Mind-Blowing Cloud Formations You Probably Haven't Seen Before

Various cloud formations might be one of the most beautiful and romantic sights in nature. Still, these masses of liquid droplets is also a complex and scientifically interesting natural phenomenon. The interesting fact is that regardless of the shape and the looks of the cloud, they’re all made of the same thing – condensed water or ice. When the sun heats the ground, warm air starts to evaporate and rise towards the sky. Once these water vapor particles cluster together, a cloud is formed.

Aircraft, which often have a large reduction in pressure behind the wing- or propeller-tips, punching through this cloud layer can cause air to expand and cool very quickly as it passes over the aircraft wings or propeller. This change in temperature can be enough to encourage the supercooled droplets to freeze and can produce a ribbon of ice crystals trailing in the aircraft's wake. The ice crystals then fall from the cloud layer. When ice crystals do form, a domino effect is set off due to the Bergeron process, causing the water droplets around the crystals to evaporate: this leaves a large, often circular or elliptical, hole in the cloud with streaks of ice crystals below the hole.