Post by theshee on Nov 5, 2014 7:30:45 GMT 10
A bizarre, glittering cloud with a strip of rainbow across it has appeared in the skies over Australia – and no, it isn’t chemtrails or a UFO.
Residents of the Gippsland area in the east of Victoria state were baffled and blown away in equal measure to see the unusual cloud formation, which appeared at around 1pm local time on Monday.
To the disappointment of conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, the circular band in the cloud with the rainbow belt was revealed to be a Fallstreak Hole, also known as a hole-punch cloud or (most theatrically) a skypunch.
According to the Cloud Appreciation Society, the holes are formed when water droplets in the cloud freeze into ice crystals, becoming slightly heavier than the surrounding droplets and pulling a portion of the cloud downward. The rainbow effect is the result of those frozen crystals refracting light.link
A fallstreak hole, also known as a hole punch cloud, punch hole cloud, skypunch, canal cloud or cloud hole, is a large circular or elliptical gap that can appear in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. Such holes are formed when the water temperature in the clouds is below freezing but the water has not frozen yet due to the lack of ice nucleation particles (see supercooled water). When ice crystals do form it will set off a domino effect, due to the Bergeron process, causing the water droplets around the crystals to evaporate: this leaves a large, often circular, hole in the cloud.[1]
It is believed that the introduction of large numbers of tiny ice crystals into the cloud layer sets off this domino effect of evaporation which creates the hole. The ice crystals can be formed by passing aircraft which often have a large reduction in pressure behind the wing- or propellor-tips. This cools the air very quickly, and can produce a ribbon of ice crystals trailing in the aircraft's wake. These ice crystals find themselves surrounded by droplets, grow quickly by the Bergeron process, causing the droplets to evaporate and creating a hole with brush-like streaks of ice crystals below it
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