cloudsareup

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Another fun diagram that depicts the nimbostratus clouds.

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Nimbostratus clouds form a dark gray, "wet" looking cloudy layer associated with continuously falling rain or snow. They often produce precipitation that is usually light to moderate.

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Sunset Bones over Kazakhstan

When Cirrus clouds are arranged like the backbone of a fish, they are given the name ‘vertebratus’. Not only is this a beautiful formation, it is also quite a rare variety of Cirrus, which makes Tim Middleton’s photograph over Kazakhstan particularly impressive. Picked out by the rays of the setting sun, this Cirrus vertebratus is sight to see.

via The Cloud Appreciation Society

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From the facebook page "I fucking love science": KELVIN-HELMHOLTZ WAVES Those aren’t ocean waves in the photo but are a cloud form known as Kelvin-Helmholtz waves (aka shear-gravity clouds or KHI clouds), named for Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz. Kelvin-Helmholtz waves form when a fast layer moves over a slower layer, dragging the top along to create a curled shape. The swirling eddies at the top of the cloud layers are usually evenly sp

aced. Sea waves break when their bases slow down upon reaching shallow water and their crests surge ahead. Cloud waves ‘break’ in a similar fashion; when their crests are pushed ahead of their troughs by the difference in air currents. If the differences between the air speed and the temperatures of the layers of the atmosphere are small they will glide over each other. If the difference between the layers is too great then where the layers meet turns into turbulence. When the atmospheric conditions between the two layers are just right, Kelvin-Helmholtz waves form. The example in the photo is one where the air between the two atmospheric layers is close to the threshold for turbulence. The photo was taken from the Alabama Air National Guard facility at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, in December 2011. The Kelvin-Helmholtz waves seen in Alabama occurred when there was a cold layer of air near the ground, where the wind speed is low. A warmer and faster moving layer of air was probably moving over this cold and slow-moving layer. Animation of Kelvin Helmholtz Instability:http://bit.ly/11lJQS7 Vortex formation in free jet caused by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability: http://bit.ly/VlnEmS Video of the Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds over Birmingham: http://bit.ly/tjtWWG

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Ontario, Canada-based photographer Matt Molloy recently created a gorgeous series of sky images by stacking multiple photos onto one. The individual photos are most often taken from the timelapses he shoots. The final photo has a stunning painterly effect, almost as if someone had taken a paintbrush to the sky and smeared its beautiful colors.

When asked at 500px how many photos it took to create the one seen above, he replied, “I’m not exactly sure, but I used hundreds of photos to create this one image.”

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Start out with the cloud classification chart. Now we can sound smart looking in the sky and pointing out the badass cumulonimbus cloud up there.