I’m sure many of you remember this campy scifi film from 1956. Roswell on steroids.
But did you know that there is a natural phenomenon on Earth that gives rise to reports of flying saucers on a regular basis? In fact there’s a mountain near me where they congregate. Observe:
That’s Mount Shasta in northern California. It has a long history of flying saucer visitations. Why I’ve seen people channel this with piles of mashed potatoes and inverted dinner plates.
On a more serious and factual note, these are lenticular clouds, created by the standing wave that occurs as air flows over the mountain, cooling it below the dew point. The one above is from a Facebook share by Hope Devenuto Photo from Mt Shasta Ca. 10-5-11, from my freind Yoj
Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned perpendicular to the wind direction. Lenticular clouds can be separated into altocumulus standing lenticularis (ACSL), stratocumulus standing lenticular (SCSL), and cirrocumulus standing lenticular (CCSL). Due to their shape, they are often mistaken for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
Formation: 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 movements and so enough water vapor may condense to produce precipitation. The clouds have been mistaken for UFOs (or “visual cover” for UFOs) because these clouds have a characteristic lens appearance and smooth saucer-like shape. Bright colors (called Irisation) are sometimes seen along the edge of lenticular clouds.[1] 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.
Here’s one attacking the Keck observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii in 2002
I predict it will be only a matter of time before lenticular clouds are labeled “anti-science”.
😉
While the web abounds with multitudes of UFO like lenticular cloud photos, thanks in part to digital cameras becoming almost ubiquitous in cell phones worldwide, we don’t seem to be getting any fresh credible pictures of real UFO’s …or bigfoot.
It seems that technology saturation is gradually disproving those notions.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Dave Springer;
Where I’m from people don’t resort to physical violence for the express reason they could get themselves shot dead for doing it >>>
Where I come from people don’t get accused of mutilating dead animals because they pulled a prank as a teen ager, and they don’t pull guns out when they discover they’ve made such a revolting and unwaranted accusation and p*ssed someone off. Nor do they justify carrying concealed weapons as a means to back up their revolting and and unwarranted accusations as if somehow that gives them license to shoot dead someone they’ve deliberately provoked.
If you didn’t mean to offend me, then I think I’ve made it clear that you did. That fact that you don’t care?
Well, that speaks for itself.
Here is Mt. Hood.
I have only ever seen 1 Unidentified Flying Object – literally – It rose very brightly , yellow and orange, much like a chinese lantern, but then after it acheived a stable attitude it shot off very very quickly. So I thought it was a chinese lantern until that moment. I don’t think it was Aliens I just don’t have an explanation. Whilst I worked as an Air Traffic Controller there was always 1 story that did the rounds though – and to this day many Australian Pilots still beleive it was a UFO – the Bass Strait incident
@ur momisugly Dave Springer says:
October 9, 2011 at 5:13 pm
We have a saying “God didn’t make all men equal. Samuel Colt did.”
=====================================================
I understand the sentiment, but Sam didn’t make all men equally good shots. Some are a good deal faster and more accurate than others.
Smokey;
And you could probably cause a stir with these>>>
Wow. I’m disappointed (though not surprised) that you can just order UFO’s off the net. Just light ’em and let ’em go!
Disappointed because when you build everything from hot air balloons to model rockets to potato canons to hot rods…you learn a lot of chemistry and physics along the way, how to research various things and solve problems for yourself instead of relying on someone to just post the “answer” on the internet as a part number that you can order. I wasn’t taken in by the UFO thing anymore than I was the CAGW thing for the simple reason that I already knew enough about how stuff works to figure out on my own what made sense and what didn’t, and what questions to ask to confirm one way or another.
Bill Watterson, author of the classic ” Calvin and Hobbes” comics, famously said
” The surest sign to intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”
Not that far off, IMO.
The Drake equation – the beginning of the end of science. “Let’s make a series of assumptions, assign letters to them, construct plausible relationships from them, and call it an equation”. Sound familiar? Why not? Carl Sagan made a career out of it…
Elftone, please bring some insight along with your criticism next time.
Fair bit o’ negativity on this thread.
We are all ears, Elftone……….
It seems to me that assuming radio communication is the best and fastest possible means of communication is as silly as an 18th Century soldier assuming that carrier pigeons were the best and fastest possible means of communication. It’s hubris to assume that we know everything about everything.
These kinds of threads really bring out the whacko in people. Cattle mutilations? Really?
Well, if no one identified it, then it WAS a UFO. that does NOT mean it was an alien spacecraft. Too many people automatically assume the former means the latter.
These are the condensation patterns imprinted in the clouds left by the Model C de-cloaking devices which are installed on most sub-300 class (pre star date 60530) Andromedian vessels. The Mark II hyper drive can be engaged whist cloaked and should prevent these types of cloud formations in the future, we are lobbying the Galactic Council to make the Mark II drives mandatory for all new Flying Saucers but the green lobby would rather do away with space travel altogether.
>>
Jim Masterson says:
October 9, 2011 at 5:03 pm
It sure looks like Mt. Rainier to me, too.
<<
On closer inspection, I have to change my opinion. The little triangular peak in front resembles pictures of Mt. Shasta.
Jim
>>Jim
>>Well, ZERO ‘radio traffic’* (terrestrial or othereise) has been detected,
>>and attributed to, “UFOs” … kinda strange don’t ya think? How
>>do they communicate?
>>* ALL bands and ALL wavelengths.
Jim, did you try the neutrino bands? No? Tut, tut, now that is a pretty poor investigation, Jimbo.**
And if you read my post again, I am NOT proposing that UFOs are buzzing the Earth right now. The Galaxy is too big to make that a regular interaction. The current craze is merely social education, and quite successful it is too. 450 years ago, you would be burned at the stake for suggesting there were other beings on other planets, now it is mainstream. If the downside of this is that some people think aliens are visiting right now – well, that’s pretty harmless stuff. We can live with that.
** P.S. For intersteller comms, you need a carrier that is not inhibited by pesky things like matter and electro-magnetic interference. Try a neutrino receiver and decoder.
P.L.R. .. P.L.R.
.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Please don’t be too quick to dismiss UFO’s.
In Perth (1996) my son and I spent several minutes gazing up (no more than 50 meters above us) at a hovering triangle that was lit with blue and green/red lights and made no sound. Triangle rotated on its axis and flew slowly away from us and later rose very quickly, straight up into the sky.
I don’t know whether there are aliens or not manning these things, but from my own experience they sure as hell do exist.
>>
Kevin Kilty says:
October 9, 2011 at 5:41 pm
And wasn’t it also done using shaving cream?
<<
And mud, paint, etc.
Jim
Curiousgeorge says:
October 9, 2011 at 6:07 pm
@ur momisugly Dave Springer says:
October 9, 2011 at 5:13 pm
We have a saying “God didn’t make all men equal. Samuel Colt did.”
=====================================================
I understand the sentiment, but Sam didn’t make all men equally good shots. Some are a good deal faster and more accurate than others.
—————————————————————————————–
This isn’t the Wild West any longer. It’s rare that a weapon covered by a concealed carry permit is even seen, rarer still that it is brandished, rarer still that it is fired, rarer still that it is fired other than as a warning, and rarer than getting hit by lightening when somone is actually injured by a firearm carried by someone with a concealed carry permit. Non-violent conflict resolution, you see, is part of the training required to get the permit in the first place.
I’ve carried for decades and have never needed to so much as flash the weapon. I’ve a theory that when you know there is no conflict which you aren’t going to win it imparts a cool confidence that is sensed by others and they just don’t physically threaten you any more than would threaten a dangerous animal.
davidmhoffer says:
October 9, 2011 at 5:42 pm
“Where I come from people don’t get accused of mutilating dead animals”
I didn’t accuse you of mutilating dead animals. I asked if you did. If you weren’t such a hot-head looking for trouble where it doesn’t exist you would have said “No” or perhaps even “Of course not” and that would have been the end of it.
Now you’re appearing entirely too defensive over the question which makes me wonder if you’re hiding something.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” ~William Shakespeare
So David, why the huge over-reaction? Why in your culture would the question possibly result in grievous bodily injury? I can’t quite decide which is the worse injury, losing a few teeth from a violent blow to the face or getting shot in the foot. At least the foot will heal without leaving much of a scar. Teeth don’t grow back. If you and/or your cronies are that prone to casual violence that you’d do it in response to a verbal insult then I really do wonder if you have the self-restraint to not do violence to innocent animals if it suited you.
davidmhoffer says:
October 9, 2011 at 6:08 pm
“Disappointed because when you build everything from hot air balloons to model rockets to potato canons to hot rods…you learn a lot of chemistry and physics along the way, how to research various things and solve problems for yourself instead of relying on someone to just post the “answer” on the internet as a part number that you can order.”
Interesting. When you built your own hot rods did you dig your own iron ore and forge your own steel? Smelt your own glass? Make your own tires and rims? Did you grow your own potatoes or formulate and inject the polyvinyl chloride pipe for the barrel?
I suspect there was plenty you purchased by a part number. There’s a fine line between pride and stupidity in doing things yourself vs.leveraging the work of others. I try not to cross it without good reason. The usual justification is cost when I can build cheaper than I can purchase ready-made and the personal labor involved has recreational value and thereby escapes cost accounting because of intangible entertainment value.
And sometimes when you build something you don’t learn more than a method for building something. I know people who can work wonders in automotive projects yet they couldn’t tell you the theory of operation for any bit of it. Or there are people like me who can describe in excruciating detail the theory of operation but who can’t lay a decent bead with an arc welder or cut a straight line with a cutting torch, even though I personally own the tools involved. I can however perform major surgery with a chain saw and microsurgery with a soldering pencil… go figure.
With umpteen billions of galaxies and umpteen quadrillions of stars, I doubt we are alone or indeed intelligent compared to others in the universe.
Ralph October 9, 2011 at 11:25 pm
450 years ago, you would be burned at the stake for suggesting there were other beings on other planets
That doesn’t seem very likely. You may be thinking of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600, but it is considered highly questionable whether his ideas about extraterrestrial beings had much to do with this. The Church had a lot more reason to be unhappy with him than that.
In the 1400s, Nicholas of Cusa wrote that extraterrestrial beings might exist, and he didn’t get into any trouble for it. In fact, years later, he became a cardinal. Duke Sigismund of Austria imprisoned him for an unrelated reason, and the pope excommunicated Sigismund for this. Here’s an article about Cusa, which says “the Church of the time did not mind it [his writing about extraterrestials] in the least.”
That said, the Church certainly didn’t favor the idea, but it never took a position on it.
@ur momisugly Dave Springer says:
October 10, 2011 at 2:53 am
Some parts of the world, and the US, are still the wild west.
ofnir October 9, 2011 at 3:35 pm
A friend who’s in the quantum computing field says there’s, in theory, some sort of paired set of molecule that has the same electrical state no matter the distance between them … You could also theoretically use it to make a ‘faster than light’ communications device that has an signal that can’t be intercepted or jammed. They haven’t made any stable examples yet, so not sure how feasible it is, or if it’s one of those works in theory but not in practice things.
No, the idea that theory says you could use it for FTL communications is a popular misconception.
Smokey October 9, 2011 at 9:23 pm
It seems to me that assuming radio communication is the best and fastest possible means of communication is as silly as an 18th Century soldier assuming that carrier pigeons were the best and fastest possible means of communication. It’s hubris to assume that we know everything about everything.
No, it’s not silly, it’s not hubris, and it’s not assuming that we know everything. What should we assume (in this area) other than what we know about physics? “Anything is possible” is not about anything in particular. One might just as well use it to assume anything at all, e.g., that my dog could talk, or that my car could fly.