Hole-punch and canal clouds form when aircraft pass through altocumulus clouds that are rich with supercooled water droplets.
Published Dec 20, 2014
Hole-punch and canal clouds form when aircraft pass through altocumulus clouds that are rich with supercooled water droplets.
Published Dec 30, 2015
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
Canal clouds are the linear sibling of super-cool hole-punch clouds.
Published Jan 11, 2017
Extremely cold and wet conditions in the mesosphere have led to abundant noctilucent clouds.
Published Jul 9, 2020
Whether a patch of clouds contains open or closed cells offers a clue about whether rain is falling below.
Published Feb 6, 2016
As spring turns to summer in the northern hemisphere, unusual streaks of clouds form high in the atmosphere around sunset.
Published Jun 27, 2019
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
Actinoform clouds pop up off the western coast of Australia.
Published Feb 7, 2020
Data collected by a sensor on the Aqua satellite reveals the global distribution of clouds.
Published May 8, 2015
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
In a photo-like satellite image, the faintest of shadows or shading of grey may give them away, but more often, clouds over the poles simply disappear against the background, camouflaged from the satellite’s view by the underlying snow and sea ice. For those trying to track clouds from space, to understand cloud physics, say, or to predict the weather, the problem is frustrating. Only with a combination of visible and invisible wavelengths of light, such as infrared light, do clouds become distinct from the snow and ice below.
Published Feb 3, 2007
High-altitude clouds appeared as far south as the continental United States in early June 2015.
Published Jun 19, 2015
Satellite images separated by 50 years show actinoform clouds over the Pacific Ocean.
Published Jul 19, 2012
Noctilucent clouds float high enough in the atmosphere to capture a little bit of stray sunlight even after the Sun has set below them.
Published Dec 2, 2016
An open-celled cloud over the Pacific Ocean had a shape reminiscent of a certain circular letter of the alphabet.
Published Sep 27, 2014
The island itself is almost too small see in this image, but it serves as the starting point for the clouds that flow toward the northeast in a giant V shape. Amsterdam Island is a volcanic summit, the northernmost volcano on the Antarctic tectonic plate.
Published Dec 30, 2005
Acquired April 17, 2010, this natural-color image shows a network of open- and closed-cell clouds over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru.
Published Apr 28, 2010
In the northern hemisphere, night-shining clouds seem to be forming earlier and spreading farther each year, as they did in 2013.
Published Jun 25, 2013
alert message
