Welcome to the 143rd insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we take to the skies, exploring rare cloud formations while breaking down the science and contributing attributes behind them.
Clouds are complicated. In all shapes and sizes, clouds stand tall at the closest layer of atmosphere, better known as the ‘troposphere’. Despite their constant presence in our everyday lives, researchers lack a full or even basic understanding of their movements and size, making for an array of unanswered variables in predicting weather patterns and climate change.
In theory, there are an infinite amount of possible cloud formations, but we’re able to sort this vast array of data into three basic categories; cirrus, stratus and cumulus. Cirrus may indicate a curl or fibrous silhouette while stratus will suggest a heaped or piled exterior, leaving cumulus clouds to create heaps or piles, showcased most prominently in the infamous Mammatus cloud patterning (slide 5).
Mammatus’ distinct, pouch-like form is most commonly found alongside anvil clouds, and are often indictive of severe thunderstorms or volcanic ash. They most frequently extend from the base of a cumulonimbus, but can also be found under altostratus, and cirrus clouds, much like Pileus or ‘Scarf’ variants as seen in slide 2. As for the surrounding coloured rings, we can accredit this phenomenon to uniformly sized water droplets, which create a surrounding rainbow aura when diffracting light.
This same premise can be applied to slides 3 and 5, where the sky emits a deep sea green hue. The 3rd image is the result of refraction within a thunderstorm, while the 5th showcases both Mammatus clouds as well as this bizarre pigment. The culmination of these shapes and sizes is widely dependent on atmospheric pressure, velocity, temperature and altitude, making for a difficult puzzle from a nephrologist or meteorologist's standpoint.
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