to in Hampshire, with vivid iridescence. Edit: I believe they are altocumulus lenticularis.
Spot the plane:
Which then left a distrail:
Spot the plane:
Which then left a distrail:
Last edited:
This was the flight that left the distrail. It had only just taken off from Heathrow on the way to Madrid:
Although the altitude says 4,700ft there that is quite delayed. The tracklog on Flightaware shows that at the time it created the distrail (about 15:58:30) it was at about 3,200m (10,500ft).
Although the altitude says 4,700ft there that is quite delayed. The tracklog on Flightaware shows that at the time it created the distrail (about 15:58:30) it was at about 3,200m (10,500ft).
Spectrar Ghost
Senior Member.
I took some shelfies.
Spectrar Ghost
Senior Member.
Round two.
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
I have come to the conclusion by intuition, and observation, that these occur when RHi of the surrounding air is just below 100%, and the 'core' of the contrail is just above. x The plane also needs to be a 'big bugger' x. Edit: It _helps_ if the plane is 'big bugger'.
Last edited:
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
Not exactly correct. Medium-sized planes, like E170 can produce these squiggly trails too:
Source: https://youtu.be/cqd6sJnQWN4
It all boils to the RHi of the mixture of exhaust and surrounding air at the distance behind the plane, where it got entrained into the wake vortices. The vortex-entrained trails became "insulated" from further mixing and last longer than non-entrained parts. If RHi of the entrained mixture is above 100%, the vortex-entrained trails will eventually end up by the Crow instability mechanism, otherwise they would dissipate before the vortices break up.
Edit:
Let's rephrase this: the squiggly trails are visualisation of the wake vortices and their interactions. The wake vortices are always present behind the plane, the trails just make them visible. For how long they are visible depends on RHi of the entrained mixture of exhaust and ambient air. If it is above 100%, the vortices (and trails) will last till they are broken by the Crow instability. If it is close but below 100%, that is the mixture reached the saturation point, but then was diluted before it was entrained in the vortices, the trails probably will last enough to get squiggly but will dissipate before the vortices break up.
Last edited:
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
If the surround air is supersaturated too much latent heat is released which breaks up the trail, I think.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
If the surround air is supersaturated too much the resulting contrail will envelope the wake vortices. There still will be more dense trails inside them, which eventually will break up (by the Crow instability) with the formation of contrail pendules.
Don Gisselbeck
Member
Whitebeard
Senior Member.
Sunrise over Bristol this morning (19-11-2017)
Looks like part of a halo, not iridescence.
SR1419
Senior Member.
You're probably right...it seemed like it had more colors in it in person than the photo but I saw it's counterpoint on the hike back out.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
Supermoon 22° halo yesterday night:
Similar threads
