Nature is the ultimate beauty! Whether it is about volcanoes, beaches, mountains, valleys, rivers, seas, forests and even clouds, nature never leaves a chance to surprise us. Well, how often do you see clouds? NASA says that normally, the bottom of the cloud is flat. However, today’s NASA Astronomical Photograph of the Day is a cluster of clouds that appear like bubbles from the bottom hovering over Nebraska, a state in the Midwest region of the United States.
NASA explains with the image that the clouds look bubbly “because warm, moist air rises and cools to condense into Water drops at a specific temperature, often corresponding to a very specific altitude. As the water droplets grow, an opaque layer cloud forms.” However, under certain circumstances, pockets of rattan may form containing significant drops of water or ice, which fall into the fresh air as they dissipate. In the turbulent air near a thunderstorm, when exposed to sunlight from the side, the resulting Mammatus clouds can look particularly dramatic.
This unusual cloud pattern known as the Mammatus cloud was photographed here over Hastings, Nebraska in June 2004.
Learn more about Mammatus mây clouds
Met Office of UK explains that the Mammatus clouds are among the most distinctive and recognizable, with a convex or pocket pattern extending from the base of the cloud. The shape of mammatus formations can be very different; they can range from a typical bulge shape to a longer tubular shape that dangles in the cloud above.
Mammatus clouds often appear in conjunction with large cumulus clouds. Turbulence within the cumulus cloud often leads to the formation of Mammatus clouds, especially in the lower part of the protruding anvil as it rapidly descends to lower altitudes. This disrupts the normal upward growth cloud formation process, resulting in an uneven cloud base. Mammatus clouds often occur with Cumulonimbus clouds, bringing thunderstorms due to their large amounts of unstable air.
