The photos above are examples of what happens when forces of weather combine to produce an incredibly photogenic sight -- known simply as the "mothership" cloud.
Captured by storm chasers and weather-gawkers, these approaching storms were already ominous. However, with the rise of photo-enhancement apps like Instagram, which allow amateurs to make images appear professionally edited, rotating supercells look more like alien spacecraft than ever.
This combination of changing wind directions creates a horizontal rolling motion in the lower atmosphere. The same rapidly rising air motions that form the thunderstorm turn this horizontal rotation into a vertical rotation, and in the case of this particular storm, this rotation is spectacularly evident in the circular striations, or layers, visible in the cloud structure.
The structure of supercell thunderstorms allows rain and hail to fall well away from the source of the warm, unstable air fueling the storm, so these storms do not choke on their own rain-cooled air. In some cases this allows supercell thunderstorms to stay intact for hours, covering tens or even hundreds of miles. In the process they can produce giant hail, very high winds, and tornadoes."
http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/rotating-supercells-resemble-mothership-photos-20130731
No comments:
Post a Comment