Science Explains “Rough and Chaotic” Cloud Feature
Research on the newest entry in the International Cloud Atlas produces insights into what these cloud features are made of and how they form.
By Katherine Kornei 6 June 2017
Giles Harrison, a cloud aficionado, is always hoping for overcast skies. “I’m required to reject ‘blue-sky thinking,’” jokes Harrison, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Reading in Reading, UK. He and Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society (CAS), recently investigated the science behind “asperitas,” a new cloud feature that the World Meteorological Organization added to its International Cloud Atlas earlier this year. The team suggests that the new feature, which was first reported by citizen scientists 11 years ago, owes its rough and chaotic appearance to oscillating streams of moving air contained within it.
https://eos.org/articles/science-explains-rough-and-chaotic-cloud-feature
