Atmospheric Phenomenen Identyifying- List

Originally posted by felonius
Those are really pretty. Nature does some really cool art. How someone could imagine any of that being UFO related is REALLY reaching!

I don't know about that - this Lenticular cloud looks pretty flying
saucer-ish:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/33648cd745bb.jpg[/atsimg]

Post your favourite nature pic

I agree about nature doing some realy cool art though.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Couple of questions from a newbie.

What does a sticky mean? Can I find this thread easily? Which is really why I'm posting here, because I want to use some of these pictures when we study weather at school.

Thanks so much, Oz, for the wonderful information! Very interesting, fascinating, and educational!

Have a wonderful day, All!

A sticky thread is on that is ongoing. You can find sticky threads easy, if you go to the board tab and click in the science & technology forum you will see this thread at the top

reply to post by OzWeatherman


Let's not forget about "sprites" and "elves".

Sprites

"Sprites are large scale electrical discharges which occur high above a thunderstorm cloud, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between the thundercloud and the ground. The phenomena were named after the mischievous sprite (air spirit) Puck in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. They normally are coloured reddish-orange or greenish-blue, with hanging tendrils below and arcing branches above their location, and can be preceded by a reddish halo. They often occur in clusters, lying 50 miles (80 km) to 90 miles (145 km) above the Earth's surface. Sprites were first photographed on July 6, 1989 by scientists from the University of Minnesota and have since been witnessed tens of thousands of times. Sprites have been mentioned as a possible cause in otherwise unexplained accidents involving high altitude vehicular operations above thunderstorms.

Elves

"Elves often appear as dim, flattened, expanding glows around 250 miles (402 km) in diameter that last for, typically, just one millisecond. They occur in the ionosphere 60 miles (97 km) above the ground over thunderstorms. Their colour was a puzzle for some time, but is now believed to be a red hue. Elves were first recorded on another shuttle mission, this time recorded off French Guiana on October 7, 1990. Elves is a frivolous acronym for Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations from Electromagnetic Pulse Sources. This refers to the process by which the light is generated; the excitation of nitrogen molecules due to electron collisions (the electrons possibly having been energized by the electromagnetic pulse caused by a discharge from the Ionosphere)."

Source - Wikipedia.

Excellent thread Oz, S&F for sure.

I have never seen most of these phenomena.

God we have boring weather in Britain!

How about the Asperatus Clouds, they look awesome!




www.guardian.co.uk... =348217732



[edit on 11/12/2009 by wycky]

Great thread! Wish I could add a photo to it - last night I think I saw the leading edge of the Geminids. Saw a 5-6" long trail of yellow/white/green streak across the western sky - lasted long enough for me to see it out of my peripheral vision, turn my head and watch it keep going. It was pretty dang awesome.

Found a thread that talks about Green Shooting Stars

Originally posted by valiant
Nice bit of info Oz, thanks

Those Lenticular Clouds are great, can see how people think it's something to do with ufo's

i'd love to see those with the naked eye, very cool!

[edit on 10-12-2009 by valiant]

If you're ever in the Seattle area, you have good odds of seeing Lenticular clouds over Mt. Rainier (and they are HUGE). Of course, the downside is that most of the time the mountain isn't out (isn't visible because it's in the clouds).

I have seen some of the "shadows" you speak of, I live on a flight path. I'd like to point out something I found way back in researching these chemtrails

contrail, as in normal water condensation, lasts aproximately 15-20 seconds on a nice clear but cool day, I have seen a maximum of two occasions where this is the case (small planes)

however, ALL the other planes dump spiraling jets all the time, which do not go away and either form clouds or disperse them. this is what I have seen with my eyes, not some video documentary.

to sum it up, contrails shouldn't be lasting 20-30 minutes and forming bigger clouds if they are indeed contrails.

They are teaching this to fourth graders now.

Abnormal tides reported in northern Tasmania last week are being attributed to a rare atmospheric disturbance, known as a meteo-tsunami.

The Weather Bureau took several calls from people in Stanley, Port Sorell and Bridport who noticed particularly high and fast moving tides on November the 22nd.

The bureau says it was caused by a rare rissaga, or meteo-tsunami, but spokesman Brendan McMahon says it is not known what triggered the event.

"Unlike the conventional tsunami which we've come to know which is produced by a seismic activity, so an undersea earthquake or some sort of earthquake...this is produced by an atmospheric phenomenon."

"So a deep low pressure system, the passage of a front moving through quite vigorously."

Bridport shack owner Tony Power witnessed the event.

He says in a matter of minutes the tide came up to his shack and then went back out dragging two trees with it.

"I reckon within 10 minutes it was up over the sand bar coming towards us," he said.

"Fairly forceful, you probably wouldn't have stood up in it.

"It was pretty strange and eerie because you sort of didn't know how far it was going to come.

"We didn't know whether to retreat to higher ground."
www.abc.net.au...

You know, I never even heard of meteo-tsunamis before until it showed up on a post somewhere.

Brilliant thread. Because of lack of basic knowledge discussing here is so difficult because every time you have to explain them what they see. Now I could just give link to the first post. Good job.

reply to post by Xenus


Yeah I only found out about these a few months back too, and I work for the Weather Bureau, lol. I remeber reading about a case that happened in Carnarvon a few years back which was bought on by the presence of a roll cloud

Originally posted by argentus


Good job... oh, and........

What, no green flash?

Sorry for being off topic but BTS requires extra log in (and it won't let me log in. ) Why is that thread about the green flash in a forum called "member art"? They are very good pictures of a comparatively rare natural phenomenon! That's pure *science* in my book.
BTW, I saw a green flash in Scheveningen, more than two years ago.

Anyway, great thread.

What do you think of the role of cosmic rays in cloud formation? And weather events in general. Also things like magnetar and gamma ray bursts. Before the bushfires our magnetosphere took a huge hit from a magnetar.

“Our clouds take their orders from the stars,” says the Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark. That's the amazing and provocative discovery
reported here. Most experts thought the idea was crazy.

The film records ten years of effort by the small team in Copenhagen that, in the end, solved the mystery of how the Galaxy and the Sun interfere in our everyday weather.


It's provocative because Dr Svensmark's revelations challenge the belief of most climate theorists that carbon dioxide has been the main driver of global warming. As a result he has faced never-ending opposition.

But strong support for the cosmic view of climate change comes from astronomer Nir Shaviv and geologist Jan Veizer. In the film they tell how the Galaxy has governed the Earth's ever-changing climate over 500 million years.

The Cloud Mystery is aimed at a wide audience. Astonishing pictures from our Galaxy, the Sun, and cloud formations are mixed with spectacular animations to simplify the science. Comments by astronomers, geologists and climate experts convey their sense of adventure, and give scientific weight to the discoveries presented. The audience is taken on a trip around the world, where scientists from Denmark, Israel, Canada, the USA, and Norway contribute to this exciting story.

Linking all the discoveries is the non-stop rain of cosmic rays – energetic particles from exploded stars that battle with the Sun's magnetic field to reach the Earth. Central in the story is an experiment in a Copenhagen basement. It showed how cosmic rays help to make chemical specks in the air on which water drops condense to make clouds.

The story concludes that clouds are the main driver of climate change on Earth.
www.thecloudmystery.com...

Really nice stuff, Oz.
S&F.
I have an understanding that lenticular clouds are round, i.e., saucer shaped. What I would ask about is a cloud I saw as a child while on a family vacation in Florida.
It looked like an arrow, perfectly proportioned, but blocky, as if cut on a bandsaw from a block of wood. 3-D ish if you get my drift.
Also, while coming home from visiting my daughter 2 counties north of me, I saw cloud that was real low in the sky, the southern edge was VERY sharply defined and the north side was well defined, but not as much as the southern side.
I will add that it followed a dry flood canal.
This was near the Pasco-Hernando county line in Florida.
Awlays kinda marvelled at those 2 sights. As a weather expert, I was hoping you might have/share an insight.

Originally posted by KKinsane2009
I have seen some of the "shadows" you speak of, I live on a flight path. I'd like to point out something I found way back in researching these chemtrails

contrail, as in normal water condensation, lasts aproximately 15-20 seconds on a nice clear but cool day, I have seen a maximum of two occasions where this is the case (small planes)

however, ALL the other planes dump spiraling jets all the time, which do not go away and either form clouds or disperse them. this is what I have seen with my eyes, not some video documentary.

to sum it up, contrails shouldn't be lasting 20-30 minutes and forming bigger clouds if they are indeed contrails.

Ok, thats not the case, there are confirmed scientific explanations for everything you stated there.

But I wont go into it here as its not the thread to talk about this stuff

The other day I saw an odd display in the sky. I've been looking for pictures online of anything similar, but can't find any. My friend and I were driving and we noticed on the horizon there were these beams of "light" that were placed perfectly apart and were each about the same width and looked like the japanese rising sun flag or a halved of the japanese imperial army flag (en.wikipedia.org...:War_flag_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army.svg)

It looked like how any kid would draw a sunset.. and it was my first instinct to say to my friend "wow the the clouds are making the sunset look insane" or something to that affect.. but then i realized the it was still fairly daylight out and the sun was setting behind us on the opposite horizon.

we both looked or a camera and talked about what it could be.. (and no, the mall hasn't invested in 6 or 8 new spotlights haha) i mean most likely it was reflections or something? but i cant imagine it being so perfect (the beams were darker blue than they sky and had very defined contrasted edges to the rest of the sky) but it seems like with the sun behind us and up above the beams should be furthest apart at the horizon and draw together in the sky but they were definitely coming from the "ground" up.

if i was better with photoshop i would recreate it. and it is one of those things thats majesty cant be explained.. rest assured had anyone reading this been there, they couldnt brush it off. this was dec 2nd (we live in ashland ky). we observed it for about 8 to 15 before it faded.

like i said.. most likely a one in a million natural occurence.. but it was just so perfect looking it had us talking and searching for an explanation (spotlights, refinery explosion, etc).. it really seemed like another light source but extended way to far into the sky and in the daytime (not to mention the width) or any man made source i can think of.

Try this link for pictures from NASA re clouds

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Some of them are amazing (lots out in space too)

My fav's

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov... - Mammatus very strange looking
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov... -hole
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov... - lenticluar (flying saucer)
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov... another lenticular
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov... sonic boom - cool

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


What you have seen are called anti-crepuscular rays. Its quite amazing to see them at almost an even spread, but with right clouds you can.

Here's a link....I cant be bothered to type out a full description as Im too drunlk

www.atoptics.co.uk...

Originally posted by wycky
How about the Asperatus Clouds, they look awesome!




www.guardian.co.uk... =348217732



[edit on 11/12/2009 by wycky]

Asperatus clouds eh. Ive never heard them called that before. Over here in Australia they are known as Mammatus. They do make spectacular images though, half the time they dont even look real