Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds near the Croatian coast

I am still brewing on some new post ideas, but until then let me share this picture I took a few years ago. I saw these weird clouds on a road trip through the geographical region of the Balkans in Europe. I was quick enough to capture these wave-like clouds because after a few minutes they already dissipated. At first I didn't think too much about it. Air is also just a fluïdum like water so it was nothing more that a funny encounter when I saw a cloud shaped like waves. It was only when I recently stumbled across an article related to it that I looked at this picture again

Apparently this is something called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. A relatively common occurrence when there is a velocity difference across the surface between two moving fluids. They can occur practically anywhere but only when a cloud is on the right time at the right place, the instability gets clearly visible. Not only can this occur in the atmosphere, the instability has also been observed in the earth's magnetic field for example.

Simulation of the magnetic bubble around earth as solar wind flows by. Credits to S. Kavosi, J. Raeder and UNH. Found at nasa.gov/...

After browsing the many pictures in existence of clouds with the phenomenon my photo did not look that impressive anymore, but I'm still happy I got to see it. From now on I'll probably always have one eye on the sky for some strange phenomenon

Hopefully you liked this small intermezzo. As already mentioned I have some fun new posts in my mind and I hope I will soon find the time to work on them.

Thanks for reading and stay curious!