[quote]Asperatus is a rare, newly recognized cloud formation, that was proposed in 2009 as the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 to the International Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization. The name translates approximately as roughened or agitated waves.
Experts at the Royal Meteorological Society are now attempting to make it official by naming it ‘Asperatus’ after the Latin word for ‘rough’.
The clouds are most closely related to undulatus clouds. Although they appear dark and storm-like, they tend to dissipate without a storm forming. The ominous-looking clouds have been particularly common in the Plains states of the United States, often during the morning or midday hours following convective thunderstorm activity. As of June, 2009 the Royal Meteorological Society is gathering evidence of the type of weather patterns in which undulus asperatus clouds appear, so as to study how they form and decide whether they are distinct from other undulatus clouds[/quote]
Check out some pics here:
freshpics.blogspot.com/2009/10/a … vered.html
What’s very cool is that this sure looks like the clouds I shot up near Jiaming Lake this spring. My shot:
Shot from cloud website:
[quote=“Mucha Man”]
Shot from cloud website:
[/quote]
Wow! That stuff looks APOCALYPTIC!
That last one looks like an El Greco. The resemblance is positively not canny. 
Wow, they are ‘horror film’ clouds. You know where they speed up the film showing the clouds rushing by before zooming in on the cabin in the woods? 
More freak show stuff. Some people are obviously messing with their imaging software. But still:
This one is very cool:
Neat! What sort of lens filters, if any, are being used in these photographs?
As the excerpt stated, we get some pretty crazy weather in the Plains states in the US, but the cloud formations are seldom in such stark detail to the naked eye. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed because I’m cowering in the tornado shelter.
Only the one at the top is mine and it is natural with a slight adjusment to contrast if I remember. It was in such stark detail which is why I shot it. The adjustment later was to make it look more like it had appeared to the naked eye. In essence it looked like the clouds were thick butter being sliced by the mountains to the left to form undulations and ripples being smoothing themselves out in the distance. It was an astonishing site.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I can’t stop myself:
That’s totally awesome!
I love stuff like this.
Me too. I got into clouds a bit when I had to write an article on them a few years back. Living in Taiwan doesn’t hurt. Some pretty sublime stuff here.
Check out the cloud appreciation society for more awesome pics. This is a brocken spectre, one of my favorite cloud effects:
This is my own shot taken up on the Holy Ridge in Sheipa National Park. Taiwan’s foggy high mountain conditions are awesome for this type of phenonmenon:
cloudappreciationsociety.org/alt … us-may-07/
