NEw 'Asperatus' Cloud being discovered?

[Craig McPeck]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ssify-unique-Asperatus-clouds-seen-world.html

Truly an amazing cloud. Its also rather interesting they are still finding new cloud formations!

 

[Joe beier]

Wow those look absolutely stunning ...

 

[Jason Foster]

"But mom, I don't like asparagus".

Sorry, it was the first thing that came to mind....LOL.

But really, those are some super sweet clouds.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

OK...I'll bite...
What are the atmospheric requirements that cause the Asperatus to form?
What defines them?
I've seen things like it - w/o the favorable lighting.
Nice pics...

 

[John Hudson]

Gorgeous cloud pics, Craig. A very nice find; they almost look like a painting.

Isn't the canvas of the sky an incredible thing to behold?


John
VE4 JTH

 

[Craig McPeck]

Thanks, it almost looks like it was photoshopped. its so amazing. I heard reports of it forming in Iowa as well.

 

[Skip Talbot]

It is a dramatic feature, but also keep in mind that photo has been heavily enhanced. The foreground is completely blacked out, and background is blown out so a rather excessive contrast filter has been applied to it.

The feature resembles a gust front passage where there is a lot of turbulence between teh colliding airmasses.

 

[Dan Dawson]

Great photos!

I've seen these on a lot of occasions, often after the passage of an MCS, or sometimes in the morning before the boundary layer destabilizes. They seem to me to be associated with a relatively stable boundary layer, and I suspect the scalloped and wavy features associated with them are manifestations of gravity waves and turbulence associated with them. It would be neat some time to do a time-lapse video of them to see if the motion is indeed wave-like. In fact, IIRC, I saw a video on the internet like this once (a time lapse of a gravity wave).

 

[Lanny Dean]

Thanks, it almost looks like it was photoshopped. its so amazing. I heard reports of it forming in Iowa as well.

It has been "photoshoped".

I agree with Skip....interesting, but there is no question the photo has been "enhanced" It appears the Saturation levels were brought up quite a bit.

If you look closely you can also see the "pixel grab" this is from manipulating or in basic terms moving the pixels. This can happen by pushing or pulling parts of the picture to creat "something cool"
This can be done very easy with Photoshop filters.

To me it looks like nothing more than a gust front passage.

A nice high contrast pic.

 

[Vicky Redwood]

There's a guy in the UK called Gavin Pretor-Pinney who is the founder of the 'Cloud Appreciation Society' (an org just for fun) and he is trying to get this type of cloud officially recognised by the WMO, he has the backing of the Royal Meteorological Society in London and they are doing the sciencey bit by investigating what the atmospheric setup is at the time that these clouds form. They haven't been spotted over England unfortunately but Iowa does come to my memory - maybe there were even pics of these cloud types posted on here at one point? Gavin's thing is that they don't fit into any of the other sub-types of clouds so should be officially recognised and given their own classification.

All the pictures he has were posted on the Cloud Appreciation Society's website by members and photo-shopped / enhanced or not, the actual cloud formations are pretty spectacular I'm sure you'll agree.

For more info on CAS see: http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/ it also has details on the campaign of getting the Asperatus recognised by the WMO.

 

[Dave Kaplow]

I've seen these being called Lenticular Mammatus before, but I think I like Asperatus better. Regardless of the name, they can be very stunning to look at.

 

[Jared Farrer]

http://www.weatherpix.com/g2/v/Clouds/wsi-cld002.jpg.html

Gene Rhoden pic shows the same type here I think. Pretty cool!

 

[David Draun]

I see these clouds a lot. Most of the time in the vicinity of elevated thunderstorms, especially north of a warmfront. I would call them stratus undulatus, or something to that effect. Not a new cloud type at all.

 

[Darren Addy]

National Geographic has picked up on the story:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/new-cloud-pictures/
4 associated pics.

I can see The Onion headline now: Advanced Photoshopper Discovers 13 New Cloud Classifications

 

[Mike Deep]

Daily Mail is like an internet tabloid, somewhere between those dumb chain emails grandma forwards you and Art Bell on the credibility chart. Just something to keep in mind whenever their articles come up.

Those are some fascinating images. Three of the photos on Nat Geo look like stratus-undulatus though, what's the big deal?