Morning Glory Clouds

Isn’t this photo amazing?

These are Morning Glory Clouds….taken Aug 24th, 2009.

This photo was taken by Mick Petroff from his airplane over the Gulf of Carpenteria in Austrailia where  these rare clouds occur every spring. Remember, it is spring in the southern hemisphere!

We aren’t quite clear on how they form, but a general explanation is:  when moist, cool air  flowing  off the ocean or large body of water encounters an inversion layer (an atmospheric layer where air temperature atypically increases with height).. long, horizontal, circulating tubes of air are created condensing into these roll clouds. These horizontally rotating currents of air create severe turbulence and can be very dangerous to aircraft.  Here in North Texas, we also see similar roll clouds proceeding the downburts from severe thunderstorms, and certain cold fronts.

If you love to learn about unique atmospheric or astronomical phenomena, I encourage you to  visit http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html for your Astronomy Picture of the Day. This site is very educational and fun. My son, who is really into space,  and I look at it everyday.