Thursday, August 03, 2006

Colored Clouds


So Beautiful Sky

Rare, mother-of-pearl colored clouds caused by extreme weather conditions above Antarctica are a possible indication of global warming.

Known as nacreous clouds, the spectacular formations showing delicate wisps of colors were photographed in the sky over an Australian meteorological base at Mawson Station on July 25. Such clouds are occasionally produced by air rising over Arctic and Antarctic mountains in high polar latitudes during winter. Nacreous clouds can only form in temperatures lower than minus 80 degrees Celsius.

A weather balloon in the vicinity of the clouds in the stratosphere about 20 km above the Earth's surface measured temperatures as low as minus 87 Centigrade. These rarely seen clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds, were more than just a curiosity. They reveal extreme conditions in the atmosphere, and promote chemical changes that lead to destruction of vital stratospheric ozone. Temperatures in the stratosphere, between 8 and 50 km above Earth, would be expected to drop as global warming increases. Over that time there has been a small decrease in temperature and that change is actually occurring faster than the warming at the surface of the Earth. This delicate cloud colors are created at sunset when fading light passes through tiny water-ice crystals blown along on strong jets of stratospheric air. at the same height winds were measured blowing at almost 230 km/h.

Photo's from news.yahoo.com

18 comments:

Prasanna Parameswaran said...

Wonderful Its so beautiful!

The breath vapour is the one you see when its so cold!
God's vapour:- the cloud,is our planet's elixir gold!
If Dreams are the manifestations of the mind,
Clouds are the curator for the atmosphere's cyclonic wind !!

Very nice article on cloud- especially the force at which the wind blows - that is totally true a normal human can withstand only a speed of max 80-100 miles per hour Imagine the hailstorms that blow at 300-350 Kms/hour everything will be ripped apart in its way and clouds do a very good job of protecting us from these storms!

Pavithra said...

That was good information. I was just wondering how would it be to fly over these clouds? Should try some day :-)

Gnana Kirukan said...

I just luv the crimson sky :) - its beautiful :)

Balaji S Rajan said...

Jeevan,

Thanks for the information.

Global warming is a danger and it is sad that many under developed countries have not started co-operating.

The clouds are wonderful to look at. But the horrible thing while flying is we are requested to shut the windows in most of the flights since the light disturbs other passengers who are sleeping.

KK said...

Informative post Jeevan...I love it when the flight flies over clouds...its a real to the eyes...

Priya said...

Just read today in yahoooooooooooo.
Thanks for sharing...

Keshi said...

those fotos r simply amazing! attractive colors.

Keshi.

starry said...

Beautiful pics. awesome color.

Anonymous said...

Makes us feel so small while watching these clouds. Beautiful pics.

dumbdodi said...

very nice pictures, thanks for the news, very informative

tulipspeaks said...

whoa! a geography lesson eh? :)

cool info.. between.. good choice of pic

=ammu=

gP said...

superb! And a nice entry too! Now I know for sure...its beautiful!

Kathy said...

... informative post Jeevan, thanx!


..have a nice weekend!

-kathy-

Aatma said...

Nice informative Post Jeevan.

Narayanan Venkitu said...

I was driving along the Pacific ocean near San Francisco last weekend. Some of the scenes I saw were breathtaking.

Nature is awesome..isn't it.!

Nice post Jeevan. Thanks for the info.

Jeevan said...

Thanks every one for sharing with me, yes its a awesome pic and cool infomation:)

Visithra said...

wow beautiful photo - ilove when the skies are briliant colours - thanks for the info

Jeevan said...

THanks visith:)