February 8, 2016 - FAIRBANKS, ALASKA - What's happening behind those houses?
Pictured here are not
auroras but nearby
light pillars,
a nearby phenomenon that can appear as a distant one.
In most places on
Earth, a lucky viewer can see a
Sun-pillar, a column of light
appearing to extend up from the
Sun caused by flat fluttering
ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the
upper atmosphere.
Usually these
ice crystals
evaporate before reaching the ground.
January 23, 2016 - COLORADO, UNITED STATES - The tower-like strange cloud formation was photographed by Mike Herrman at Lakewood, Colorado, USA on January 18, 2016.
Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form in the troposphere, normally in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction. Lenticular clouds can be separated into altocumulus standing lenticularis (ACSL), stratocumulus standing lenticular (SCSL), and cirrocumulus standing lenticular (CCSL). Because of their shape, they have been offered as an explanation for some Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings.
As air flows along the surface of the Earth, it encounters obstructions.
These are man-made objects, such as buildings and bridges, and natural
features, like hills, valleys, and mountains. All of them disrupt the
flow of air into eddies. The strength of the eddies depends on the size
of the object and the speed of the wind. It results in turbulence
classified as ‘mechanical’ because it is formed through the “mechanical
disruption of the ambient wind flow”. Where stable moist air flows over a
mountain or a range of mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. If the temperature at the crest of the wave drops to the dew point,
moisture in the air may condense to form lenticular clouds.
As the
moist air moves back down into the trough of the wave, the cloud may
evaporate back into vapor. Under certain conditions, long strings of
lenticular clouds can form near the crest of each successive wave,
creating a formation known as a "wave cloud."
The wave systems cause large vertical air movement, enough that water
vapor may condense to produce precipitation. The clouds have been
mistaken for UFOs (or "visual cover" for UFOs), particularly the round
"flying saucer"-type, because these clouds have a characteristic lens
appearance and smooth saucer-like shape; also, because lenticular clouds
generally do not form over low-lying or flat terrain, many people have
never seen one and are not aware clouds with that shape can exist.
Bright colors (called irisation) are sometimes seen along the edge of lenticular clouds. These clouds have also been known to form in cases where a mountain
does not exist, but rather as the result of shear winds created by a
front.
December 28, 2015 - MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES - Dark, cold water flowing from the Nokasippi River into Upper South Long
Lake created an unexpected form this weekend—a rotating circle of ice.
The ice disc forms as flowing water creates an eddy where ice is
forming. The water is more still in the middle of the eddy.
"So you get ice forming and it gets bigger as it gets colder and then
the water that is moving faster is not freezing up, so what you get in
the end is this big pancake of ice that is moving slowly around in a
circle," said Peter Boulay, DNR climatologist. "You see pancake ice on
water that's moving. When the lakes are trying to freeze up this past
weekend, I saw a lot of that kind of ice forming in circles. "It's a
sign of turbulent water and some stillness in the water in the middle."
Nearby residents were stopping to see the rotating ice circle after word
about it was passed via Facebook, from the lake association and between
neighbors. "It's amazing," said Upper South Long Lake resident Karen
Reil.
Sue Rolfs, who has been an Upper South Long Lake resident since 1957,
said she's never seen the phenomenon before. Residents who have lived on
the lake for 25 years or more echoed that sentiment. Monday they were
drawn to the water to watch the perfect circle swirl in the black water
at the inlet.
"We've all been coming and watching it," Marlene Kossila. "It's neat to
watch." Kossila said the residents have been coming to watch the ice not
knowing when the phenomenon will end. "It's getting smaller or the
opening around it is getting smaller," she said of the ice circle.
A spinning ice circle was reported on the Sheyenne River in North Dakota
in 2013, at which time it was noted such icy discs have been seen in
Canada, England and Sweden. Bill Kronstedt said after years of living in
the area this pattern, this perfect circle, was a new experience.
"You've got to wonder how long it's going to be here," Kronstedt said.
"It's kinda cool. It is definitely neat."
Winter weather
Boulay said this start of the winter season is on track to be one of the
top five warmest on record for November and December. Many lakes have
yet to fully form ice with late ice-in records likely to be shattered
this December. There isn't a robust database for ice-ins compared to
highly anticipated ice-outs in the spring, but this year may rival
records set on area lakes including the latests ice-in on record of Dec.
22, 1998, on Gull Lake.
"We are going up against the latest we've ever seen for these lakes,"
Boulay said. "It is very late and it's more magnified because we had two
relatively early ice-ins the last two years. We are a month later than
last year in general."
On the negative side, this warmer weather—while not producing the frozen
pipes and septic systems of the last two harsh winters—is reducing time
people could have been out ice fishing, Boulay said. The odd ice and
late ice formation may serve as a reminder that ice can be tricky on the
best of years and should always be treated with healthy skepticism.
WATCH: Rare spinning ice disc draws attention near Brainerd.
"That's always our message, use extreme caution in any case and this
year especially maybe more than other years because we have not had the
cold weather to really make good ice," Boulay said.
There is cold air around it just isn't in Minnesota. Fairbanks, Alaska,
as a comparison, has had a colder than normal December. Boulay said the
cold air is bottled far to the north and so far lacks a conduit to reach
Minnesota. The Climate Prediction Center's outlook indicates there will
be a warmer than normal January, February and March to start the new
year.
"It's an El Nino pattern basically the polar jet stays way up in Canada
and we kind of stay on the mild side," Boulay said. There are storms
around, but they have to be able to tap into cold air to make a
difference for winter storms or traditional weather, Boulay said. "It
looks as if El Nino is definitely in control of our weather this winter
so far."
Even snow is in short supply across the state. While central Minnesota
will have a white Christmas, the snow line ends to the south. And the
Twin Cities is preparing for a snowless Christmas, which can't be
characterized as a brown one.
"It's like we are having a green Christmas," Boulay said. "It's strange." - Brainerd Dispatch.
December 7, 2015 - INDIANA, UNITED STATES - Travis Branum from North Vernon shared these beautiful, but eerie photos
of giant vertical beams of colored light that appeared over North
Vernon Indiana early this morning.
So what is it?
These are called "light pillars" and are pretty rare around these parts.
What caused it?
Light pillars are created through the reflection of light off of numerous tiny ice crystals .
According to Wikipedia:
"The crystals responsible for light pillars usually
consist of flat, hexagonal plates, which tend to orient themselves more
or less horizontally as they fall through the air.
Their collective
surfaces act as a giant mirror, which reflects the light source upwards
and/or downwards into a virtual image.
As the crystals are disturbed by
turbulence the angle of their surfaces deviates some degrees from the
horizontal orientation, causing the reflection (i.e. the light pillar)
to become elongated into a column.
The larger the crystals, the more
pronounced this effect becomes. More rarely, column-shaped crystals can
cause light pillars as well"
The combination of a dense fog and air temperatures in the 20's
allowed the water droplets in the fog to freeze into ice crystals
allowing the phenomenon to occur.
The moon was thought to absorb the solar wind on the dayside, which is always exposed to the constant stream of particles thrown out by the sun, but new research suggests
some of the solar wind is reflected back into space by the surface. This is also believed to be causing weathering on the night side too. (Illustration)
December 2, 2015 - MOON - The moon has long been considered an inert place where the lunar dust is only disturbed by the occasional impact from a meteor.
But researchers have discovered that, despite not having its own atmosphere, the moon may experience 'weather' of its own.
They have found the stream of particles thrown out by the sun in solar wind appears to interact with the moon in an unexpected and surprising way.
On Earth these particles interact with the gases in the atmosphere to create colourful aurora while the planet's magnetic field concentrates it around the poles.
The moon, however, lacks both an atmosphere and a global magnetic field, and so was thought to passively absorb the solar wind without any noticeable effects.
Measurements made by India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter have now revealed this is not the case, and in fact 10 per cent of the solar wind is reflected back into space.
This creates turbulence in the solar wind streaming past the moon causing vortexes that billow onto the dark side of the moon, which should be sheltered from weathering by the solar wind.
The researchers have been able to map the areas of the lunar surface where the solar wind is reflected with areas marked in red being where the solar wind is reflected most
(pictured)
On Earth the solar wind is bent towards the poles where it interacts with the gas in the upper atmosphere to create the spectacular aurora, or Northern Lights (pictured).
The moon has no atmosphere or global magnetic field and so this does not happen there
The researchers said this could have important implications for how much water may exist on the surface.
Charles Lue, a researchers at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics at the Umea University, who conducted the work as part of his PhD, said: 'This knowledge is of great importance to the lunar space environment which is affected both on the lunar dayside and nightside surfaces.
'The effects can even be seen in the form of visible light - like bright swirls imprinted on the surface of the moon.
Charles Lue has found certain regions of the lunar crust reflect the solar wind differently depending on their magnetic field. He holds a model of the moon
(pictured) with the areas of strongest reflection marked in red
'The observations help us map and understand the variations in the lunar space environment.
'They also give us clues about the physical processes involved and the long-term effects they have on the lunar surface.'
Mr Lue, whose work is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that the reflection of the solar wind interacts with areas of localised magnetic fields on the lunar surface.
In areas with strong magnetism, caused by iron in the crust, the solar wind flow is restricted, while adjacent areas receive increased flow
This results in unusual spirals of ions streaming off the dayside of the moon, where the solar wind strikes first, to the nightside.
Mr Lue said it appears the weathering of the moon's surface by the solar wind may be less than previously predicted and this could mean there may also be less water hidden beneath the crust.
He said: 'The reduced solar wind weathering allows us to separate micro-meteorite and solar wind-induced weathering, including the effects of different solar wind species, differently well shielded.' - Daily Mail.
September 12, 2013 - PACIFIC OCEAN - They would be the ultimate in big wave surfing. Scientists have discovered waves that rise up to be taller than some sky scrapers.
However, rather than being found on sun kissed beaches in exotic locations around the world, these waves are three miles beneath the surface of the ocean.
The waves rise up due to ridges on the ocean floor of a narrow channel to the
north west of Samoa that forces cold, saltier water to rise up into the
warmer water above.
Researchers found the waves, which are also known as internal waves, form at the boundary between two layers of water with different densities in a deep ocean trench in the South Pacific Ocean.
These form 800 foot waves that rear up and then plunge hundreds of feet down into the dense water on the other side of the sill. However, each wave takes around an hour to break.
So while it might never be possible for surfers to ride these enormous waves, the scientists say these waves play an important role for mixing nutrients in the ocean.
Professor Matthew Alford, an oceanographer at the University of Washington who led an expedition to the channel, known as the Samoan Passage, said: “Oceanographers used to talk about the so-called ‘dark mixing’ problem, where they knew that there should be a certain amount of turbulence in the deep ocean, and yet every time they made a measurement they observed a tenth of that.
“We found there are loads and loads of turbulence in the Samoan Passage, and detailed measurements show it’s due to breaking waves.”
The layers of water form because dense cold water in Antarctica sinks into the deep Pacific Ocean and is forced through a 25 mile gap north east of Samoa.
Researchers found the waves form at the
boundary between two layers of water with different densities in a deep
ocean trench known as the Samoan Passage in the South Pacific OceanPhoto: WaveChasers APL
Around six million cubic metres of water pass through the gap every second – around the same as 35 Amazon Rivers.
Dr Alford and his team lowered specially designed "wave chaser" instruments three miles to the seabed and took measurements over thirty hour periods of the turbulence at the boundary between the cold dense water and warmer water above.
They found that as the dense bottom layer of water flows over two consecutive ridges in the Samoan Passage, it causes them to form lee waves, like air rising over a mountain.
These become unstable and break, causing the dense cold water to mix with the upper layers.
Professor Alford said this helps to explain why dense cold water does not permanently pool at the bottom of the ocean.
The waves may also play a role in stimulating global currents.
They believe waves like this form at other locations in the Samoan Passage and elsewhere in the ocean.
At their most powerful, some internal waves can sweep submarines off course or cause them to surface.
“In addition to the primary sill, other locations along the multiple interconnected channels through the Samoan Passage also have an effect on the mixing of the dense water.
"In fact, quite different hydraulic responses and turbulence levels are observed at seafloor features separated laterally by a few kilometres, suggesting that abyssal mixing depends sensitively on bathymetric details on small scales.
WATCH: Wave Chasers - Deep Flows Through the Samoan Passage Instruments & Measurements.
“Climate models are really sensitive not only to how much turbulence there is in the deep ocean, but to where it is.
“The primary importance of understanding deep-ocean turbulence is to get the climate models right on long timescales,” Alford said.
Professor Alford, who is a surfer himself, added that these deep sea waves would make for a dull surfing experience.
He said: “It would be really boring. The waves can take an hour to break, and I think most surfers are not going to wait that long for one wave.” - Telegraph.
First there were the wind farms in the United Kingdom that had to be shut down if it got a bit
blowy. Then there was the turbine that burst into flames in a gale a
month ago. And now three turbines have been wrecked in the latest bout
of rough weather – sweeping away any remaining illusions that strong
winds simply mean more electricity being generated.
One of them stands – rather forlornly now – off a country road called Windmill Lane. The damage raises yet more questions about the ability of such machines to cope with serious weather, let alone produce very much electricity. Adding to such concerns will be the revelation yesterday that wind farms in Scotland were paid nearly £300,000 in the first five days of this year to close down because it was too windy. The three damaged turbines all stand within a mile of one another in the countryside around Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The one in Windmill Lane in the village of Upper Cumberworth lost one of its three blades, and another in the same village lost two.
A third, in nearby Hepworth, lost all three, with debris blown across a road into a neighbouring property. The damage occurred on Thursday night when, according to the Met Office wind speeds near Huddersfield peaked at 77mph during fierce storms which felled trees, tore off roof tiles and damaged power cables. Local residents say the falling blades could have injured or killed someone as they were flung to the ground. Frances Barnes, who has ten acres of grazing land for horses nearby, said: ‘It is worrying. People objected to the plans when they first went in – not because it is a windmill but because it is so close to a busy road. The blades on the 12 metre mast are over two metres long and one flew across a road. ‘It is frightening to think what may have happened had one of the blades flown into the road and hit a car, or indeed if the wind turbine had come down.’ The 10kw turbines were made by Evoco, which says they have been through a ‘four-year period of in-house testing’.
The company, which claimed on its website they could ‘withstand harsh winters and wind speeds in excess of 90mph’ has begun an investigation. The turbines are not part of a wind farm but sold individually to landowners to generate their own electricity and sell any excess back to the National Grid. The company said it had installed 100 turbines in the area and all have been ‘braked’ so that they stop spinning until modifications are made. A spokesman said: ‘We have recently experienced a series of turbine faults in a localised area of rural West Yorkshire area during record-breaking high winds. ‘Evoco turbines have recently weathered three lots of hurricane force winds, in which the overwhelming majority of our turbines have operated without any problems. ‘No one was hurt in the incidents, which are being investigated thoroughly. Health and safety issues are of primary importance to us, and we work to rigorous standards to maintain our excellent record.’ Christine Smith, a local Conservative councillor said: ‘This shows they can be very dangerous, these blades could have fallen on someone’s car or home. They are lucky someone was not walking nearby.
‘Wind turbines are flawed, they don’t work when it’s too windy, and don’t work when it’s not windy enough. There are much better alternatives to use less energy such as under-floor heating and insulation. ‘These companies are putting in applications left, right and centre, and telling people they can make a lot of money out of them, but I think we need to look at some of these concerns before allowing any more to be built.’ Last month a 300ft turbine in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, erupted in flames during gales of 165mph. It was said to have been switched off, but had a ‘brake system failure’. In Scotland the £300,000 payments over the first five days of this year were shared by four turbine operators. The controversial ‘constraint payments’ were made because they produced more energy than the National Grid could handle and had to shut down. Up to 32,000 wind turbines could be built in England and Wales over the next 40 years to meet government targets. Last year 17 wind farm operators were paid £7million to shut down on 40 occasions between January and September. - Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, seven passengers were injured in a mid-air incident aboard a Qantas A380 flying between London and Singapore en route to Sydney due to severe thunderstorms.
QF32, which left London at 11.15am on Friday morning, struck severe turbulence in Indian airspace about three hours prior to landing in Singapore. Seven passengers have been treated for ‘‘minor cuts and injuries’’ in Singapore, a Qantas spokeswoman said. Four went to hospital ‘‘for assessment’’ but have since been discharged. Three were treated at Changi airport’s medical centre. The turbulence was the result of severe thunderstorms in the area, the Qantas spokeswoman said.
‘‘The seatbelt sign went on immediately, but some passengers were still making their way back to their seats [when the aircraft encountered turbulence]. Striking bad weather is not unusual,’’ she said. The flight landed in Singapore at approximately 7.50am yesterday morning, Sydney time. Engineers have since examined the aircraft, the Charles Kingsford Smith, and found it fit to return to the air. The flight, which was originally expected in Sydney at 8.35pm yesterday, is expected to depart Singapore this afternoon and is scheduled to land in Sydney at approximately 9pm. - SMH.
For a morning, the sky looked like a surfer's dream: A series of huge breaking waves lined the horizon in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday (Dec. 16), their crests surging forward in slow motion. Amazed Alabamans took photos of the clouds and sent them to their local weather station, wondering, "What are these tsunamis in the sky?"
Experts say the clouds were pristine examples of "Kelvin-Helmholtz waves." Whether seen in the sky or in the ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when a fast-moving layer of fluid slides on top of a slower, thicker layer, dragging its surface. Water waves, for example, form when the layer of fluid above them (i.e., the air) is moving faster than the layer of fluid below (i.e., the water). When the difference between the wind and water speed increases to a certain point, the waves "break" — their crests lurch forward — and they take on the telltale Kelvin-Helmholtz shape. According to Chris Walcek , a meteorologist at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, Albany , fast-moving air high in the sky can drag the top of slow-moving, thick clouds underneath it in much the same way.
"In the pictures [of the Birmingham sky] there is probably a cold layer of air near the ground where the wind speed is probably low. That is why there is a cloud or fog in that layer," Walcek told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. "Over this cloudy, cold, slow-moving layer is probably a warmer and faster-moving layer of air." Most of the time, the difference in wind speed and temperature between two layers of the atmosphere is small, and so the fast-moving air on top "simply slides smoothly over the slower-moving air like a hockey puck sliding along an ice surface," Walcek said. At the other extreme, if the wind-speed difference is too large, the interface between the two layers breaks down into random turbulence. Kelvin-Helmholtz waves form when the difference in the temperature and wind speed of the two layers hits a sweet spot. "What [these pictures] show is air between these two atmospheric layers that is just very close to that threshold for turbulence, and mixing to mix the two layers together," he said. - Yahoo.
