Fog blankets the forest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in this photo by Tihomir Trichkov. It gives the photo the quality of an Impressionist painting. Rain from the day before Keep reading
Tag: condensation
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
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
Bendable Ice
Ice — as we typically encounter it — is extremely brittle and easily broken. That’s due to defects in the ice, places where atoms have settled into a spot that Keep reading
Cloud-Making Waves
As sea ice disappears in the Arctic Ocean, it leaves behind higher waves on the open water. These large waves help inject sea salt and organic matter into the atmosphere, Keep reading
Bullseye
The Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands began erupting in mid-September 2021. This satellite image, captured October 1st, shows a peculiar bullseye-like cloud over the volcano. Hot water vapor Keep reading
Noctilucent Clouds
Noctilucent clouds are the “highest, driest, coldest, and rarest clouds on Earth.” Formed in the mesosphere at altitudes over 80 kilometers, these clouds typically form at polar latitudes where they Keep reading
Visualizing Radiation
Radiation is invisible, but it’s not too difficult to build an apparatus that lets you see it. This video shows the ghostly aftermath of passing radiation in a cloud chamber, Keep reading
Fallstreak Holes
Occasionally clouds appear to have a hole in them; these are known as fallstreak holes or hole-punch clouds. To form, the water droplets in the cloud must be supercooled; in Keep reading
“Mist and Water”
Years ago, I drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a wet and misty New Year’s Day. The fog that clung to the dark trees made the whole world quiet Keep reading