When Edvard Munch painted the first version of his magnum opus “The Scream,” he penned an accompanying diary entry where he describes walking along the road with two friends before the sky filled with “blood-red clouds and tongues of fire.” Many think the painting is a representation of the artist’s inner…
An otherworldly cloud phenomena found high in Earth’s atmosphere is becoming more visible due to our greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters this month.
I want to talk about clouds. Intellectually, I know they’re just masses of foggy moisture suspended in the ocean of air above us. But I’m here to say they’re more than that.
Astronomers have detected an exoplanet whose sodium-rich atmosphere is completely devoid of clouds—a strange celestial feature that until this point only existed in theory.
You only need a handful of ingredients to make a cloud. Water, and maybe a few tiny particles of salt, dust or soot tossed together in the atmosphere is all it takes. And yet that simple concoction results in dozens of cloud types, including some that feel not of this world.
You’re definitely familiar with water’s freezing point: 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). But that’s not the coldest water could be. “Supercooled” water is water that exists below that point. Scientists in a few labs have now made the coldest water yet.
Clouds form when warm, humid air rises into the cooler atmosphere, and all that water vapor condenses into tiny floating water droplets. But sometimes that process can be inverted, like when cold air trapped in the Grand Canyon causes it to fill with clouds as warm air passes over the massive gorge. And sometimes,…
Weather is probably harder to understand than particle physics, given the numerous complexities that influence Earth’s atmosphere. But one researcher has published a controversial new paper that examines just how much high-energy, interstellar particles can affect Earth’s climate.
Through the lens of a talented photographer, familiar scenes can be turned on their heads, fooling your eyes into seeing something completely different. In this video, it looks like Lars Leber captured the ocean as waves churned up a blanket of sea foam, but in reality it’s a long timelapse of clouds slowly rolling…
Tomorrow, 7.5 million people will crowd a 70-mile-wide, 2800-mile-long strip of land as the moon blocks the sun’s light for somewhere around two minutes. The sky will turn dark, the several million-degree solar corona will become visible, and the stars will appear in the middle of the day.
Last month, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured some of the most remarkable images of Martian clouds we’ve ever seen. Now rare, these Earth-like cirrus clouds are a glimpse into the Red Planet’s distant past.
He’s been chasing storms for eight years, but filmmaker Mike Olbinski called this event—a sunset that blasted a rare display of rolling undulatus asperatus clouds with an amazing lightshow of colors—“one of the most incredible scenes [he’s] witnessed.” The resulting 4K timelapse is one you’re going to want to watch in…
To the relief of chemtrail conspiracy theorists, NASA’s plan to create red and blue-green colored artificial clouds was postponed on Sunday morning. The clouds were expected to be visible for much of the East Coast and surely would have left many scratching their heads.
To my eye, the clouds that airplane wings make on takeoff and landing look like some cool ass force field—like, a stealth shroud that envelopes the airplane as its flying around. Reality is less fun though, because the clouds that are rolling over the wings of the airplane are caused by the lift forces that let our…
Using the Akatsuki spacecraft, Japanese scientists have detected a large, bow-shaped anomaly in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Strangely, the 6,200-mile-long structure is refusing to budge despite the 225 mile-per-hour winds that surround it.
These clouds are weird. Usually, clouds look like fluffy puffs or big, mean anvils. But these clouds... these clouds look like stripes. These clouds are weird.
I love when photographer Mike Olbinski chases storms because his (always) stunning time lapses always remind me that the city I shelter myself in isn’t what the world is supposed to look like. The sky is a breathing beast that I’m blind to.
Watching two crash test vehicles meet their demise in a head-on collision always makes for some exhilarating footage. But when two fluffy clouds collide, the destruction that ensues is so gentle and peaceful it somehow ends up being incredibly relaxing and soothing.
Watching clouds float by is usually a serene, relaxing experience. Watching methane clouds float by on Saturn’s moon Titan, however, is not.
