Everyone see things in the clouds. People, animals, Christ on the cross, UFO’s, angels, and even schizophrenically imagined chemical attacks by contrails. You name it, somebody has seen it. So when I was prodded with a news item that said “new cloud type defined” I was thinking “uh oh, here we go again”. It is a lot like cyclomania, as humans tend to assign patterns to randomly ordered observations of nature. Looking for meanings in the clouds isn’t much different than looking for meanings in the alignments of the stars and planets.
From ChattahBox and The UK Telegraph:
(ChattahBox)—Meteorologists around the world have taken notice of a new storm cloud on the horizon, literally. And if they have their way the dark and choppy cloud will take its rightful place among its more famous cousins, cumulus, cumulus, cirrus and nimbus.
Cloud gazing Meteorologists first noticed the stormy and billowy formation floating over the Scottish Highlands and above Snowdonia, Wales. The unique gray storm cloud was also spotted over Australia, the cornfields of Iowa and high above the Arctic Sea off the coast of Greenland.
A group in England dedicated to cloud watching, the Cloud Appreciation Society, became quite excited when viewing numerous photos of the new storm cloud floating in the atmosphere.
The Cloud appreciators describe the cloud as “…a bit like looking at the surface of a choppy sea from below,” said Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and the first man to identify the new cloud.
The Royal Meteorological Society has named the new cloud, “Asperatus,” the Latin word for rough, since the cloud has the appearance of a rough, choppy ocean.
The Royal meteorologists are now attempting to have Asperatus officially recognized by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization in Geneva to have it included in the International Cloud Atlas.
If the meteorologists are successful, this would mark the first time a new cloud was officially recognized since 1953.
I have seen clouds like this, but did not see them as being a new classification. Thus a little trouble with the idea of making an entirely new classification for this cloud, a sub classification perhaps would be more appropriate, especially since this cloud does not appear to inhabit the middle and higher levels of the atmosphere.
Here are the existing classifications:
| Latin Root | Translation | Example | ||
| cumulus
stratus cirrus nimbus | heap
layer curl of hair rain | fair weather cumulus
altostratus cirrus cumulonimbus |
Classifications
High-Level Clouds
Cloud types include: cirrus and cirrostratus.
Mid-Level Clouds
Cloud types include: altocumulus, altostratus.
Low-Level Clouds
Cloud types include: nimbostratus and stratocumulus.
Clouds with Vertical Development
Cloud types include: fair weather cumulus and cumulonimbus.
Other Cloud Types
Cloud types include: contrails, billow clouds, mammatus, orographic and pileus clouds.
Source: http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/home.rxml
So for “asperatus” I could see maybe “stratoasperatus” but not “altoasperatus” since there is no evidence of them at the high altitudes, and clouds at that level tend not to be rough edged.
I actually hope WMO doesn’t accept this ploy for attention by the Cloud Appreciation Society, if they do, it could open an avalanche of new cloud classification applications, we may see pitches of the most absurd kind.
For example, here’s another one from the Cloud Appreciation Society:
“Altostratus Obamus” perhaps?
People see all sorts of things in the sky, if this new one is accepted, the petitioning for WMO recognition of new cloud types would never end.
I’ve been a ‘cloud appreciater’ for years. I’ve also checked out their website – there are some pretty good photos there.
Shakespeare was also a cloud appreciater – or was it Hamlet? (According to my English teacher, this was Hamlet taking the piss out of Polonius.)
‘Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and ’tis like a camel…
‘Hamlet: More like a weasel methinks?
Polonius: Tis very like a weasel… etc. etc. etc…
So this Asperatus, it looks like an inverted Stratocumulus.
Harkening back to what the Fire Incident Information Officer said about the air-inversions being briefed to the Forest Service by NASA, GCR cause comes to mind. Some places not used to seeing them would be surprised.
Stratocumulus Invertus Minimus (Global Cooling Clouds). Hah !
Smart and funny. I’ve literally been laughing out loud. Can’t wait to name a cloud after one of my fleeting girlfriends.
Whatever happened to cumulonimbus? Just last week I saw cloud formations that resembled layered scales – amazing. And no special relative topography.
Maybe Obama could name his 19th czar to study the phenomena, declare a crisis, blame global warming and develop a cloud stimulus package -stimulobogus.
Or, I’m thinking maybe… Nostrabamasiriusradionimbus… It’s a mystery as to what’s coming, but it’s dark and you have to pay extra.
Umm, having been an observer in the Navy, I would have classified that simply as Stratus in a more or less continuous sheet or layer, or in ragged shreds, or both, but no stratus fractus of bad weather…or L6.
They look just like the clouds photographed over Cedar Rapids, IA in 2006:
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/3195031.html
Weird Clouds Over Cedar Rapids, Iowa
What did the Iowa weather people say about the clouds? KCRG-TV’9s meteorologist Joe Winters said, “We’ll just call them wave clouds. That’s not actually a type of cloud. It’s just the way they looked. The atmosphere always has waves in it, like the ocean. We just don’t see waves often enough, and today we had the opportunity to do that. And it probably won’t happen again for a long time.”
This type of cloud isn’t that uncommon on the western slopes of the New England plateau in New South Wales, Australia, in winter. It is a kind of stratus probably contorted by mild thermals and contour of the hills.
The picture here appears so dramatic because of the thinness of the cloud layer and the lovely translucent light. I suspect our local aborigine tribes were looking at the same clouds 40,000 years ago, just as the Celts were in Scotland.
Don’t be too hard on the Cloud Appreciation Society. If you have had a hard day at the screen go to the Photo Gallery,start the slide show and feel your blood pressure drop.
It is a slightly English harmless thing,like train spotting and you really need to get away from tall buildings to appreciate the complexity and subtle shape-change of clouds.I am lucky to live in inland Australia where the clouds can be truly spectacular compared with the coast.
The Asperatus clouds look to me like Mammatus with mountain wave turbulence and considering that Mamatus formation is a mystery, perhaps we should have an open mind about Asperatus.
Well, oceanographers have been looking up at certain clouds for some years now and have sometimes commented that, “That looks just like the sea.”
Of course, we aren’t licensed to name clouds so I guess we gotta let that one go. Maybe we will name some sea states “cloudlike.” 🙂
Can I interest anyone in hyper-meteorology?
http://grurgle-the-grey.net/WrdPrss/?p=92
and the two posts after
The first picture reminds me of a phenomenon you often see in the Summer on the West Coast of France adjacent to the lower corner Noirmoutier Island. The clouds move longitudinally to the “stripes”. At the same time a lower level air current brings small feathery clouds across at a right angle. You get a similar perpendicular movements in the waves as the tide comes in.
Asperatus? As in “What asperatus do you use to measure the temperature?
Or “I have invented a new asperatus for humidity control?
(I can see no end of problems with this word and dyslexic kids, or those with speech impediments … )
An asperatus is an apparatus for aspirating your ah tus …
Or is it a person who aspires to us to inspire …
I think the cloud does not need a new name, but if it gets one, it will definitely need a new name…
he lighting has a lot to do with how they look, given the backlight from the low sun. If the sun had been in another position, they would have mostly just looked like plain stratus with a bit of wave shape. The layer is fairly thin.
A group in England dedicated to cloud watching, the Cloud Appreciation Society, became quite excited when viewing numerous photos of the new storm cloud floating in the atmosphere.
The Cloud appreciators describe the cloud as “…a bit like looking at the surface of a choppy sea from below,” said Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and the first man to identify the new cloud.
Oddly, this bunch needs to get out more. Wave form clouds are well known, common, and ephemeral. They don’t need a new name – they already have one: “wave” clouds. If Pretor-Pinney and the RMS needs a latin name they can call them vacillostratus or vacilloform clouds (or stratovacillus, altovacillus, cirrovacillus or vacillocirrus, which is why they’re usually called “wave” clouds 🙂 .
Keith Minto (00:35:22) :
Don’t be too hard on the Cloud Appreciation Society. If you have had a hard day at the screen go to the Photo Gallery,start the slide show and feel your blood pressure drop.
It is a slightly English harmless thing,like train spotting…
Please, don’t get me started on these “harmless” British fetishes. Thanks to a whacked-out Brit planespotter who couldn’t stay home, I fully expect to get yanked off a plane at any point due to somebody’s no-fly list >:(
“Rectumulus” LOL!
In looking at the various other pictures around of wave clouds, they all have the same characteristic: the layer is thin, allowing sunlight to define the wave density patterns. I think we are not looking at something new, just seeing something common under certain conditions and lighting. My own observations watching a setting sun through different cloud formations leads to seeing structure in cloud decks you can’t see when illuminated from above, or even directly from below.
Nothing to see here, folks!
Trust your goverment, your scientists and the big media journalists. They’re all paid professionals and they know what they’re doing.
Also, have a flu-shot – just in case – watch the news on TV – have some fluoridated water, antidepressants, aspartame, GMO’s and what have you – for they’re all good for you – and they’ve all been approved by Good Science…
Don’t believe me? Well, ask Donald Rumsfeld.
And BTW – stop buying more guns & ammo – instead join the Obama Corps and become a Civil SerfAnt.
And there’s no need for stockpiling food either – just have a food stamp – very low in calories!
With Whole Lotta Love,
BB
Ps. Don’t forget to pay your taxes – Wall Street and The Establishment really needs you and your money…
I want to officially petition for a new “looks like a horsy-stratus” cloud designation.
I can provide peer-reviewed evidence.
This is obviously George Bush’s fault.
SL (15:48:51) :
I can’t believe no one has said this yet! They look like flying sheep to me.
Maybe Harold was successful!
E.M.Smith (02:19:07) :
Asperatus? As in “What asperatus do you use to measure the temperature
No, no! its a politically correct (available in white and coloured varieties) vegetable that makes you smell funny when you pee!
Apparently we’ve succeeded in collapsing the server at the Cloud Appreciation Society.
These wave clouds are apparently nothing more then thin low altitude stratus and nimbostratus forming in a fast moving air mass that happens to be close to terrain, which induces turbulence in what would be a more regular wave pattern, like non-breaking wave patterns in a stream over a rough rocky bottom.
“Altostratus Obamus,” of the idiomatic genus “pie in the sky.”
Digging a little deeper around the web, it would appear that this cloud form is already defined as stratus or altostratus undulatus, undulatus referring to the wavy bottom, and that the cited examples of “asperatus” at CAS are just good examples of the form. You might make a case for some examples being “mammatus undulatus”, depending on their genesis.
At any rate, another word doesn’t seem necessary or desirable, and they are certainly not “new storm clouds”.
Maybe the cloud appreciation society ought to get their tails out of the pub and go out and look at some clouds.
We get these wave clouds all the time over silicon valley; they are so ho-hum.
Partly it is because the south Bay is hemmed in by some hills up to 4000 feet high, and then you get the daily vacuum cleaner winds coming through the golden gate; which play the valley like an organ pipe.
More importantly though, the bottom of those wave clouds are exactly like the bottom of the Arctic sea ice looks. (yeah I know it is crummy grammar).
There’s a picture on the table of contents page of the May 2009 issue of OPN; which is the Optics & Photonic News monthly bulletin. (Page 2)
It’s a USGS/NASA Landsat image looking donw on some mountains somewhere buried in cloud cover, where the whole area is an interfering wave pattern just like that bottom view above, and there is one sharp peak sticking up through the clouds, that is creating a turbulent diffraction pattern around the mountain that stretches down wind for about 15 times the diameter of the peak protruding through the cloud layer, with a whorl pattern that is cellular with cells about the size of the protruding peak.
Much more interesting than those apparatus clouds above.
George
“The unique gray storm cloud was also spotted over Australia, the cornfields of Iowa and high above the Arctic Sea off the coast of Greenland.”
So this particular and unique cloud travels around the world where it is spotted by different cloudspotters at different times? Or is the explanation that the writer has little grasp of the English language?
More cloud pictures
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8076000/8076805.stm
I rather like the storkostratus.
[snip]
Reply: While that is not a [snip] site per se, and in fact is an anti [snip] site, in order to prevent discussions of [snip], I’m snipping the anti [snip] so as not to promote a reaction from the [snip] gallery. ~ charles the [snip] moderator.