March 13, 2015

A Crown of Clouds ... and More


Here's a new work (at least for me): Nephology. It's the study of clouds and cloud formations.

I seems to be that I see more long streamer-type clouds than I used to. Perhaps it's because I live near an airport and jet trails turn into long streamers as they lose shape.

The clouds I'm showing here were in California, and we weren't that far from Long Beach Airport and Los Angeles International. I don't know whether the diagonal clouds shown here were the result of contrails, but I just looked on Wikipedia and found this:
Depending on the temperature and humidity at the altitude the contrails form, they may be visible for only a few seconds or minutes, or may persist for hours and spread to be several miles wide. The resulting cloud forms may resemble cirrus, cirrocumulus, or cirrostratus, and are sometimes called cirrus aviaticus. Persistent spreading contrails are thought by some, without overwhelming scientific proof, to have a significant effect on global climate.[2] According to the FAA, in conjunction with scientific experts at the EPA, NASA and NOAA, "Contrail cloudiness might contribute to human-induced climate change. Climate change may have important impacts on public health and environmental protection .... Changes in cloudiness resulting from human activities are important because they might contribute to long-term changes in the Earth’s climate. Contrails’ possible climate effects are one component of aviation’s expected overall climate effect."
Okay, that's a new term for me! Cirrus aviaticus. I like it! However, the rest of the article gives evidence that the net effect of contrails may be a rise in temperatures, which is a concern. Oh, note that the photos on the Contrail page support my theory that the diagonal clouds seen here may be caused by planes.

I didn't mean for this to be such a long post, but I've always been a cloud-watcher so I found the article quite interesting.


15 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info. It seems like I've seen a lot more of those types of cloud configurations, too. I'm on the east coast. I think they're really pretty.

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  2. Yes, I can see the crown. I have a friend that gets mad every time she sees those contrails. She swears they are killing us.

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    1. Yeah, she thinks they are chemtrails. But near an airport, they are logically the vapor trails from jets. Sometimes I can see the planes and watch the contrails.
      Chemtrails are different and probably rare, altho I don't doubt that someone somewhere has experimented with them. Mostly they are theoretical as far as being able to manipulate the weather with them. Maybe someday, but as the article states, the clouds hold heat in as much as they keep it out.

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  3. that's interesting! thanks for sharing. have a lovely sky week~

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  4. Nice to know that the study of clouds is nephrology. I guess I'm a nephrologist too.. Nice clouds.

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    1. No R in nephology. With an R, it has a different meaning.

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  5. Lovely lovely clouds!

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  6. Hi Linda, Neat cloud formations... I have always been interested in weather and weather-related information. (I have always said that I was a weather girl in my last life... ha).. So interesting. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  7. Sort of a 'crown of creation'.

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  8. Great photos! I learned 2 news words too ;-)

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  9. Pretty clouds. That's a new word for me too.

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