Van Gogh clouds in the sky — it's "photoshop"?

At first glance it seems that this image is the result of work in the photo editor, however, this picture without any treatment.

These bizarre tubular cloud looming above the mountain, the Pisgah in Asheville (NC), has arisen due to the instability of Kelvin — Helmholtz. It occurs when there is shear between the layers in one environment, or when two contacting environment have the speed difference. Two air currents have different properties and between them there is instability. The differences are expressed not only in the velocities of two horizontal layers, but also in temperature and in density. As a result, the border arise vortices, resembling the waves of the sea. These clouds often observed in the mountains and the coasts, and with the passage of the warm front. In the picture the air is pushed up the steep slopes of the mountain, forming clouds in a process known as "orographic lift". Then fast the winds are facing these newly formed clouds, and as a result of instability Kelvin-Helmholtz they are twisted, like giant ocean waves.

A typical example of such instability is the occurrence of waves on the water surface under the action of wind. The instability appears at different heights in stratocumulus, altocumulus and cirrocumulus clouds. Cloud is named after Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied the dynamics of two fluids of different densities. These clouds are also called clouds of van Gogh in his painting "the Starry night" you can see the similar fanciful swirls. It is likely that the artist was inspired by these rare clouds.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»