Stunning Asperatus clouds over New Zealand

APOD offers us today a beautiful sight of these odd Asperatus clouds.

Although not yet accepted as a new cloud type, the proposal by the Cloud Appreciation Society have been made in 2009 and approval is still pending.

Margaret LeMone, a cloud expert with the National Center for Atmospheric Research has taken photos of asperatus clouds for 30 years, and considers it a likely new cloud type.

Undulatus Asperatus

What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom.

Known informally as Undulatus asperatus clouds, they can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, are relatively unstudied, and have even been suggested as a new type of cloud. Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed, asperatus clouds appear to have significant vertical structure underneath.

Speculation therefore holds that asperatus clouds might be related to lenticular clouds that form near mountains, or mammatus clouds associated with thunderstorms, or perhaps a foehn wind -- a type of dry downward wind that flows off mountains. Such a wind called the Canterbury arch streams toward the east coast of New Zealand's South Island.

The above image, taken above Hanmer Springs in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2005, shows great detail partly because sunlight illuminates the undulating clouds from the side.

Wow!...Absolutely stunning...

Mother Nature at her finest.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

reply to post by elevenaugust


Beautiful.

I am so use to seeing boring grey clouds here in London. Its nice to see a stunning picture of the sky.

Would be even better to see in person.

Those clouds are creepy, almost looks like the Apocalypse is coming.



Now why don't I ever get a chance to see that myself, and in person?

Damn Nature, You Scary!!!

A "new cloud type"


I knew they wear making # up to cover weather manipulation program.

Just look at that frequency puls.

The Beauty of Nature eh!!! S&F for sharing. I live in NZ - have lived here for the past five years - I never cease to be amazed at the beautiful skies here - the whole spectrum! WOW! Just WOW!

We have got a few new types of cloud types in the last five years. I know they named other new types recently. Why just recently have the clouds been changing so much when everything was the basically the same for a hundred years before that?.

Amazing, I don't think they mean impending doom either, but they are mysterious can't put my finger on it if it's ominous or the beauty.

Living on the canterbury plains near Christchurch, I often see fantastic cloud formations like those pictures.

It almost tells a story.

Wow just stunning.

Thanks for my new desktop background

Fabulous!!

Thanks for posting! I'm absolutely stunned by the variety, the beauty of nature!

Absolutely beautifull but very salvador dahli like and scary as well, Meteorological phenomenon are some of the most amazing thing's nature can create other than of course the mind of the observer, thank you for showing us this great image.

I lived in Christchurch when this pic was taken, they get really cool cloud formations there over the mountains called Lenticular clouds... beautiful!

amazing looking clouds. beautiful.

Harbingers of Earthquakes??

Not soon after, Canterbury had a big one. Strange cloud formations were known to precede a large earthquake.

as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom.

but they do appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom, hence the menacing part...marge must be scared to commit and just say they are not harbingers of meteorological doom.....