Electric Clouds

[nick c]

hi coollcguy21,
Those are some fantastic pictures of clouds! Very surreal.
Reminds me of the swirls and loops seen in the turbulent atmosphere of Jupiter, albeit on a much smaller scale:


nick c

[MattEU]

They ones at the bottom look like a bit like Mammatus clouds but not so defined (pinched). Mammatus clouds are associated with fronts also. They may all be variations of each other with Mammatus clouds a smaller version or those Lenticular clouds.

Not got my glasses on, thought it said Asparagus clouds!

[MGmirkin]

Couldn't tell you. Reminds me a bit of the ocean: swells and whatnot. One wonders if it doesn't simply have to do with fluid dynamics (or, well, atmospheric dynamics)... But basically regions of differing density and whatnot, rippling and such.

Don't know. Cool looking, whatever they are...

[solrey]

Reminds me of Polar Aurora's:





http://abduzeedo.com/30-great-aurora-bo ... hotographs

http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images ... ealis.html

It seems that the article mentioned the locations globally for these 'Asperatus' cloud formations tended to be on the outer fringes of the Auroral ovals; Britain, Scotland, New Zealand.

[mharratsc]

I think Sol is right. Looks to me like the aurora sponged up moisture or something.

Can the aurora(s) be in dark current mode and pick up H20 by ionizing the atmosphere?

Wish I'd stayed in school

Mike H.

[mharratsc]

Another cloud mystery:
[url2=http://www.physorg.com/news84124233.html]Scientists Want to Solve Puzzle of Excess Water Vapor Near Cirrus Clouds[/url2]

nick c

I'm thinking onions.

We know that there's a double-layer around the earth, but what about double-layers in the different regions of the atmosphere? Are these funky cirrus clouds building up at double-layer boundaries between differentials of charge within the atmosphere? Are there double-layers like layers in an onion wrapping the planet?

Mike H.

[webolife]

Standard atmospheric models show that theses clouds form in stable atmospheric conditions when updrafts [like occur around mountains] encounter the low pressure threshold for condensation of water vapor and form water droplets, then begin to fall leaving the condensation/low-pressure layer. Moving along through the relatively warmer layer, they rise again going through the same conditions... this makes the lenticular shaped clouds. Waves of incoming air currents rise into the same region but ascend above the already condensing air and form a new lenticular formation... Successive waves of air can build up these magnificent billowing "cap clouds". In a frontal system the atmosphere can be unstable, and interacting air masses can produc all manner of vortical cloud shapes, from the horizontal "glories" discussed on another thread [where is that?] to the vertical tornados. Washington had a few funnel clouds this past week... pretty awesome.

[mharratsc]

That's a very mechanistic description of these formations. Do you believe that all of this takes place in charge-neutrality?

I don't think that is the case, myself. Thus I try and look 'behind the curtain' to see if electrons are flowing. The world is more fun that way

Mike H.

[webolife]

Not neutrality... as a matter of fact, I think the word "warm" probably infers a direct electrical cause, and am unsatisfied with the empty "brownian motion" view. Atoms don't actually collide [like little balls], I would say, and this is due to the interaction of electrical fields. Mechanical explanations are not [always] wrong, but they lack a closer look at the involvement of electricity. So I apologize for not including that... I am less coherent in my thinking about atmospheric electricity in the EU... more questions than answers there, still, and I as a contributor am frequently taking a position of "why change the mechanics, just because electricity isn't mentioned?"... again, the mechanics may be right, just not detailed enough to correctly represent the electrical interactions.

[newalexandria]

Anyone have a source for the dates that these cloud formations appeared? I haven't been able to find much yet, and I'd like to look for correlation with aurora and other upper-atmospheric data from that time period.


Thanks,
Zak

[mharratsc]

And do you suppose there is anything tying these polar cloud formations to the subject of the below thread?

http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpB ... f=4&t=1988

Do you suppose that the noctiluminescent clouds are these things in glow mode?

Mike H.

[solrey]

Woh, that's like, tubular dude.

Notice the corkscrew pattern of each cloud and compare to my avatar of a lighting bolt with a similar corkscrew pattern.





What mystery?
Field aligned currents guided by the Earth's magnetic field and spaced via EM attraction/repulsion, slightly ionizing water vapor in the atmosphere and condensing into clouds. Pretty much like the way iron filings form lines around a magnet. I wouldn't be surprised if these clouds are hollow like a straw, in fact I kind of expect it.

[junglelord]

You beat me to posting this thread.

[solrey]

nya nya


I'm glad I looked at that article again. Check out this comment:

Posted by: Taiwanscw | 08/25/09 | 1:54 am
I saw clouds like this in South Dakota 20 years ago. We watched as huge balls of lighting shot from one end of the tube cloud, all the way down the tube, disappearing in the distant sky. We saw 5-6 of these cloud tubes side by side, but they were darker and lighting giant lighting balls shot down each of them at 50-70 second intervals. I’ve never seen anything like it, not ever. Lasted for almost an hour.

(emphasis mine)

Waaaahahahahahahhahaaaaaaa.

[nick c]

Some video of this type of cloud as viewed from the ground.
[url2=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0kkIUozMEE]Morning Glory Cloud[/url2]

nick c