This gorgeous photograph of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds was taken in late December in Slovenia by Gregor Riačevič. The wave-like shape of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability comes from shear between two fluid layers Keep reading
Tag: Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
Colorful Kelvin-Helmholtz Clouds
Like breaking waves at the beach, these wavy clouds curl but only for a moment. The photo was captured near sunset on a late August evening in Arlington, MA. This Keep reading
A Lenticular Cloud With a Curl
Lens-shaped lenticular clouds are not terribly rare in mountainous areas, but observers at Mount Washington caught a very unusual cloud near sunrise in late February. This lenticular cloud had an Keep reading
Wave Clouds in the Front Range
Last Sunday night metro Denver was treated to a rare sight: clouds resembling breaking waves formed near sunset. These are Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, and the comparison to ocean waves is apt, Keep reading
Reader Question: Cross Sea
Reader Matt G asks: [What’s] going on here? Why’s the pattern square? Just a special case of waves traveling in different directions, and this photo happened to catch some at Keep reading
Waves on a Supercell
This Colorado supercell thunderstorm features an unusual twist. Notice the sawtooth-like protrusions along the outer cloud wall. These are Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, like these fair-weather clouds we’ve seen before, but instead of occurring vertically, they Keep reading
Waves in the Sky
Even when the sky is mostly blue, there’s a lot going on at different altitudes. The winds do not move in a consistent direction or at the same speed, something Keep reading
Reader Question: White Caps
Reader eclecticca asks: I really like the last two posts about waves, and they left me with another question… My dad had a little boat he used to take us ocean fishing on quite a Keep reading
Lava Bomb
What you see above is a homemade lava bomb. To systematically study what happens when groundwater meets lava, scientists melted basalt and created their own meter-scale explosion-on-demand. Inside the container, Keep reading
Bringing the Stars Home
One of my favorite aspects of fluid dynamics is the way that the same patterns and phenomena appear over and over again – sometimes in the most unexpected places. That’s Keep reading