 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 A Bountiful Flock of Floccus Clouds

   March 31, 2021

    Ray Floccus Clouds

   Photographer:  Ray Boren
   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   On a pleasant day poised between  autumn and winter, I strolled out
   of a favorite bookstore in downtown Bountiful, Utah and happened to
   glance upward. Directly overhead was a beautiful, cloud-splashed sky. I
   had parked my car alongside a park-like city block featuring the
    Bountiful Tabernacle, a  Greek Revival meetinghouse built by
   Mormon pioneers, which seemed an ideal counterpoint to the speckled
   sky.

   These are apparently  altocumulus floccus clouds that looked very
   much like billowy cotton or fleecy puffballs spilling across a blue
   canvas. In meteorology, the Latin term  altocumulus refers to high
   and heaped, or massed, globular clouds at a medium altitude of about
   6,500 to 22,000 feet (1,980-6,700 m) in elevation.  Floccus
   indicates that they resemble tufts of wool.

   I wondered if this might be a  mackerel sky, so-called for a
   fish-scale pattern. Seeking a better understanding, I sent the image to
   the  Cloud Appreciation Society with a sheepish query, and a monitor
   there responded that a mackerel pattern is more accurately associated
   with similar  Altocumulus undulatus clouds, which have a noticeably
   undulating wave pattern, not obvious here. The  World Meteorological
   Organization’s International Cloud Atlas notes that  Altocumulus
   floccus clouds sometimes form when the base of a larger, crenelated
    Altocumulus castellans formation dissipates, which is likely what
   happened on this pretty day. Photo taken Nov. 30, 2020.
     * Bountiful, Utah Coordinates:  40.88933, -111.87976

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    More...

Cloud Links

     *  Atmospheric Optics
     *  The Cloud Appreciation Society
     *  Cloud Atlas
     *  Color and Light in Nature

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   Space Research Association.

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