A passing plane is usually the catalyst that sets off the chain reaction leading to this beautiful sight in the sky. Is it a message or a sign that it's almost Valentine's? Well I doubt this one was made by an airplane.
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Strange Sounds : 17 Jan 2016 This beautiful heart-shaped fallstreak hole appeared in the sky of Houston, Texas on January 17, 2016 and baffled many skywatchers. The love message in the sky was spotted on Houston's northwest side. Fallstreak holes are also called hole punch clouds. They occur when clouds composed of supercooled water droplets suddenly turn into ice and fall through the sky.
A passing plane is usually the catalyst that sets off the chain reaction leading to this beautiful sight in the sky. Is it a message or a sign that it's almost Valentine's? Well I doubt this one was made by an airplane. Source
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For the second day in a row, sky watchers are reporting an outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) around the Arctic Circle. Unlike normal grey-white clouds, which hug Earth's surface at altitudes of only 5 to 10 km, PSCs float through the stratosphere (25 km) and they are fantastically colourful. Truls Tiller photographed these over Tromsø, Norway, on Dec. 16th: "Here the sun is gone for now," says Tiller, "but this beautiful view makes the winter darkness nice to be in as well. The picture was taken at 10.30 am, in the middle of the 'day.'"
Also known as "nacreous" or "mother of pearl" clouds, the icy structures form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 85ºC. High-altitude sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colours by diffraction and interference. Once thought to be mere curiosities, some PSCs are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone. "Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world," writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Once seen they are never forgotten." www.spaceweather.com An outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PMCs) is underway around the Arctic Circle. Unlike normal grey-white clouds, which hug Earth's surface at altitudes of only 5 to 10 km, PMCs float through the stratosphere (25 km) and they are fantastically colorful. Sarah Skinner saw this specimen high above Abisko, Sweden: "Just as I was heading out to de-ice the car on Dec. 14th, I looked up and noticed the most incredible cloud formation," says Skinner. "At the same time, an excited text came through from my boss, aurora tour guide Chad Blakley, who having lived here for many years has seen this only once or twice and explained to an Arctic newbie like me how rare these formations really are."
Also known as "nacreous" or "mother of pearl" clouds, the icy structures form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 85ºC. Sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference. Once thought to be mere curiosities, some PMCs are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone. "Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world," writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Once seen they are never forgotten." www.spaceweather.com Before Its News : 16 Sep 2015 On September 15, 2015, witnesses filmed a very strange cloud phenomenon above Costa Rica at about 3.00 pm local time. We may wonder whether this strange cloud is just a natural phenomenon or a so-called earthquake light or there's more than our eyes can see? Earthquake lights are reported to appear while an earthquake is occurring, although there are reports of lights before or after earthquakes. They are reported to have different shapes with a white to bluish hue, but occasionally they have been reported having a wider color spectrum. The luminosity is reported to be visible for several seconds, but has also been reported to last for tens of minutes.
A different explanation involves intense electric fields created piezoelectrically by tectonic movements. Another possible explanation is local disruption of the Earth's magnetic field and/or ionosphere in the region of tectonic stress, resulting in the observed glow effects from ionospheric radiative recombination at lower altitudes and greater atmospheric pressure. On Sept. 2nd, an Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a Navy communications satellite to orbit. The dawn launch was much anticipated by local sky watchers. Waking up early turned out to be a good decision. "What see saw blew our, and everyone's, minds," reports Jack Jewell, who took these pictures from a grassy hill near the NASA causeway: "I've seen enough launches just before sunrise to know that sunlit rocket plumes against a darkish sky can be magical," says Jewell. "This was one of the best."
The Atlas V created a man-made noctilucent cloud. Water vapor in the rocket's exhaust crystallized in the high atmosphere, creating an icy cloud that turned blue when it was hit by the rays of the morning sun. Years ago, space shuttle launches produced similar displays. Natural noctilucent clouds form around Earth's poles when water vapor in the mesosphere crystalizes around meteor smoke. Sometimes they spread as far south as Colorado and Utah, but rarely or never Florida. Electric-blue over the Sunshine State requires a rocket launch. www.spaceweather.com 'Breaking wave' cloud formations disturb Earth's magnetic field surprisingly often, say scientists3/6/2015 Jenna Lacurci : Nature World News : 12 May 2015 © University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Benjamin Foster What is referred to as "breaking wave" cloud patterns in our atmosphere reportedly disturb Earth's magnetic field (or magnetosphere) surprisingly often - more often than scientists previously thought, according to new research. The phenomenon involves ultra low-frequency Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, which are abundant throughout the Universe and create distinctive patterns - which can be seen from Earth's clouds and ocean surfaces, to even the atmosphere of Jupiter.
"Our paper shows that the waves, which are created by what's known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, happens much more frequently than previously thought," co-author Joachim Raeder of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Space Science Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, said in a statement. "And this is significant because whenever the edge of Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetopause, gets rattled it will create waves that propagate everywhere in the magnetosphere, which in turn can energize or de-energize the particles in the radiation belts." In fact, data shows that Kelvin-Helmholtz waves actually occur 20 percent of the time at the magnetopause and can change the energy levels of our planet's radiation belts. So why is this important? Well, first of all, Earth's magnetic field protects us from cosmic radiation. Not to mention these changing energy levels can potentially impact how the radiation belts either protect or threaten spacecraft and Earth-based technologies. But the UNH team presses that their discovery is less about the effects of so-called "space weather" and more about a better understanding of the basic physics of how the magnetosphere works. "It's another piece of the puzzle," Raeder said. "Previously, people thought Kelvin-Helmholtz waves at the magnetopause would be rare, but we found it happens all the time." Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves - named for 19th century scientists Lord William Thomson Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz - can be seen in everyday life, such as in cloud patterns, on the surface of oceans or lakes, or even in a backyard pool. The distinctive waves with capped tops and cloudless troughs are created by what's known as velocity shear, which occurs when a fluid or two different fluids - wind and water, for example - interact at different speeds to create differing pressures at the back and front ends of the wave. Though these waves are ubiquitous in the Universe, their abundance was not known until scientists used data from NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission, which launched in 2007 and provides unique, long-term observations. The results are described further in the journal Nature Communications. Jack Crone : Daily Mail : 15 Mar 2015
The rest of the article, with more photographs, can be found here : source
The southern season for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) has come to an end. NASA's AIM spacecraft observed the last wisps of electric-blue over Antarctica on Feb. 20, 2015. The end of the season was no surprise: the polar clouds always subside in late summer. Looking back over the entire season, however, reveals something unexpected. In an 8-year plot of Antarctic noctilucent cloud frequencies, the 2014-2015 season is clearly different from the rest: These data come from the AIM spacecraft, which was launched in 2007 to monitor NLCs from Earth orbit. The curves show the abundance ("frequency") of the clouds vs. time for 120 days around every southern summer solstice for the past 8 years.
"This past season was not like the others," notes Cora Randall, a member of the AIM science team and the chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado. "The clouds were much more variable, and there was an enormous decrease in cloud frequency 15 to 25 days after the summer solstice. That's when the clouds are usually most abundant." What does this mean? Previous research shows that NLCs are a sensitive indicator of long-range teleconnections in Earth's atmosphere, which link weather and climate across hemispheres. The strange behavior of noctilucent clouds in 2014-2015 could be a sign of previously unknown linkages. "Preliminary indications are that it is indeed due to inter-hemispheric teleconnections," says Randall. "We're still analyzing the data, so stay tuned." Now attention turns to the northern hemisphere, where the season for NLCs typically begins in May. Will the northern season ahead be as strangely variable as the southern season, just concluded? Says Randall, "I can't wait to find out." www.spaceweather.com Annalee Newitz : io9 : 03 Nov 2014 © Peter Fell/ABC News, Australia The ABC is reporting an incredible sight in the skies over east Victoria, in the Gippsland area. It looks like a UFO, but it's entirely natural. No, it's not chemtrails. Instead, it's a type of cloud called a Fallstreak Hole. You may recognize that it glimmers in a way that's similar to the contrails of jets. That's because a similar phenomenon causes it. That rainbow look is the result of water crystals in the clouds freezing and refracting the light. Those frozen crystals have also made one patch of the cloud slightly heavier, pulling it downward from the rest of the cloud layer, and giving it that odd, punch-out look.
I mentioned contrails earlier because they are also caused by frozen water droplets hanging in the air, gleaming in the sunlight. But contrails happen when warm air is released with jet exhaust and collides with supercooled water in the stratosphere. This causes the water to freeze instantly, and thus you can see a long trail of frozen vapor where a plane just flew overhead. http://www.sott.net/article/288430-This-bizarre-glittering-cloud-just-appeared-in-the-sky-over-Australia Amber Johnston : PerthNow : 08 Oct 2014 Photo: © Glenn Rogers : Weird cloud formation, Perth Australia A mysterious cloud caused a stir over Perth this morning. Several PerthNow readers have woken to a sight described as "out of this world" after spotting a puzzling UFO-shaped cloud in the sky.The unusual cloud formation even had experts baffled, with the Bureau of Meteorology taking some time to investigate what the strange phenomenon may be. Anyone fearing an alien invasion can now have their minds put at rest as experts at the Bureau of Meteorology have confirmed their original suspicions are true - the strange phenomenon sighted in Perth skies this morning was in fact a Fallstreak Cloud. As aircraft flew through the cloud, the particles in their jet exhaust caused this extremely cold water to instantly freeze. The newly frozen ice crystals inside the cloud became a lot heavier then the cloud itself.As a result, the heavier ice crystals fell through the cloud, leaving an usual hole - just like the one Perth locals reported seeing this morning. A Fallstreak hole is a cloud formation that gives the appearance of strange holes in the sky's cloud layer. The unusual sight is causing quite a storm on Twitter with many locals continuing to speculate that the cloud may be evidence of something a lot more sinister. Mr Bennett said: "It doesn't occur often so it's no surprise that it's causing quite a stir". http://www.sott.net/article/287045-Strange-and-spectacular-cloud-formation-over-Perth Aaron Brown : Daily Express, UK : Tue, 29 Jul 2014 © SWNS The contrail was moulded by winds - shaping its unusual right angles Residents were left shocked after discovering a SQUARE shaped cloud floating over their homes this weekend. Homeowners in Exeter, Devon wasted no time snapping photographs for Facebook and excitedly posting on Twitter about the flying carpet shaped cloud hanging over the city. The sharp-edged cloud formation was first spotted on Saturday afternoon and gained mainstream attention when it was tweeted by Laura Gilchrist, an employee at the Met Office. She posted: "So this evening, over Exeter, there was a rhombus-shaped cloud".
But those looking for a sensational or supernatural explanation for the water vapour suspended in the shape of Aladdin's flying carpet are set to be disappointed. A Met Office spokesman reassured residents that the cloud just an oddly-shaped contrail - the man-made clouds formed by the water vapour blasted from a plane's jet engine as it moves through the air. But while contrails normally appear as two thin stripes tracing a plane's progress through the sky - a mixture of atmospheric conditions transformed this example into a floating rectangle. The Met Office spokesman said: "In this case an aircraft has moved through a pocket of air with the right conditions for the contrail to form, meaning there is just a short section. The wind is blowing at right angles to the contrail, and due to the right atmospheric conditions this is causing the ice crystals in that trail to spread outwards - creating this rectangular shaped cloud. It's unusual to see the cloud edges quite so well-defined as in this example but the processes involved are very common" http://www.sott.net/article/283035-Bizarre-square-cloud-photographed-over-Exeter-UK Pete Thomas : Grind TV : 18 Jul 2014
"I was actually on the phone with my sister. It was her birthday." Zuniga told Fox 13. "I told her I had to call back. I had to take a picture."
Zuniga, a recording artist, had been driving east of Tampa on I-75. He posted the image on his Facebook page Tuesday and, understandably, it was widely shared. "It's an awesome and humbling feeling knowing that my photo has touched so many people!" Zuniga stated. While it might have been, for the musician, a spiritual experience, meteorologists are familiar with the phenomenon. The Weather Channel reports that it was simply the result of two rain curtains that "just happened to have their edges lined up with the shoulders of I-75, and Zuniga was in the right place at the right time to capture it." http://www.sott.net/article/282318-Florida-motorist-captures-parting-of-the-storm Frequent fliers who look out the window of their planes often see the shadow of the aircraft dipping in and out of clouds below. The interplay of light and shadow with water droplets in the clouds can produce colorful rings of light called "glories." On July 13th, Tony DeFreece saw a glory that was not a colorful ring, but rather a heart: "I was flying over Oregon when I looked out and saw this heart-shaped figure," he says. "It was one of those moments when the Universe aligns and takes your breath away."
DeFreece suspects, probably correctly, that the shape of the clouds bent the usual circular glory into the heart-shaped apparition. Mystery solved? Not entirely. Glories are caused by sunlight reflected backwards from water droplets in clouds. Exactly how backscattering produces the colorful rings, however, is a mystery involving surface waves and multiple reflections within individual droplets. Each sighting is a lovely puzzle, so grab the window seat and keep an eye on the clouds below. http://spaceweather.com/ Around the northern hemisphere, sky watchers are starting to report a rainbow-colored sun halo that appears almost-exclusively during summer: the circumhorizon arc. "I saw one on June 13th. It was very bright," says Michail Anastasio, who snapped this picture from the cockpit of a plane flying 20,000 feet over Singapore: Nicknamed the "fire rainbow" because of its fiery rainbow colors, this apparition in fact has nothing to do with either fire or rainbows. It is caused by sunlight refracting through plate-shaped ice crystals in cirrus clouds. The geometry of the refraction requires that the sun be high in the sky (above 58o), which explains why this is a summertime phenomenon. June and July are the best months to see circumhorizon arcs. Look for them circling the horizon sometimes in patches, sometimes not, always brightly decorated with pure and well separated prismatic colors. You'll know it when you see it. http://spaceweather.com/ For a moment, yesterday, June Grønseth was transported from her home in Lofoten, Norway, into the realm of Vincent van Gogh. "I looked out the wndow and saw some really big Kelvin-Helmoltz waves passing by," she says. This is one of two photos she took: These clouds, sometimes called "billow clouds," are produced by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability when horizontal layers of air brush by one another at different velocities. A better name might be van Gogh clouds: It is widely believed that these waves in the sky inspired the swirls in van Gogh's masterpiece The Starry Night. www.spaceweather.com
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