(Click image to enlarge) Photographed over Schiehallion, Perthshire, Scotland © Ken Prior.
See this photo in the Cloud Gallery here.
A few years back, we chose a Cloud of the Month which we didn’t feel very confident about identifying. Since it looks rather like the surface of a choppy sea viewed from below, we gave it the nickname of the ‘Jacques Cousteau cloud’, after the legendary 1970s French diver and ecologist.
But as we started receiving more and more dramatic examples of this cloud formation, from members and visitors across the world, we decided that it warranted a more official-sounding name. We looked for a Latin one that would sound at home amongst the official cloud classifications and settled on ‘asperatus’, which is the Latin for ‘roughened up’, and was used by Classical poets to describe the seas being agitated by strong winds.
We propose that asperatus should be adopted as a new ‘variety’ of cloud, meaning that it is a particular characteristic that appears in one or other of the main cloud types. This would mean that the rough and choppy looking Altocumulus cloud shown above would become known as ‘Altocumulus asperatus’.
Our proposed new cloud variety shares some similarities with existing formations such as the more regular waves of undulatus clouds and the hanging pouches of mamma clouds, but we feel that this cloud is different enough from them to be classified as a variety of its own.
Who knows if it will eventually be accepted as an official variety? If it ever is, we will celebrate with a snorkelling holiday.
Current Cloud of the Month:
March 2010
Previous Clouds of the Month:
February 2010
January 2010
Cloud Reflections (December 09)
Numbers in the Clouds (November 09)
Sun Pillar (October 09)
Convection Clouds (September 09)
‘Pile d’Assiettes’ (August 09)
Cumulus congestus (July 09)
‘Asperatus’ (June 09)
Clouds at Night (May 09)
Sundogs (April 09)
Diamond Dust (March 09)
Cloud Streets (February 09)
Crepuscular Rays (Jan 09)
Valley Fog (December 08)
Cloud Shadows (November 08)
Contrails (October 08)
Mamma (September 08)
Kármán Vortex (August 08)
The Summertime Halo (July 08)
The Nor’west Arch (June 08)
Microbursts (May 08)
Irridescent Clouds (April 08)
Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis (March 08)
Ice halos (February 08)
Lightning (January 08)
Roll Cloud (December 07)
Banner Cloud (November 07)
Stratocumulus (October 07)
The Unclassified Cloud (September 07)
Alexander’s Dark Band (August 07)
Fumulus Snail (July 07)
Distrail (June 07)
Altocumulus undulatus (May 07)
Cumulonimbus capillatus (April 07)
Lacunosus (March 07)
Horseshoe Vortex Cloud (February 07)
Jet-Stream Cirrus (Janurary 07)
Altostratus/Altocumulus/Altowhateveritis (December 06)
Anti-Crepuscular Rays (November 06)
Stratocumulus (October 06)
Altocumulus (September ’06)
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Cloud (August ’06)
The ‘Brocken Spectre’ (July ’06)
‘Whale’s Mouth’ (June ’06)
Noctilucent (May ’06)
Cirrus (April ’06)
Cap Cloud (March ’06)
Fallstreak Holes (February ’06)
Nacreous (January ’06)
Cirrostratus (December ’05)
Tuba (November ’05)
Virga (October ’05)
Cirrocumulus (September ’05)
Altostratus (August ’05)
Cumulus (July ’05)
Mamma (June ’05)
Pileus (May ’05)
Lenticularis (April ’05)
Stratus (March ’05)
Cumulonimbus (February ’05)
Contrails (January ’05)
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go to our Photograph Submissions
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