Bubbles In The Sky
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- Visualizations by:
- Alex Kekesi
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- Written by:
- Adam P. Voiland
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- Scientific consulting by:
- William Putman
- View full credits
Ever notice how in many parts of the world, puffy, cauliflower-shaped cumulus clouds are more common in the summer? There's a reason for this: thermal convection. In winter, the sun has less time to heat the surface and cause instability in the atmosphere. But during the summer, heat from the sun warms the land surfaces so much that pockets of hot air—scientists call them thermals—bubble upward much like steam in a pot of boiling water. As the hot air rises, the water vapor trapped within condenses into microscopic cloud droplets. If the air is humid enough, rapidly changing cumulus clouds puff up in the atmosphere, sometimes bulging to heights above 39,000 feet. Watch in the visualizations below—based on a climate model that simulated cloud formation during a Southern Hemisphere summer—how cumulus clouds pop up over the forests of Africa and South America.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animators
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
- Ernie Wright (USRA)
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Writer
- Adam P. Voiland (SSAI) [Lead]
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Scientist
- William Putman (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producers
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Related Pages
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ID: 3855 Visualization
Clouds over Africa
Read moreThis animation is a beauty shot of cloud model output over North America. The clouds are derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). GEOS-5 is a system of models integrated using the Earth System Modeling Framework and used to help refine atmospheric weather models.The lighting of this scene is completely artistic and not scientifically accurate. If accurate lighting were used the diurnal effect would pulse across the globe approximately every 90 frames (3 seconds when played at 30 fps). The slow strobing would have been undesireable for the intended purpose of this animation, which is to highlight the cloud model output. ||
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ID: 3861 Visualization
Clouds over South America
Read moreThis animation is a beauty shot of cloud model output over North America. The clouds are derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). GEOS-5 is a system of models integrated using the Earth System Modeling Framework and used to help refine atmospheric weather models.The lighting of this scene is completely artistic and not scientifically accurate. If accurate lighting were used the diurnal effect would pulse across the globe approximately every 90 frames (3 seconds when played at 30 fps). The slow strobing would have been undesireable for the intended purpose of this animation, which is to highlight the cloud model output. ||
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