Photographer’s Note
This cloud formation was observed in the midle day of 23th eptember in the "Purace" National Natural Park.
Mammatus (also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds") is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. The name "mammatus" is derived from the Latin mamma (breast), due to the resemblance between the shape of these clouds and human female breasts.
Mammatus are most often associated with the anvil cloud that extends from a cumulonimbus, but may also be found under altocumulus, altostratus, stratocumulus, and cirrus clouds, as well as contrails and volcanic ash clouds.
Mammatus may appear as smooth, ragged or lumpy lobes and may be opaque or semitransparent. Because mammatus occur as a grouping of lobes, the way they clump together can vary from an isolated cluster to a field of mamma that spread over hundreds of kilometers to being organized along a line, and may be composed of unequal- or similarly-sized lobes. The individual mammatus lobe average diameters of 1-3 km and lengths on average of 0.5 km. A lobe can last an average of 10 minutes, but a whole cluster of mamma can range from 15 minutes to a few hours. Their composition is usually mostly ice, but can be a mixture of ice and liquid water or almost entirely liquid water. FROM: Wikipedia
auldal trouve(nt) cette note utile
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auldal
(1049) 2008-09-03 4:20
What an amazing feature and one I've never heard of before. The inclusion of a scrap of trees at the bottom of the picture gives an idea of scale and the fact that these clouds are so soft looking.
sevy
(13918) 2008-09-03 4:29
Hello Carlos,
I have already heard about those clouds but I never saw ones. Yes, it is very strange and your photo is well showing the pattern and shape.
Just perhaps missing a bit more of land and trees in the bottom to better evidence it is clouds and to give the size and scale.
Yves.
Photo Information
- Copyright: CArlos Prieto (Panthiades) (45)
- Genre: Lieux
- Medium: Couleur
- Date Taken: 2006-09-23
- Categories: Nature
- Exposition: f/4.8
- More Photo Info: view
- Versions: version originale
- Date Submitted: 2008-09-03 3:22








