Tag Archives: clouds

Commentary, nature, Photography

Aerial Cloud View

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This fabulous photo …

… was captured by Santiago Borja and published by National Geographic.

It is a gigantic cumulonimbus cloud (the kind that pilots are ever vigilant to avoid, especially during summer) over the Pacific Ocean; the photo was taken from about 37,000 ft.

The photographer captured this shot during one of the lightening flashes emanating from the cloud.

As a pilot, I have taken what I consider to be rather interesting pictures from aloft, but I have nothing even approaching this.

The original article can be seen here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/04/your-shot-unbelievable-landscapes/

Commentary, musings, nature, Photography

Flying Above the Underside

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On my recent return to Canada, I took some photos of the sunrise as we chased it into the west.

As we flew above the cirrocumulus clouds, it really hit me that this experience – flying into the west above a layer of lake-like rippled cloud, or most any flying at all – would soon be coming to a screeching halt.

I wondered about how much of this virus situation we have done to ourselves. There is a densely packed underside to humanity, and we all know of it.

Part of that underside is our insatiability.

There never seems to be enough money, food, clothes, cars, trips, technology … toilet paper, to satisfy us. We usually seem to need more, more, more of whatever it is, and sometimes, because of this, we are releasing things that we do not understand or respect, even tiny little things, like viruses. Are we simply just ignoring this? Flying above it?

Is this Earth’s way of slowing us down? Of forcing a break? Is Earth finally getting a much-deserved rest?

What do you think?

musings, nature, Photography

Cirrus Clouds

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A couple of days ago, I saw these rather spectacular cirrus clouds, or

horsetails, as I called them when I was a child.

Cirrus clouds are usually very high, between 5 and 25 kilometres (3 – 9 miles) above the ground. They often indicate the arrival of a front, or in the tropics, the possibility of a hurricane. Our weather remained steady (and hot), so these cirrus weren’t indicative of a change – they were fair weather cirrus.

What I found particularly interesting about these clouds was the corkscrew in the center of them. It looked like someone had swirled the clouds with a whisk. That corkscrew shape is also a type of cirrus, but they aren’t usually found together.

Cirrus clouds have been documented on Mars and Jupiter and are also responsible for light halos and winter sundogs.

Cheers from cirrus clouds of the Okanagan Valley. 🙂