What caused these "shark fins" in the clouds?

[owlice]

The picture below was taken in San Francisco from the Bay Bridge at approximately 6:11 PM on 4/15/10; the picture is one of two sent in by an APOD reader, who would like to know what caused the "shark fins." I reduced the size of this image and trimmed it a bit (cutting out some sky), but those are the only changes I've made to the original image. The other image, not posted here, is a more distance view of the clouds.

As there are still dolphins in the oceans, we know the picture does not depict their departure from our planet. (Just thought I'd get that said before someone else does.)

I haven't a clue why there are shark fins in the sky, of course, so post this hoping that an answer can be found.

SF shark clouds_close_trimmed.jpg (45.27 KiB) Viewed 1280 times

Copyright: Misako Hill

[makc]

As there are still dolphins in the oceans, we know the picture does not depict their departure from our planet. (Just thought I'd get that said before someone else does.)

Have you checked?

[wonderboy]

The best I can come up with is that they are cumulus castellanus which are "tall tower-like formations protruding upwards" (2010 wikipedia). If you look at google images on this link:

Google Images: cumulus castellanus

You can see that there are tower structures in most of the pictures which are roughly the same distance apart as the shark fins. Now I'm assuming that the winds at cloud level were strong which gave the castellanus clouds the fin like appearance by pushing them backwards.

Either that or its a photoshop effort, if it is i'll be extremely angry because I just spent hours trying to find a suitable cloud and explanation.

Either that or its a dragon



Paul





Wikipedia Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cloud_types

[Jose F. Barral]

You are absolutely right ... well ... either that or a dragon ...



No ... Seriously ... the towers are most suitable ..

Best

[wonderboy]

You are absolutely right ... well ... either that or a dragon ...



No ... Seriously ... the towers are most suitable ..

Best

Oh yeeeeaaaahhhhhhhh!


You really mean it? Did I get something right for once?



Paul

[owlice]

I think the blue "shark fins" are blue because they are sky, not clouds. What made the shark-fin-like holes in the clouds? I think these are not towers, but holes. What would "scallop" (or better, "fin" <g>) the clouds like that?

[wonderboy]

I did a lot of research for this, I don't think they are holes.

They may be flopped over towards us casting a shadow over themselves giving the appearance of being gouged out of the cloud. I stand by my research



Paul

[Chris Peterson]

The picture below was taken in San Francisco from the Bay Bridge at approximately 6:11 PM on 4/15/10; the picture is one of two sent in by an APOD reader, who would like to know what caused the "shark fins."

They're called Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. I see them a lot here in the mountains.

[wonderboy]

The picture below was taken in San Francisco from the Bay Bridge at approximately 6:11 PM on 4/15/10; the picture is one of two sent in by an APOD reader, who would like to know what caused the "shark fins."

They're called Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. I see them a lot here in the mountains.

Genius!

I spent hours trying to find that elusive site that told me all about them. Still though my idea (without knowing about Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave clouds) was alright eh?

Its a bit like an equation which is completely wrong but getting marks for the working in my mind.

Then again...... maybe not.

Hats off to you Chris.




Paul.

[owlice]

Wonderboy, a valiant effort; thanks! And wow, Chris, that's great; thank you!

I think the one in the box looks like a marshmallow peep.

peepcloud.JPG (8.76 KiB) Viewed 1236 times

[Amir]

Clouds or Holes then?
(in the the original picture they look more like holes.)
seems like you are a real Cloud Angler Chris!

[Guest]

The picture below was taken in San Francisco from the Bay Bridge at approximately 6:11 PM on 4/15/10; the picture is one of two sent in by an APOD reader, who would like to know what caused the "shark fins."

They're called Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. I see them a lot here in the mountains.

Thank you Chris for solving the mystery! I took the photo and could not believe what I was seeing. I love your photo of Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds.

Misako

[BMAONE23]

Clouds or Holes then?
(in the the original picture they look more like holes.)
seems like you are a real Cloud Angler Chris!

Cloud Angler...likely
Cloudbait(er) definitely

[Chris Peterson]

Thank you Chris for solving the mystery! I took the photo and could not believe what I was seeing. I love your photo of Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds.

Thanks, but it isn't my picture- the image is linked from http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/env/clouds/.