APOD: Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas (2011 Aug 14)

[APOD Robot]

Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas

Explanation: The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. During 2004 in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Pictured above, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.

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[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[bystander]

APOD: Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas (2006 Jul 02)
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3711

APOD: Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas (2005 Jun 13)

[islader2]

How is Eric Nguyen able to copyright==in 2004==a photograph taken a year {or so} later? What a perversion of Queen Anne's law!!!

[geckzilla]

A typo by the APOD editor, no doubt. I'll send an email.

[gpclark@cableone.net]

This is a phony picture.

[bystander]

How is Eric Nguyen able to copyright==in 2004==a photograph taken a year {or so} later? What a perversion of Queen Anne's law!!!

This is a phony picture.

This is a real photo taken June 12, 2004, in Mulvane, Kansas, by storm chaser Eric Nguyen.
See this and other amazing storm photography on his homepage, www.mesoscale.ws.

[Boomer12k]

Not mentioned is the column of smoke or something to the left of the rainbow. It looks like the spirit of a person facing to our left. The are leg, left arm, chest, shoulder, and neck and head, and the head has a helmet, all in profile. I am calling him, "The Guardian of the Rainbow", who protects believers from tornadoes!!!!

:----======

[cpc000cpc]

The explanation states "Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow." Refraction surely.

[bto]

This is completely lame.
Nothing to do with astronomy
seems to be the third time its used
so much NEW stuff, yet we see the same tired pics

BTW...If you see a tornado, in your car--drive away from it at right angles,

[neufer]

How is Eric Nguyen able to copyright==in 2004==a photograph taken a year {or so} later? What a perversion of Queen Anne's law!!!

The June 13, 2005 APOD explanation:

"Last June in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister"

was repeat verbatim in July 2, 2006.

It was just logical to split the difference between 2004 & 2006.

By being vague about the date it was possible (quantum mechanically) to pin down the energy of the tornado.

[neufer]

If you see a tornado, in your car--drive away from it at right angles,

That only makes sense if:

• 1) the tornado is coming directly towards you
  2) and there is a road at right angles.

[neufer]

Not mentioned is the column of smoke or something to the left of the rainbow. It looks like the spirit of a person facing to our left. The are leg, left arm, chest, shoulder, and neck and head, and the head has a helmet, all in profile. I am calling him, "The Guardian of the Rainbow", who protects believers from tornadoes!!!!

[owlice]

This is completely lame.
Nothing to do with astronomy
seems to be the third time its used
so much NEW stuff, yet we see the same tired pics

BTW...If you see a tornado, in your car--drive away from it at right angles,

Q4: Have some APOD pictures been run more than once?
A4: Yes. Many of our readers have been with us less than a year and are unaware of some really spectacular or important astronomy pictures. New information about old pictures is becoming available over the WWW. The text and links for rerun pictures will make use of this newly available information. So although the picture might be old, some of the text and links of each APOD will be new. Also, more web surfers have larger bandwidth connections, which allows us to post higher-resolution image files that can be transferred conveniently. Software to handle more sophisticated image file formats has also become more common, so the picture's size and/or format might be new. Lastly, rerunning APODs saves us time and helps us update our archive. In general, our rerun policy currently is to only rerun APODs more than one year old to keep the pictures relatively "new" to new APOD viewers. We will almost never rerun more than two pictures in any given week. So when you load the current APOD,it is still, most probably, a new picture.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap_faq.html

I've posted that response several times... because to some people, it's new -- they've not read the FAQ so aren't aware of the reasons APOD reruns images.

And in a bit, perhaps I'll rerun an editor's comments about the range of images shown on APOD, because clearly, some people haven't seen that yet, either.

[orin stepanek]

Do you see the person in the aqua rain slicker standing at the fence line by the tree?

[Bernard]

The physics of rainbows require the sun to be behind the observer, not on the left side. Therefore, this picture must be a superimposition of several shots.

[astrosnake]

Atmospheric-phenomena Picture of the Day?

[Case]

Usually the click-through image is of higher resolution than the embedded image. This time it is reversed: 900x1100 vs. 540x810 px. It seems the higher resolution version is a blow-up of the smaller one, and original aspect ratio wasn't maintained (a bit stretched horizontally).

[RGWare]

It looks like powerline wires are down and the roof is off the structure. Are we looking in from behind the tornado after the funnel has passed?

Thanks, RGW

[neufer]

This is a real photo taken June 12, 2004, in Mulvane, Kansas, by storm chaser Eric Nguyen.
See this and other amazing storm photography on his homepage, www.mesoscale.ws.

• Jerry: Oh God.
  
  George: What?
  
  Jerry: It's Dolores.
  
  George: Who?
  
  Jerry: Mulva.
  
  George: I thought Mulva hated you.

[NoelC]

The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado.

Isn't that a bit like saying "The serial killer might have been considered a nice guy if it weren't for all the murders."?

It's an amazing image; certainly a scene that must have struck terror into the heart when viewed in person.

-Noel

[Chris Peterson]

If you see a tornado, in your car--drive away from it at right angles,

That only makes sense if:

• 1) the tornado is coming directly towards you
  2) and there is a road at right angles.

Or if you're not a storm chaser!

[Chris Peterson]

The physics of rainbows require the sun to be behind the observer, not on the left side. Therefore, this picture must be a superimposition of several shots.

A rainbow is centered on the antisolar point, which means the Sun must be behind and to the left of the camera... just where the shadows in the image place it.

[drollere]

looks like another perfect evening for astronomy.

the APOD editorial team has really slipped down the slope of pretty pictures in recent months. i'd prefer that the team first asked themselves, "what specifically does this picture of the day have to do with ... astronomy?"

[Chris Peterson]

the APOD editorial team has really slipped down the slope of pretty pictures in recent months. i'd prefer that the team first asked themselves, "what specifically does this picture of the day have to do with ... astronomy?"

Read the FAQs. Images of atmospheric phenomena on Earth have been a part of APOD since day one. Which makes sense, because there is a strong connection between APOD and NASA, and a big part of NASA's charter is studying the Earth and its atmosphere.