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Credit & Copyright: Michael Kunze
Explanation:
Can a cloud love a mountain?
Perhaps not, but on a
Valentine's Day like
today,
one might be prone to seeing
heart-shaped
symbols where they don't actually exist.
A fleeting
pareidolia, the featured heart was really a
lenticular cloud
that appeared one morning last July above
Mount Cook National Park
in
New Zealand.
A companion video shows the
lenticular cloud was mostly
stationary in the sky but shifted and vibrated with surrounding winds.
The cloud's red color
was caused by the Sun rising off the frame to the right.
Lenticular clouds are somewhat rare but can
form in air
that passes over a mountain.
Then, vertical eddies
may form where rising air cools past the
dew point causing water carried
by the air to condense into droplets.
Unfortunately, this amazing sight made the fascinated videographer
late for breakfast.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: clouds
Publications with words: clouds
See also: