Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Is the photo of the fogged-in Grand Canyon real?

Asks A. Madrigal at the Atlantic, then answers, "yes."


The light is above the clouds and reflecting on the edges of the rock making the edge look Photoshopped.

Mother Nature Network confirms it is real. Yes, and it is rare too. The rangers speaking from their own magnificient fiefdom, snort the unappreciative visiting plebes are disappointed because the usual view of the canyon is obscured on the one the day of their visit, but if they understood how rare the meteorological event is how incredible it is they would be properly awestruck for the wonders of nature, as the rangers are themselves. 
"We are currently experiencing an after Thanksgiving treat," said Erin Whittaker, a park ranger who witnessed and captured these photos. "No, it's not more pumpkin pie. It's a once in a lifetime, outstanding, crazy, amazing, mind blowing inversion. "
They talk like that. But what is an inversion? That's when you turn something upside down, right?


Wikipedia:
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to a "temperature inversion", i.e., an increase in temperature with height, or to the layer ("inversion layer") within which such an increase occurs. 
An inversion can lead to pollution such as smog being trapped close to the ground, with possible adverse effects on health. An inversion can also suppress convection by acting as a "cap". If this cap is broken for any of several reasons, convection of any moisture present can then erupt into violent thunderstorms. Temperature inversion can notoriously result in freezing rain in cold climates.

8 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I went looking up to see if kids were being named after this event... you know... Inversion Coleman, or something like that.

I found Uterine Inversion instead.

Uterine inversion is a serious but rare complication of childbirth in which the uterus literally turns inside out after the baby is delivered. When this happens, the top of the uterus (the fundus) comes through the cervix or even completely outside the vagina. It occurs in about 1 in 3,000 births.

Viceversion...

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Inside Out

Speaking of Fog...

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There is neighborhood.. well I don't know if it a real neighborhood. A section of Washington DC called Foggy Bottom.

Foggy Bottom is one of the oldest late 18th and 19th-century neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. The area is thought to have received the name because its riverside location made it susceptible to concentrations of fog and industrial smoke, an atmospheric trait that did not prevent the neighborhood from becoming the original location of the United States Naval Observatory.

Ah, ok.

Synova said...

We sometimes drive down into the fog on our way into town. It's not the same as being above the clouds, but it's the same effect.

Synova said...

Smoke doesn't rise from chimneys here either, it goes straight down. I've never seen a day when people with wood fires going had the smoke trailing upward from the house.

It's weird.

JAL said...

Really awesome pictures.

The Grand Canyon is mind blowing to start with --

AllenS said...

If you can't see the bottom, it's just a canyon.

bagoh20 said...

I'd demand a refund. Bait and switch.