NASA's own Terra satellite snapped some shorts of a cluster of cavum clouds near Florida's west coast in late January.
NASA Terra Satellite Snaps Cavum Clouds
The Terra satellite was zipping through the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year when one instrument of the satellite was able to capture a shot of some bizarre-looking clouds. These huge, sinkhole-like objects are vaguely similar to water droplets that float thousands of feet over the surface. They look like a hole punch was taken to the sky.
The US Space Agency shares that the odd clouds, which are actually called Cavum clouds, appear so odd that people sometimes think that they could signify flying saucers. Their appearance has been erroneously and repeatedly associated with extraterrestrials and UFOs. However, these explanations are far from the actual case.
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What Are Cavum Clouds?
While the sight of these clouds may seem unusual, they are nothing new. These clouds have been documented by researchers since the 1940s. However, it was only around 15 years ago that an explanation for the clouds was found.
These clouds are scientifically known as cavum clouds. However, they are occasionally nicknamed fallstreak holes or hole-punch clouds. These features are massive enough to be seen from the ground and from space.
Though these clouds are not scientifically attributed to UFOs or extraterrestrials, they are still quite bizarre. In fact, cavum clouds would not exist if not for human technology.
Cavum clouds form when airplanes breeze through mid-level altocumulus cloud banks. Such cloud banks consist of unusually supercooled pure water vapor. This means that the water has not turned icy, even if they float at an extremely cold temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 2010, researchers from the Langley Research Center of NASA found that larger cavum clouds will form when a plane takes a shallower angle to move through the clouds. The analysis revealed that any plane type could result in cavum clouds.
As the wings or propellers of the plane change the pressure surrounding the droplets, a process known as adiabatic expansion takes place to ensue the turbulent air vortices break the fragile conditions that maintain the vapor liquid.
Adam Voiland, who is from NASA's Earth Observatory, explains that more ice crystals are formed from ice crystals as the liquid droplets keep on freezing. Eventually, the ice crystals become heavy enough that they start falling from the sky and leaving a void in the layer of clouds. The volume and pressure changes lead to adiabatic cooling, which effectively drops the water vapor down by another 36 degrees Fahrenheit. This leads to the creation of a homogeneous ice nucleation or spontaneous freeze.
As for the cavum clouds recently captured by the Terra satellite, over 1,000 flights each day that come from Miami International Airport significantly contribute to the phenomenon.
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