Starship Asterisk*

A Supercell Thunderstorm Over Texas

Explanation: Is that a cloud or an alien spaceship? It's an unusual and sometimes dangerous type of thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Supercells may spawn damaging tornados, hail, downbursts of air, or drenching rain. Or they may just look impressive. A supercell harbors a mesocylcone -- a rising column of air surrounded by drafts of falling air. Supercells could occur over many places on Earth but are particularly common in Tornado Alley of the USA. Pictured above are four time lapse sequences of a supercell rotating above and moving across Booker, Texas. Captured in the video are new clouds forming near the storm center, dust swirling on the ground, lightning flashing in the upper clouds, all while the impressively sculptured complex rotates ominously. Finally, after a few hours, as shown in the final sequence, dense rain falls as the storm begins to die out.

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I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

Hated wrote:I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

Welcome to the wonderful and sometimes confusing world of APOD. You can park your bad attitude at the door and enjoy the only planet we know of with life. One of the life forms is also capable of taking photos of raging meteorological events.

Wow!

BTW Silly Goats Jumping cracks me up.

this is probably how the big red spot on Jupiter looks like - only much much much ... bigger

Hated wrote:I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

The failure is yours, not APOD's.

Hated wrote:I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

Here are some connections:

Astronomy is the study of the universe. Earth is the only part of the universe that is right at hand for easy study. Therefore Earth sciences including Meteorology provide us with a window on the larger universe.

We now know what has long been only hoped or guessed; that planets are more (and perhaps far more) numerous than stars. So the study of planets will be an endless astronomical pursuit. The study of planets starts with the study of the Earth. The better we understand all the phenomena that happen here, the better equipped we will be to understand and predict what we will find in space.

On more human terms learning about the weather is practical and can even be life saving. I personally enjoyed this video greatly. Over four decades of my life have been spent in Texas, but since I haven’t lived in the northern parts of my State I don’t think I have never personally witnessed a super cell cloud formation. Now when I travel north I will be more sky savvy. I would say that understanding the sky is a very practical thing for an astronomer, whether he or she is amateur or professional.

I saw this very same storm on my first ever stormchasing trip. We were under it near Perryton, TX just north of the TX/OK line. It was impressive there but I had no idea how cool it looked from a distance. There was a large grass fire and the smoke was being sucked into the storm from near our location.

Hated wrote:I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

I agree. There is another website EPOD (Earth Sciences Picture of the Day) that would be a more apropriate venue for this.

Nice video. Too bad the junior team is typing in the description on the APOD page today. Not only is "mesocyclone" misspelled (the second c is missing), but also the photographer's name is misspelled! How sad is that? The photographer's name is "Olbinski", not the "Oblinski" shown on the APOD page (b and l transposed).

Let's do some proofreading, please!

snowwolf11 wrote:Nice video. Too bad the junior team is typing in the description on the APOD page today. Not only is "mesocyclone" misspelled (the second c is missing), but also the photographer's name is misspelled! How sad is that? The photographer's name is "Olbinski", not the "Oblinski" shown on the APOD page (b and l transposed).

Let's do some proofreading, please!

I've sent an email regarding those two. Thank you for kindly pointing out typographical errors.

This video is scarily beautiful - or beautifully scary! Either way it's great documentation of a supercell.



* and lord, there are some grumpy people posting here today!

Only today

Beyond wrote:
Only today

And lord, there are some dopey people posting here today!

neufer wrote:

Beyond wrote:
Only today

And lord, there are some dopey people posting here today!

What can i say I come under the heading of 'dopey' people when it comes to the scientificy of space stuff.

Awesome time lapse!
Here is a time lapse I made of a storm. It's not nearly as good as the APOD, but you may like it. Caption: Time lapse of a series of storms that built up, some of them were quite strong. Several of the cells are topped with pileus clouds that seem to merge into a kind of bow wake. Outflow boundaries and/or gravity waves can be seen moving away from the storms in the second half of the video.

Hated wrote:I fail to see the connection to anything astronomical

It was apparently a deal: "The Earth Today" featured (today) featured an image of the Sun.

snowwolf11 wrote:Nice video. Too bad the junior team is typing in the description on the APOD page today. Not only is "mesocyclone" misspelled (the second c is missing), but also the photographer's name is misspelled! How sad is that? The photographer's name is "Olbinski", not the "Oblinski" shown on the APOD page (b and l transposed).

Let's do some proofreading, please!

More than that: I love this wonderful site, BUT I wish the caption writers would follow newspaper writers' rules: START with the facts! THEN the blather. Say what it is, up front! Then sing, dance, philosophize, all just great, but do not sucker us into a lot of blather before letting out the secret of what the heck it is. This is basic journalism, nothing more!

hohoho, it's a supercell thunderstorm over Texas, and says so immediately under the video.

APOD Viewers on the left, APOD on the right...

Excellent video, I like both images and the music...