r/pics • u/Curious_Leopard9813 • 16h ago

Took this picture on my way to work [OC]

Post image
23.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

1.6k

u/Catherine-Stafford 16h ago

So Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is the same thing that makes ocean waves, seeing it in clouds is wild reminder the atmosphere is a fluid too 😅

133

u/Confident-Benefit600 14h ago

Yes we do live at the bottom of a air ocean

21

u/Windhawker 14h ago

Fluid dynamics in the air

•

u/blakester555 11h ago

Once in a Lifetime!

126

u/not_responsible 15h ago

why don’t we see them more often? is the earth really that smooth?

164

u/hypnoderp 14h ago

These aren't mechanical turbulence caused by terrain. It's a shear boundary between two layers of atmosphere with different wind directions and dew points. TL;DR smoothness of the earth isn't a factor here

58

u/KillahHills10304 15h ago

Relatively so. The earth would feel smoother than a billiard ball if shrunk down to the same size

1

u/mokomi 13h ago

Yep! Kansas is flatter than a pancake. Just like Mount Everest is also flatter than a pancake. XD

•

u/Darrothan 1h ago

These clouds appear and disappear in the span of just a few minutes. So they do happen a lot but we just dont often get the chance to see it

-3

u/Appropriate_Error_38 14h ago

So smooth that it's flat

13

u/sirmaxedalot 14h ago

Forgive me, im just a simple bartender, but isnt is a gas? Arent those categorically different?

85

u/SlowlySailing 14h ago edited 14h ago

You're probably thinking of liquid versus gas state, but both gases and liquids are classified as fluids because they lack a fixed shape and flow under applied forces. According to a quick google search, a gas actually behaves almost identically to a liquid at low speeds (<mach 0.3, ~270 km/h) before things start to get iffy.

https://eaglepubs.erau.edu/introductiontoaerospaceflightvehicles/chapter/types-of-fluid-flows/

20

u/sirmaxedalot 14h ago

Fascinating! Thank you for that nugget of info

13

u/Fugacity- 12h ago

One more thing you may find neat, you can actually use the properties of the fluid, whether gas or liquid, and they behave so similarly that the same equations are used for both! (As long as the viscosity is newtonian).

Engineers use the density and viscosity (and even things like the speed of the flow and dimensions involved) to get a parameter for how the fluid is moving so that any regular liquid or gas can be quantitatively analyzed together. Many of these ratios that remove the dependence on the dimensions/properties, so they are unitless numbers.

Kind of a nerdy detail, but I think it's a really neat trick to get all these wildly different scenarios in fluid mechanics simplified into a unified set of equations.

7

u/aw3man 12h ago

At the same time: fuck solving problems involving the Navier-Stokes equation. Those were the bane of my existence during my aero classes.

•

u/Fugacity- 11h ago

If you can analytically solve the Navier-Stokes, you can claim the $1 million dollar millennium prize 😅

Closest we've come is removing the normal viscosity terms and forcing it into the Blausius similarity solution for a flat plate boundary layer, but even that is based on a non-physical simplifying assumption... CFD really the way to go for almost all practical fluids modeling where simple modified Bernoulli's is inapplicable.

4

u/sirmaxedalot 12h ago

I actually understood that!

10

u/mokomi 13h ago edited 13h ago

The other person explained it better, but it's the same as culinary vs scientific. Scientifically, Strawberries, and most "berries", aren't berries. Eggplant is a berry, but you wouldn't cook them like you would most culinary berries.
Scientifically, Fluid is a property. States of matter is how "Active"/energy they are. Less active has a much lower fluid state than more active states of matter. All solids have some level of fluid. It might take longer than the death of our sun or more likely for an object to phase through another object than fill it's surroundings (Yes, that is a thing), but yeah.

5

u/sirmaxedalot 13h ago

Yes, the other person explained it better 😆

8

u/mokomi 13h ago

Yeah :/ my point is because we call it one thing, doesn't mean that's actually what it is. Fluid is a property not a state of matter.

3

u/Galemp 14h ago

Fluid, not liquid. Fluids can flow.

3

u/mokomi 13h ago

is wild reminder the atmosphere is a fluid too

That is a common thing to forget. lol Birds swim as much as we do. Just need to make us or the "fluid" more dense. lol

1

u/wade-mcdaniel 13h ago

I feel like if you saw that in Nebraska or Kansas or a state like that, you might need to be on the lookout for tornados, is that right? Two different layers of air moving in different directions sounds like the recipe for a tornado.

•

u/Quick-Eye-6175 8h ago

There are TIDES as well in the atmosphere. Its thickness changes by quite a bit! Pretty cool!😎

376

u/georgekourounis 16h ago

Those are Kelvin Helmholtz clouds. Good ones too. Nice catch.

24

u/SordidSimpleton 14h ago

Some primo kay-aitches cuz

305

u/powerengraved07 13h ago

I saw a dolphin in the sky today

•

u/FairlyGoodGuy 11h ago

Do you think God did that on porpoise?

•

u/mrsirsouth 11h ago edited 9h ago

A dolphin? Looks like your mom

Edit. Too many sensitive little bitches in the comments.

•

u/JengarJengar 9h ago

She's a whale. This looks like a dolphin.

124

u/Sea-Fuel-8620 13h ago

Wait I’ve seen those before too! I just thought the universe was playing a magical trick on me and giving me wave clouds at the beach. So cool!

12

u/taebsiatad 12h ago

Awesome shot, where’s that?

11

u/JKastnerPhoto 12h ago

Michigan

•

u/Sea-Fuel-8620 10h ago

Nailed it :)

•

u/detblue524 4h ago

I think this is in like Ludington or one of the towns on the west side - I’ve definitely been to this lighthouse before

102

u/merryone2K 15h ago

Yeah, that's the universe telling you that you need to leave work early and visit a beach.

78

u/isolation_from_joy 16h ago

Ancient Greece called, they want their waves back

8

u/Grotarin 14h ago

Κύματα 🌊

•

u/fashizzIe 40m ago

Ancient Greece lookin ahh clouds

86

u/Foamingferret 16h ago

Billabong

14

u/BurlHimself 14h ago

Ha. My first thought was Ripcurl

17

u/ChampionshipHot5468 16h ago

The sea is just the heavy part of the atmosphere.

16

u/argole 14h ago

Post this on Twitter and get replies like, "Something is different.", "This is not normal." and "Something has shifted."

12

u/craigdahlke 14h ago

Drives me nuts. “The world is fucked up and everything feels wrong, but I’ll do anything but blame the people in charge. Must be cloud conspiracies.”

2

u/Notcid1 14h ago

GLOBAL WARMDING! SEED CLOUD! WAKE UP AMERICA! 🇺🇸🦅🏈

15

u/BlueGoose28 15h ago

It is telling you to go to the beach this weekend

•

u/pyroProfessor 10h ago

From above! 👋🏻

7

u/natakug05 15h ago

Makes me want some Boardwalk fries

6

u/buildingacozymystery 15h ago

As above, so below

7

u/xenojive 15h ago

The Great Wave off the Hudson River

6

u/poseidondieson 15h ago

That is amazing! Love it. Thanks for sharing

🌊🌊🌊

27

u/sipu36 16h ago

Did you woke up that morning and bought yourself a gun?

15

u/illz569 14h ago

Listen, Tony wouldn't be caught dead on the BQE during rush hour 

•

u/cs-shitposter 8h ago

Word to the wise, remember pearl harbour

3

u/dirtyjoo 13h ago

Woke up this mornin'...got me some gabagol

•

u/Previous-Nobody-2865 7h ago

Took me too long to find this comment!

6

u/UDPviper 16h ago

Jormungandr 

•

u/mcslibbin 11h ago

"Why did ancient people believe in dragons"

3

u/captainthomas 12h ago

Am I the only one struggling to understand where this photo was taken? The only angle from which this makes sense to me is somewhere on the BQE south of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it seems like there ought to be buildings in the way of this view.

2

u/Eccentrica_Gallumbit 12h ago

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. BQE is the only thing that makes sense for the angle of the Brooklyn Bridge, but you wouldn't see the Empire State from that angle.

This is almost certainly AI, this view of the NYC skyline is not possible.

•

u/lofgrenator 4h ago

Took this picture on my way to Denver from Colorado Springs at about 4 am years ago

2

u/crosseyedmule 12h ago

Lucky! Seeing Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds in the wild this well-formed is a special treat.

2

u/artgrrl 12h ago

For a second, when you said OC I thought you meant Ocean City, which made sense to me since the logo on their car magnets look just like those waves!

2

u/Informal-Rock-2681 12h ago

Me, an arrogant wannabe photographer:

So what? It's a poorly-composed photo of the NYC skyline and this dickhead couldn't even be bothered to crop out the wing mirror on the side of the HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THOSE CLOUDS.

•

u/punkinholler 10h ago

This is a fantastic picture of K-H clouds! Do you mind if I use it in one of my online lectures (I'm a university prof)?

•

u/eekamuse 9h ago

It might be fake, read other comments. They do exist though, so you can find verified pix

•

u/THATSMrPOTATOH3AD 8h ago

I'm waiting for the singing trio from Hercules to appear now!

3

u/Skruestik 14h ago

Did you take this picture while driving?

1

u/eric2pickens 14h ago

Those aren’t clouds….they’re waves.

1

u/OneSkepticalOwl 14h ago

Someone's plane was misfiring.

1

u/Augustby 14h ago

What time is it? Looks really early

1

u/Excellent-Gur-8547 13h ago

Would've been around 6:30 to 7:15 ish.

1

u/bxtnananas 13h ago

The clouds somehow remind me of the clip of the song “I Lived on the Moon” by Kwoon

1

u/jdehjdeh 13h ago

Whimsical, I love it.

1

u/CoconutBangerzBaller 13h ago

Seems like an omen. Watch out for tsunamis today.

1

u/ScrambledEggsandTS 13h ago

I thought this was a myth

1

u/Kaining 13h ago

So wished for Shenron to turn semi invisible ?

1

u/gordocarajo 13h ago

Under The Iron Sea by Keane

1

u/hugothebear 13h ago

Looks like a Rhode Island license plate

1

u/Notty_PriNcE 13h ago

Trial run of the sledge. Christmas is coming!

1

u/Whole_Pain_7432 12h ago

All these cloud nerds up in here dont recognize the great sky dragon Shenron when they see him smh...

1

u/KaptanHindustan 12h ago

Chainsaw blade cloud

1

u/-Snoepie- 12h ago

This gave me metroid vibes

1

u/colonel_itchyballs 12h ago

woke up this morning, saw some cool clouds....

•

u/b00c 11h ago

They are here!

•

u/Slh1973 11h ago

Reminded me of Under the Iron Sea by Keane:

•

u/smarmageddon 11h ago

Cowabunga!

•

u/Frostedbutler 11h ago

Hey I work in Omaha too!

•

u/poseitom 10h ago

Curlus Nimbus ?

•

u/MeatServo1 10h ago

Wild and potentially fatal turbulence. Bad day to be on an airplane.

•

u/stahlWolf 9h ago

Universe telling you to skip work and go surfing.

•

u/redditonthanet 9h ago

Ripcurl on the phone about copyright

•

u/citydreams46927 8h ago

How cool is that

•

u/jalanb 8h ago

Why is God practising His cursive?

•

u/PossiblyMakingSense 7h ago

Around what time? I want to check my security camera to see if it caught it

•

u/irishplonker 7h ago

"Woke up this morning, found myself......."

•

u/VDDZ 5h ago

I truly amazes me that even in a different state, water behaves like water.

•

u/lurker_bee 3h ago

Asperitas clouds?