The United States, Europe, and Russia have all seen deadly, record-breaking heat waves in recent years, largely in areas that are ill-equipped for sustained high temperatures. A new paper presents Keep reading
Tag: atmospheric science
Ominous Mammatus
Mammatus clouds are fairly unusual and often look quite dramatic. Most clouds have flat bottoms, caused by the specific height and temperature at which their droplets condense. But mammatus clouds Keep reading
Nacreous Clouds
Iridescent clouds shine bright over this Finnish sunset. These colorful clouds are nacreous clouds, also known as mother-of-pearl clouds. Formed from ice crystals during frigid conditions in the lower stratosphere, Keep reading
Cellular Clouds
Though tough to make out from the surface, our oceans are often covered by cell-shaped clouds stretching thousands of kilometers. This satellite image shows off two such types of marine Keep reading
Rippling Airglow
Though we rarely notice it, our sky is always aglow. Washed in solar radiation, the oxygen and nitrogen molecules at high altitude get broken apart during the daytime and recombine Keep reading
Stabilizing Jupiter’s Polar Storms
Four years ago, Juno discovered an octagon of eight cyclones at Jupiter’s northern pole and a similar five cyclone structure at its southern pole. Since then, both polygons have remained Keep reading
Cloud Streets
Parallel lines of cumulus clouds stream over the Labrador Sea in this satellite image. These cloud streets are formed when cold, dry winds blow across comparatively warm waters. As the Keep reading
Inhibiting Marine Lightning
Thunderstorms over the ocean have substantially less lightning than a similar storm over land. Scientists wondered whether this difference could be due to lower cloud bases over the ocean or Keep reading
Neptune’s Seasonal Changes
Ice giant Neptune orbits our sun once every 165 years, meaning that each season on the planet lasts about 41 years here on Earth. Currently, the side of Neptune facing Keep reading
Making Hurricanes
With oceans warming, there’s more energy available to intensify hurricanes. And while our weather models have gotten better at predicting where hurricanes will go, they’re less good at predicting hurricane Keep reading