Cold winter conditions set the stage for these unusual clouds that can form due to airplane traffic.
Published Dec 28, 2010
Whether a smoke or dust plume has a heating—or cooling—effect on the atmosphere can depend on whether it is above clouds.
Published Oct 17, 2014
Hole-punch and canal clouds form when aircraft pass through altocumulus clouds that are rich with supercooled water droplets.
Published Dec 20, 2014
Data collected by a sensor on the Aqua satellite reveals the global distribution of clouds.
Published May 8, 2015
Actinoform clouds pop up off the western coast of Australia.
Published Feb 7, 2020
As spring turns to summer in the northern hemisphere, unusual streaks of clouds form high in the atmosphere around sunset.
Published Jun 27, 2019
Hole-punch and canal clouds form when aircraft pass through altocumulus clouds that are rich with supercooled water droplets.
Published Dec 30, 2015
A growing body of research indicates that smoke above clouds can have important consequences for the climate.
Published May 11, 2016
Three layers of clouds over the Indian Ocean are whipped into holiday shapes in November 2011.
Published Dec 13, 2011
Whether a patch of clouds contains open or closed cells offers a clue about whether rain is falling below.
Published Feb 6, 2016
Patches of open-celled clouds off the west coast of Peru offer beautiful glimpses of the sea—and pointers to where rain may have fallen.
Published Aug 7, 2018
Parallel “roll clouds” over the Pacific Ocean were likely influenced by the development of Tropical Cyclone Cook.
Published Apr 15, 2017
These “hole punch” clouds were just as apparent from above as they were from below. This MODIS image shows a number of round holes in a blanket of cloud cover over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. A few of the “holes” are elongated, with what appear to be smaller clouds inside them.
Published Jan 31, 2007
It is not difficult to imagine that a gigantic volcanic eruption spewing thick clouds of ash and gas high into the atmosphere would change the weather. But these satellite images show that a small, steady, simmering eruption also affects the atmosphere.
Published Jan 31, 2008
Extremely cold and wet conditions in the mesosphere have led to abundant noctilucent clouds.
Published Jul 9, 2020
Normally seen only at twilight, polar mesospheric clouds are illuminated by “sunrise” in this astronaut photo from June 16, 2010.
Published Jul 5, 2010
The rare night-shining clouds seen in this photo are both forming more frequently and becoming brighter, trends that point to changes in the atmosphere linked to greenhouse gases.
Published Jan 27, 2011
