[meteorite-list] Re: Odd "vortex" cloud photos...

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:13 2004
Message-ID: <20010619030309.79905.qmail_at_web10408.mail.yahoo.com>

For those of you who expressed an interest in a follow
up to this subject, here is the following:

A meteorological solution has been given for how this
cloud was formed. What is still unanswered is whether
the contrail (and sonic boom) were formed by an
aircraft or bolide!!?
Bob V.

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meteorobs-digest
Sunday, June 17 2001
Volume 03 : Number 660

-------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 20:46:14 -0500
From: "Richard" <richwatt_at_netzero.net>
Subject: RE: Odd "vortexcloud ......thanks everyone,
for the clarifying and informative responses!

Thanks, everyone, for the very informative and
interesting responses to the "cloud vortex" photo!

Richard

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 01:15:34 +0000
From: Steve Harrison <k0xp_at_dandy.net>
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Re: Odd "vortex" cloud photo

At 04:53 PM 6/15/2001 -0700, Ed Majden wrote:
>Richard:
> I forwarded your photo to the MIAC list and
> received this spectacular image back from
> Professor John Rucklidge, University of Toronto.
> Ed Majden
>
>> Subject: [MIAC-L] Re: Odd "vortex" cloud photo
>>
>> Ed's clouds reminded me of a photo that was
>> circulating on the internet recently, which some of

>> you may not have seen. I have posted it at
>> http://home.istar.ca/~astimex/wowboom.jpg.
>> The following is a rather florid description of the

>> events surrounding it, but do not be put off by it
-
>> take a look. -- John Rucklidge

I was just looking at a video movie clip on the
network server at work this afternoon of an event that
looked exactly like this description: I suspect it was
the same one. There's actually two clips. The slower
one has the A/F18 flying between the carrier and a
destroyer, followed by ripples on the ocean surface,
obviously much slower than the faster one. To the
right
of the clip, one can also see someone with a still
camera taking pictures.
I bet that someone is the intrepid photographer
mentioned below. The second clip shows the A/F18
breaking the sound barrier then speeding away from the
ships. You can, indeed, see the cloud of vapor
disappear at the critical instant; but it reforms a
split second later after the plane has passed the
ship, following in the plane's wake.

SteveH

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Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 18:48:30 +1000 (EST)
From: Robert Goler <robert_at_mail.maths.monash.edu.au>
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Odd "vortex" cloud
photo......


Hi Richard and all,

This same cloud phenomena actually popped up on the
aussie weather mailing list here a few days ago
Check out:

http://www.schools.ash.org.au/paa/a4colddown.htm

for an explanation and some more pictures.

Cheers
Robert A. Goler

E-mail Robert.Goler_at_maths.monash.edu.au
http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/~robert/

Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Monash University
Clayton, Vic 3800
Australia

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 10:09:11 -0400
From: Wayne T Hally <meteors_at_eclipse.net>
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) Odd "vortex" cloud photo,
on 5 June 2001, posted on a site...possible shock wave
due to supersonic incoming object??

I saw this photo a few days ago, and to me it looked
like an aircraft (notice the contrail on the left)
descended through a layer of cirroform clouds. Where
it did so, the ice crystals grew to a size that caused

them to fall toward the ground. I'm still trying to
work out the physics of the dry hole around the
puncture. In other words, it's not a "vortex" but an
uncommon instance of a common phenomena - ice crystals
falling, which is the origin of the common "mare's
tale" type cirrus cloud.

Wayne, Meteorology, meteorics, and meterology

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 01:01:39 +1000
From: Bruce Young <B.Young_at_uq.net.au>
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Odd "vortex" cloud
photo......

>This same cloud phenomena actually popped up on the
>aussie weather mailing list here a few days ago
>Check out:
> http://www.schools.ash.org.au/paa/a4colddown.htm

Hello Robert

Small world isn't it...

I know the guy who runs that weather project and the
school mentioned with the photograph is just up the
road. I also manage the email server that sends out
the email for the list they use and I used to manage
the server where the web site now is.

Keep an eye on the site as there is a list member in
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia who is monitoring the
launch of the 2001 Round-the-World Balloon attempt by
Steve Fossett. She has been sending great preparation
pictures to the PAA list.

       
http://www.schools.ash.org.au/paa/kalgoorlie.htm


I'm also doing an astronomy course and one of the
other students serves on an aircraft carrier (Theodore
Roosevelt) and he sent us this mpeg of a flyby
breaking the sound barrier.

        http://www.uq.net.au/~zzbyoung/f14mach.mov


thanks
Bruce

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 16:53:03 -0700
From: "Ed Majden" <epmajden_at_home.com>
Subject: (meteorobs) Re: Odd "vortex" cloud photo

Richard:
   I forwarded your photo to the MIAC list and
received this spectacular image back from Professor
John Rucklidge, University of Toronto.
Ed Majden


Subject: [MIAC-List] Re: Odd "vortex" cloud photo

Ed's clouds reminded me of a photo that was
circulating on the internet recently, which some of
you may not have seen. I have posted it at
http://home.istar.ca/~astimex/wowboom.jpg.
The following is a rather florid description of the
events surrounding it, but do not be put off by it -
take a look.

John Rucklidge
>
> Through the viewfinder of his camera, Ensign John
Gay
> could see the A/F18 drop from the sky as it headed
> toward the port side of the Aircraft Carrier
> Constellation at 1,000 feet. The pilot increases his

> speed to 750 mph, vapor flickering off the curved
> surfaces of the plane. At the precise moment of
> breaking the sound barrier, 200 yards from the
> carrier, a circular cloud formed around the Hornet.
> With the Pacific Ocean just 75 feet below the
> aircraft being rippled by the aircraft's pass, Gay
> hears the explosion of the sonic boom and snapped
his
> camera shutter once. "I clicked the same time I
heard
> the boom and I knew I had it." What he had was a
> technically meticulous depiction of the sound
barrier
> being broken on July 7, 1999, somewhere on the
> Pacific between Hawaii and Japan. Sports
Illustrated,
> Brills Content, and Life ran the photo.
> The photo recently took first prize in the science
> and technology division in the World Press Photo
2000
> contest, which drew more than 42,000 entries
> worldwide. Because Ensign Gay is a member of the
> military he was ineligible for the cash prize. "In
> the last few days, I've been getting calls from
> everywhere about it again. It's very humbling." Gay,

> 38, manages a crew of eight assigned to take
> intelligence photographs from the high-tech belly
> (TARPS POD) of an F-14 Tomcat. In July, Gay had been

> part of a Joint Task Force Exercise as the
> Constellation made its way to Japan. Gay used his
> personal Nikon 90 S, set his 80-300 mm zoom lens on
> 300 mm, his shutter speed at 1/1000 of a second and
> the aperture at F5.6. "I put it on full manual," Gay

> said. "I tell young photographers who are into
> automatic everything, you aren't going to get that
> shot on auto. The plane is too fast. The camera
> can't keep up." At sea level a plane had to exceed
> 741 mph to break the sound barrier. The change in
> pressure as the plane outruns all of the pressure
and
> sound waves in front of it is heard on the ground as

> an explosion - the sonic boom. The pressure change
> condenses the water in the air as the jet passes
> these waves. Altitude, wind, speed, humidity, the
> shape and trajectory of the plane - all affect the
> breaking of the barrier. On July 7 everything was
> perfect. "You see vapor flicker around the plane.
> It gets bigger and bigger, then BOOM - it's
> instantaneous. One second the vapor cloud is there,
> the next it's gone."
>
> John Rucklidge

--------------- Original Message ---------------
From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_yahoo.com>
To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 12:37:48 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Odd "vortex" cloud photos, taken 5 June 2001


ATTENTION! ALL BOLIDE CHASSEURS:

Do we have any Listees in Northern California?

There's a possibility that, if you go to the exact
spot where these two photos were taken (see below),
you may be able to triangulate where this "object"
might have landed!

Worth a shot, if you ask me.
Bob V.

-------------- Forward Message ----------------
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 10:56:32 -0500
From: "Richard" <richwatt_at_netzero.net>
Subject: (meteorobs) Odd "vortex" cloud photo, on 5
June 2001, posted on a site...possible shock wave due
to supersonic incoming object??

I came across two interesting photos of a "vortex"
cloud, taken by two different observers in in Sonoma
County, California, posted 5 June 2001,
on the "What's New" section of Art Bell's web site, at

http://www.artbell.com/letters18.html

(this is *not* meant as an endorsement of Art Bell, as
I disagree strongly with many of the views expressed
there).

What is of possible relevance is that the cloud
feature *may* show the after-effects of a supersonic
object traversing the atmosphere--whether it's due to
a supersonic military aircraft, *or* due to a meteor,
icy comet fragment, is unknown. Has anyone else
received reports of this phenomenon?

Richard


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Received on Mon 18 Jun 2001 11:03:09 PM PDT