Benjamin Knispel

Just eight days ago, I gave a popular science talk at @mpi_grav about colorful phenomena in the sky, and now – boom!

Just minutes ago, there were beautiful iridescent clouds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_iridescence) here, north of Hanover, Germany.

Here, light is diffracted by tiny droplets in the clouds, creating these typical mother-of-pearl colors.

#Light #Physics #Photography #NaturePhotography #Diffraction #AtmosphericOptics

Nov 22 at 1:18pmWeb
Show threadBenjamin Knispel5d ago

The reason I went outside to take photos was because of this fascinating phenomenon.

This is a “dissipation trail”, or “distrail” for short, which is essentially the opposite of an airplane's contrail (condensation trail).

Here, the aircraft exhausts temporarily dissolve the clouds. However, new clouds can then form again along the distrail.

#Clouds #Physics #Photography #NaturePhotography #Meteorology #Distrail

Show threadBig George5d ago
@benknispel so its like to opposite of the mind altering chemicals some people think? :-) #sarcasm #joke
Show threadBenjamin Knispel5d ago
@BigG Must be 😃
Show threadLockpick Extreme5d ago
@benknispel thanks for making me smarter. I never realized that contrail was a contraction of condensation trail.
Show threadTyler Stone 5d ago
@benknispel Sky scars!
Show threadTuomas Aumala5d ago
@benknispel @mpi_grav Very nice!
A minor semantical nitpick though: mother-of-pearl clouds is a name used for ice polar stratospheric clouds displaying iridescence, whereas this looks like my favourite cloud: Cirrocumulus lenticularis.
https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/nacreous-clouds.html
Nacreous clouds | International Cloud Atlas

Ice polar stratospheric clouds, also known as mother-of-pearl clouds.

International Cloud Atlas
Show threadBenjamin Knispel5d ago
@aumalatj I know and I did not call them mother-of-pearl clouds, I said their color is mother-of-pearl like.
Show threadTuomas Aumala4d ago
@benknispel Good point. Sometimes I forget that the name refers to the colours, and not just the PSC's displaying said colours.