SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Weather Phenomenon - Strange Wave Clouds Appear At Sunrise In Spain?!

By Jose Calvo, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram

February 3, 2016 - SPAIN - These strange wave clouds appeared this morning at sunrise over the region of Rioja, Spain.

These weird clouds also known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability form a glowing red and furious ocean in the sky.

These crazy clouds that look like a row of crashing waves are known as Kelvin-Helmholz waves.

By Jose Calvo, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram

By Jose Calvo, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram

By Jose Calvo, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram

By Jose Calvo, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram

They form when two layers of air or liquid of different densities move past each other at different speeds, creating shearing at the boundary.

When these two layers move past each other, a Kelvin-Helmholz instability is formed that is sort of like a wave.

Parts of the boundary move up and parts move down.

Because one layer is moving faster than the other, the shear causes the tops of the waves to move horizontally, forming what looks like an ocean wave crashing on the beach.

It really is like breaking waves.

A wave breaks when the water on top moves so much faster than the water below that it kind of piles up on itself.

And with those sunrise colors, we have a beautiful and weird sky phenomenon. - Strange Sounds.

MONUMENTAL WEATHER ANOMALIES: Strange & Glowing Night Clouds Continue To Spread - Unexpected Electric-Blue Noctilucent Clouds At Edge Of Space Surprises Researchers; Hints At A Change In The "Teleconnections" Of Earth's Atmosphere!

June 14, 2013 - NORTH POLE - Just after summer sunsets in northern latitudes, shimmering, wispy clouds appear in the twilight sky. This year, these noctilucent clouds have appeared earlier and farther south than ever before.

Noctilucent clouds over Kuresoo bog, Soomaa National Park, Estonia.
Image: Martin Koitmäe/Wikimedia

Noctilucent clouds exist higher in Earth’s atmosphere than any other cloud type. First observed in 1885 following the eruption of Krakatoa, they were a sight reserved for Earth’s northernmost residents. In recent years, however, their intensity and frequency have increased, often at latitudes previously thought to be too far south for noctilucent clouds to form.


In 2009, scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research pointed to the southern creep of noctilucent clouds as an early warning signal for climate change high in the atmosphere. Now, new data from  NASA’s cloud-observing AIM satellite supports this possibility.

James Russell, principal investigator for AIM, says increasing methane emissions could be amping up the cloud show. “When methane makes its way into the upper atmosphere, it is oxidized by a complex series of reactions to form water vapor,” Russell said. “This extra water vapor is then available to grow ice crystals for [noctilucent clouds].”

Noctilucent clouds over the North Pole, June 10, 2013
(LASP/Univ. of Colorado)

As polar regions warm in the summer months, water vapor is driven to higher levels of Earth’s atmosphere. There, small dust particles left over from burning meteors, volcanic eruptions, or even rocket launches act as seeds for ice formation. Transparent in broad daylight, these crystalline clouds become visible in twilight hours, reflecting the sun’s rays from below the horizon. They float so high in the atmosphere that they can even glow in the dead of night. Normally such nocturnal cloud sightings peak when the sun is at its 11-year minimum. This year marks exactly the opposite, a predicted solar maximum.

These changing clouds serve as a reminder of the interconnected nature of Earth’s atmosphere, what the scientists refer to as “atmospheric teleconnections.” Cooling in the stratosphere, a consequence of elevated greenhouse gas levels, can alter air circulation patterns across the globe, although exactly how remains a mystery.


WATCH: NASA's ScienceCasts - An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds.

“Models will be catching up with AIM for a long time,” said space physicist Thomas Immel of Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, chief scientist for NASA’s next mission to study fluctuations in the upper atmosphere, the ICON satellite, expected to launch in 2017. - WIRED.

MONUMENTAL WEATHER ANOMALIES: Noctilucent Clouds Get An Early Start - The Glowing, Unexpected Electric-Blue Apparition At The Edge Of Space Surprises Researchers; Hints At A Change In The "Teleconnections" Of Earth's Atmosphere!

June 11, 2013 - NORTH POLE - Every summer, something strange and wonderful happens high above the north pole. Ice crystals begin to cling to the smoky remains of meteors, forming electric-blue clouds with tendrils that ripple hypnotically against the sunset sky. Noctilucent clouds—a.k.a. "NLCs"--are a delight for high-latitude sky watchers, and around the Arctic Circle their season of visibility is always eagerly anticipated.

Satellite images of noctilucent clouds (NLCs), which hover over Earth's poles at the edge of space. The data come from NASA's AIM spacecraft. The north polar "daisy" pictured below is a composite of near-realtime images from AIM assembled by researchers at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

News flash: This year, NLCs are getting an early start. NASA's AIM spacecraft, which is orbiting Earth on a mission to study noctilucent clouds, started seeing them on May 13th.

"The 2013 season is remarkable because it started in the northern hemisphere a week earlier than any other season that AIM has observed," reports Cora Randall of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. "This is quite possibly earlier than ever before."

The early start is extra-puzzling because of the solar cycle. Researchers have long known that NLCs tend to peak during solar minimum and bottom-out during solar maximum—a fairly strong anti-correlation. "If anything, we would have expected a later start this year because the solar cycle is near its maximum," Randall says. "So much for expectations."

For sky watchers, this means it's time to pay attention to the sunset sky, where NLCs are most often seen. An early start could herald brighter clouds and wider visibility than ever before.

On Sunday, June 9th, Alan Dyer of Gleichen, Alberta, Canada, went outside to see the colors of the sunset. He got more than he bargained for. Stacked atop the rosy glow of twilight were dual bands of electric-blue noctilucent clouds and green auroras.  "At times the auroral curtains appeared superimposed on the noctilucent clouds," says Dyer. "It isn't often we see the two phenomena together."

Noctilucent clouds were first noticed in the mid-19th century after the eruption of super-volcano Krakatoa. Volcanic ash spread through the atmosphere, painting vivid sunsets that mesmerized observers all around the world. That was when the NLCs appeared. At first people thought they must be some side-effect of the volcano, but long after Krakatoa's ash settled the noctilucent clouds remained.

"They've been with us ever since," says Randall. "Not only that, they are spreading."

When AIM was launched in 2007, the underlying cause of NLCs was still unknown. Researchers knew they formed 83 km above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets the vacuum of space--but that's about all. AIM quickly filled in the gaps.

Astronomers in the Netherlands have discovered a world where the sun is square. It is Earth. On June 6th Jan Koeman was watching the sunset from Lauwersoog, and this is what he saw. "The sunset was a very weird one," says Koeman. "Inversions in the atmosphere gave it some very odd shapes."

"It turns out that meteoroids play an important role in the formation of NLCs," explains Hampton University Professor James Russell, the principal investigator of AIM. "Specks of debris from disintegrating meteors act as nucleating points where water molecules can gather and crystallize."

Early NLCs (geometry, med) NLCs appear during summer because that is when water molecules are wafted up from the lower atmosphere to mix with the "meteor smoke." That is also the time when the upper atmosphere is ironically coldest.

Back in the 19th century, NLCs were confined to high latitudes. You had to go to Alaska or Scandinavia to see them. In recent years, however, they have been sighted as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Some researchers believe that the spread of NLCs is a sign of climate change.

This diagram shows why NLCs are best seen at sunset or sunrise. Glowing electric-blue at the edge of space, noctilucent clouds have surprised researchers by appearing early this year. The unexpected apparition hints at a change in the "teleconnections" of Earth's atmosphere. Credit: Science@NASA

One of the greenhouse gases that has become more abundant in Earth's atmosphere since the 19th century is methane. "When methane makes its way into the upper atmosphere, it is oxidized by a complex series of reactions to form water vapor," says Russell. "This extra water vapor is then available to grow ice crystals for NLCs."

The early start of the 2013 season appears to be caused by a change in atmospheric “teleconnections.”


WATCH: NASA's ScienceCasts - An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds.

“Half-a-world away from where the northern NLCs are forming, strong winds in the southern stratosphere are altering global circulation patterns,” explains Randall. "This year more water vapor is being pushed into the high atmosphere where NLCs love to form, and the air there is getting colder."

"All of this has come as an interesting surprise for us," notes Russell. "When we launched AIM, our interest was in the clouds themselves. But now NLCs are teaching us about connections between different layers of the atmosphere that operate over great distances. Our ability to study these connections will surely lead to new understanding about how our atmosphere works."

For more information about NASA’s AIM mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/aim. - NASA.

EXTREME WEATHER: Tornado Leaves 2-Mile Trail in South Florida!

Three tornados touched down in Florida as a storm system drenched the state's Atlantic coast, including one tornado that left a trail of damage more than a mile long in a suburban neighborhood, officials said Wednesday. Minor injuries were reported.

The storm system soaked an already-soggy region late Tuesday, leaving behind damaged property, blocked roads and fallen trees. A tornado with top winds of 120 mph struck Broward County, according to the National Weather Service in Miami. "You could see the rotation of the whole storm system on Doppler radar," said Dan Gregoria, a meteorologist with the weather service. "It was really strong, and we were concerned about a strong tornado going across the metro area." Up to 50 homes were damaged in Plantation and Sunrise, though no serious injuries were reported. About a dozen homes were severely damaged, and two trailer homes were destroyed, according to the weather service. "It really could have been much worse," Gregoria said. The debris field was strewn with twisted trees and misplaced cars, Plantation Fire Battalion Chief Joel Gordon said. Neighbors gathered on a Sunrise street Wednesday morning to assess the damage. Yom-Tiv Assidon picked through the wreckage of his home looking for his family's jewelry. The house's roof had come completely off, dining room chairs had been blown through a front window and the backyard pool was full of debris. "We were sitting watching 'Dancing With the Stars' and 'The X Factor.' I went to get ice cream, and then the windows popped and we heard a boom. Now there's nothing left," Assidon said. He took his wife to the hospital to have sutures from a recent cancer surgery restitched, but otherwise the couple was uninjured.

Randa Kader said her husband was in the attic trying to find a leak when her son ran out of his room yelling that the neighbor's roof was peeling off. As he did, the windows in his room blew out. Kader, her son and two daughters huddled in the living room. "We couldn't find my husband for a little while. We couldn't hear him because of the loud noises," said Kader, 43. When it was over, a neighbor's house was reduced to just its frame, four trees were broken in half in the yard and a concrete bench was cracked, she said. "The strength of this thing was just tremendous," Kader said. Barb McKie said her family had just seen the tornado warning on television when it seemed like the wind was rushing through their home. When it died down, McKie's husband opened their front door to see their neighbor's house missing a roof. He ran across the street to check on the neighbor, an elderly man. The neighbor was unharmed. "I don't think that poor man knew what was going on. It happened that fast," she said. "As many hurricanes as we've gone through, my daughter said this was worse than a hurricane," she said.

No injuries were reported in Indiantown, where a tornado with winds up to 85 mph touched down, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne. It shook siding and roof shingles off a house, destroyed a barn on the property and blew out the roof and back wall from the VFW post next door, said Martin County Fire Rescue spokesman Bill Schobel. "We're finding pieces of the roof in the adjacent pasture," he said. A third tornado with winds up to 65 mph struck Indian River County, causing major damage to one unoccupied home and strewing debris for about a block in Indrio, according to the weather service. It's been raining in South Florida since the weekend, and the rain was expected to continue throughout Wednesday. School officials in the Florida Keys canceled classes Wednesday due to possible flooding and lingering storms. - Kansas City Star.