The Earth Story

Watch how the clouds sometimes punch through to a higher layer in the atmosphere - that’s the part where it becomes a “pyrocumulus”, the cloud is going so high under its own energy that it begins condensing water and forming a normal water cloud.

Fuego volcano, behind Acatenango, erupting at night.

The Museum Fire was a wildfire that burned in Northern Arizona in late July and early August. This timelapse video captures the movements and patterns of that fire.

Original caption:

TRAJECTOIRES est une expérience cosmique sur le mouvement et lumière.

Un film de HUGO MANHES (instagram.com/hugomanhes)

En collaboration avec MADCOW (instagram.com/madcow_france/)

Blue sulfur flames at Kawah Ijen volcano, Indonesisa

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Rampant fires burning in the Amazon, set as a way to clear new farmland and to expel native populations from their land.

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Sunset lights the bottom of the clouds, viewed from above.

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Right now, Alberta, Canada is experiencing major wildfires. Here is a timelapse view of a portion of the fire growth on May 29.

Original caption:

A unique view of a fire

We’ve discussed how fires can trigger cloud formation multiple times here at The Earth Story. Clouds form above fires and volcanic eruptions when massive amounts of heat cause a mixture of air and hot ash to be pushed upward to the level in the atmosphere where water begins condensing on the particles, creating a fully formed cloud in the sky where otherwise there would not have been one. Because of this unique method of formation, these clouds were named flammagenitus clouds in 2017.

This view of a flammagenitus cloud was taken out the window of an Oregon National Guard F-15c fighter jet flying near a wildfire in 2014. You can clearly see how the ash forms a column heading upwards through the atmosphere; the heat of the fire has warmed so much air that it is rising straight up through the atmosphere to the level where water begins condensing and the cloud changes to a white color.

-JBB Image credit: Oregon National Guard/Nasa EOhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=84129 Reference: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/cloud-atlas-leaps-into-21st-century-with-12-new-cloud-types/80685/

Door to hell

In 1971 Soviet geologists started drilling a hole in Turkmenistan’s Karakum desert when after a while they ran into a cavern filled with gas. Just after they started storing gas the cavern collapsed into a 70m diameter hole. Thus, geologist decided to… wait for it… light it on fire! The geologists figured it would be best to burn it off instead of other expensive methods to retrieve the gas. Also, they were afraid of poisonous gases being released. Burning methane is indeed better that letting this greenhouse gas loose in the atmosphere. However, their idea was that the gas field would only burn for a few weeks. To date it has been burning for 47 years and shows no sign of stopping. The hole is also known as ‘the door to hell’. From the nearby village of Darvaza (literally door) a golden glow can be seen over the hole.

Darvaza is, however, not the longest burning fire in history. The coal mines under the town of Centralia in Pennsylvania has been burning for 56 years. Here the fire department supposedly decided to light up the town landfill in 1962 to clean up for labor day. Unknowingly they ignited a coal deposit under the city. Centralia is now a near-ghost town with only few resident living there.

By far the longest ongoing fire is located in Australia at Burning Mountain (also known as Mount Wingen). This combusting coal seam has been burning for at least 5500 years. Since its identification by European colonists in 1829 the fire has shifted 150 m with a rate of 1m a year. 

The timing of this post has totally nothing to do with either the calendar years 2018 or 2019.

-OW-

Image: Copyright of Tormod Sandtorv. Panorama of the smouldering Derweze natural gas field.

References: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-gates-of-hell http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6368/20131121/door-to-hell-video-fire-derweze-turkmenistan.htm http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fire-in-the-hole-77895126/ http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/parkHome.aspx?id=N0503

Aerosol Earth

Many people already know a bit about aerosols in the sense that they come from aerosol cans such as deodorants and bugs sprays. However, the true meaning of "aerosol" is any liquid or solid substance in the form of extremely fine particles so small that they may be mistaken as a gas. Few realize that these aerosols are ever present all across the globe. Each breath we take is contains millions solids and liquids ranging in size from nanometers to micrometers.

The image shown above is a result of model that uses mathematical equations to model physical processes or quantities. Inputs for the model come from various satellites and sensors placed on the globe itself. NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model output for aerosols for August 23rd, 2018 is highlighted in the above image.

Upon observation, trails of smoke from forest fires and other sources can be seen along with a number of tropical cyclones and sandstorms. As one would expect, these events kick up quite a bit of particles and droplets.

-♞Ren T

Image Credit:

https://go.nasa.gov/2MWZ4go

Sources/References:

https://go.nasa.gov/2MWZ4go https://go.nasa.gov/2CcS3Ss

Holy cow, sunset, cloudy eruption of Fuego volcano, Guatemala

Methane created by plants being consumed by lava, and the burning of that methane when it reached the atmosphere, created the blue flames in this video taken just after the start of the Fissure 8 eruption at Kilauea in May.

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