CWL

Colorful Display of Lights and Stars

The Milky Way shines above a sea of clouds covering nearby towns and villages in Geumsan County of the South Korea.

The view is captured from Mount Daedunsan. The bright star on the left is Deneb in Cygnus, while Altair, the brightest star of Aquila, is visible neat the center.

Pan along the Milky Way to the right to find bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius, near the brightest part of the Milky Way and along the central bulge of the galaxy. — Kwon, O Chul

Keyhole in The Clouds

This photo was taken as the rain clouds began to build. Just as the sun was to set, it shone perfectly through the cloud, creating the “keyhole to heaven”. The Angel reflection around the outside of the cloud/light formation made this photo very unique.

Striking ‘Cloud Streets’ Seen From Space

Trapped beneath a warm air layer and directed by a cold northwesterly wind, fluffy cumulus clouds line up in bands called ‘cloud streets’ in an image captured Nov. 13 by NASA’s Terra satellite.

The visible light image by the satellite’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) shows skinny, northwest-oriented clouds filling Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada.

Cloud streets — long parallel bands of cumulus clouds — form when cold air blows over warmer waters, while warmer air called an inversion layer rests on top of both, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

When heat and moisture from the comparatively warm water rise through the cold air above, the rising thermals hit the inversion layer, which acts like a lid. The thermals roll over and loop back on themselves, creating parallel cylinders of rotating air. As this happens, the moisture in the warm air cools and condenses into flat-bottomed, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds that line up parallel to the prevailing wind.

Rainbow and Anticrepuscular rays by Rothkko

exploratorium:

Icy Bodies

At the Exploratorium exhibit Icy Bodies, thin shavings of dry ice, warmed by the water they are floating in, emit cold jets of carbon dioxide gas. As the jets of gas shoot out, they spin the dry ice in a spiral pattern. As water vapor in the nearby air condenses into clouds, the pattern is revealed.

Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper

Above Clouds

Lake Tekapo village lights up the clouds. Mount John, above the clouds, is the site of the principal astronomical observatory of New Zealand. — Alex Cherney

Through the Clouds

“During my first night in Fairbanks, Alaska in February 2012, the clouds broke a bit to reveal some auroral activity in the northern sky. The relatively low clouds are being lit by the reddish-orange light of Fairbanks.” — Dennis Mammana

Mammatus Clouds and Crepuscular Rays Above Paris

Colorful Iridescent Clouds

Smile in the Sky

Sunset Above the Atlantic Ocean

Noctilucent Clouds