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Scientists Name 11 New Cloud Types (nationalgeographic.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-band-name-ideas dept.

The increased use of technology capable of photographing and sharing images has prompted the World Meteorological Organization to add 11 new cloud classifications to their International Cloud Atlas. "A far cry from simple white puffs, these 11 new cloud types roll, dip, and menace their way across the skies," reports National Geographic. From the report: These 11 additions are the first updates that the atlas has received in 30 years, and much of the change can be attributed to citizen scientists who can share and discuss clouds by uploading photos to the Atlas's site. 2017 is the first year that the renowned atlas will be published entirely online, but a hardbound version will follow later this year. Asperitas, Latin for roughness, is the cloud type that has citizen scientists most excited and has been a special victory for the UK-based Cloud Appreciation Society. This photo, first spotted in 2006, captured their attention for its inability to be described by existing cloud types. Marked by small divot-like features that create chaotic ripples across the sky, asperitas were championed by enthusiasts who noticed they did not accurately fall under existing categories. Other clouds that formerly went by more colloquial names, such as the wave-like Kelvin-Helmoltz cloud, and fallstreak holes, will now be recognized with the Latin names fluctus and cavum, respectively. You can watch a time-lapse of the newly classified asperitas here.

28 comments

  1. Dupe! by psergiu · · Score: 2

    https://news.slashdot.org/stor...

    Posted by msmash on 2017-03-23 14:20 from the atlas-revision dept.

    Also previous story was better, had 12 new clouds.

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    1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
    1. Re:Dupe! by weedjams · · Score: 1

      dupe checker with a nuke system would be nice here.

    2. Re:Dupe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's one fewer cloud type because "plutomulus" has been demoted to dwarf cloud.

  2. 11 new cloud types? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But yesterday's /. story said they'd added 12 new cloud types!

    1. Re:11 new cloud types? by Rei · · Score: 1

      Fake gnus!

      --
      Kneel Before Christ!
    2. Re:11 new cloud types? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so we have 24 new cloud types?

      also, "citizen scientists"? is that "scientists without qualifications"?

    3. Re:11 new cloud types? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've looked at clouds from both sides now ... I really don't know clouds at all.

  3. Those aren't clouds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're chemtrails.

  4. Wie viele by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sind lila wolke?

  5. We shall name this cloud... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clouds coming from California shall be named, "bong water."

  6. I will name him George by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him

  7. I don't see an elephant classification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see those clouds all the time.

  8. polymer polymore polyman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no heart no spirit.. cease fire stand down... sing along? https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wmd+weather+media+-martha

  9. Couldn't help but notice by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Cloud scientists have a way to go before they catch up with all of the different genders....

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  10. I am going to start classifying ripples. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2
    I suddenly realize there is a huge lacuna in scientific world. When I am describing the ripples, eddies, whorls and vortices of a babbling brook, I am not able to clearly communicate a vivid description of a particularly interesting eddy using a single term. All these years when the only way we exchanged information quickly was using words we did not feel the need for it. Now that cameras are ubiquitous and images worth 1000 words are easy to capture and easier to share, suddenly I feel the need to be extraordinarily precise in the descriptions.

    So wait for a few days, I will upload the first batch of 100,000 types of named eddies, whirls, whorls, ripples, waves, wavelets...

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:I am going to start classifying ripples. by steelframe · · Score: 1

      I thought you were classifying nipples.... Damn glasses.

    2. Re:I am going to start classifying ripples. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      Might have been done already, in scholarly articles in the Am. Journal of Cosmetic Surgery.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    3. Re:I am going to start classifying ripples. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know what you mean. All the fluid dynamics researchers that I've met just want to use mathematical concepts like Reynolds numbers, curl vectors, gradient fields, velocity fields, advection and Eigenvalues. That really doesn't convey the high amounts of information I am trying to define, like the twirling twistiness, convoluted corkscrewedness and swirling spiralicity. Maybe there is some mathematics out there, but words seemed to be better.

    4. Re:I am going to start classifying ripples. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know that this is joking and all... but it's true. Back at the beginning of the last Century, German Ethnologists were traveling the World classifying people by their physical traits- size and shape of skulls, of noses, of ears, of cheeks and chins and shinbones. There was an ulterior motive of course; these were Germans after all, and Germans were superior in all traits. This did not end well.
      But one particular paper on Nipples was the subject of some considerable debate and amusement especially in the Popular Press, where the word itself was forbidden. This faded after a decade or so, until Brian Aldiss brought up the absurdity of it all in his paper "Nipples As An Index Of Character", and published it in an obscure journal out of Singapore. It has been out of print for a long time, but I do have a copy of a copy, made on a mimeograph machine, and fading into the blue.
      Aldiss may be considered today mostly as a writer of some fairly decent SF, but his lasting value, implicitly as with Burgess and Huxley, and explicitly as with Orwell, is in Lexical Phylogeny, especially in the currently fashionable studies of Semiotics.
      "NAAIOC" deals with the understanding of words as they develop in the minds of Children. If the word "Nipple" is forbidden, what words, especially those that are near homonyms, convey the same meaning? One example given is "Narciso Yepes" and variations thereoff. An example in my own words: "Those are some socking great Narciso Yepes you've got there!"
      I'm still being serious. The above is all true.
      In the late Sixties, "NAAIOC" started getting passed around, usually copies of copies, among those writing for TV and the Cinema. "Nipples" or sly variations on them started appearing in scripts for "Beyond the Fringe" and the BBC and the like. It got to be a staple punchline for jokes that appeared beyond saving: "...and then aunt Edna turned around and said "Nipples!"" Those nice chaps working for Monty Python were delighted.

      And I'm still being serious: While not making a living smashing Atoms, I've been collecting obscure words. One example is "Dollymop". I first heard it from an old Norwegian, meaning the messily tying off of Ropes, not Lines, on a Bollard or Dolly. It is one of the older Nautical terms still extent; the word "Doll" meaning a small toy figurine of a woman, and later the term of endearment for a woman herself, came directly out of it nearly a century later, with "-mop" referring to untidy hair.

      Most recently, I've been studying "Danica" or "Danika", the meaning and pronunciation going back well over two thousand years. A "Danica" is the Morning Star, commonly known in English as "Venus". But whereas the deification of this carries many names in many places, the word or similar words for the Planet itself spread all across Europe and right through the Middle East. About the time of the rise of Islam, a "Danika", (Greek spelling), a single star to the upper left on a Flag, became a symbol to pre-literate peoples, of Islamic Revolution. It was adapted for the Russian Revolution on its Flags, and was even used in California for its "Lone Star Republic" a few years before Texas stole the concept for its "Lone Star State". You will still find a "Danica", (Roman spelling), on the California State Flag to this day.
      About a Century back, "Danika", (Greek again), became a symbol of emerging Feminism, especially in Slavic countries. And this is about the time it became associated with a name for Girls exclusively. Here is what I've written up on adoption elsewhere:
      "It's Danika in languages derived from the Greek, Danica in those derived from Latin, Danika in Greco-Turkish and Greco-Hebrew, Denica in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Poland and Spain, Daanika in the Scandinavian and Germanic, Danka in Croation, Jitrenka in Czech, Zornick in Slovak and Zornjaca in Bosnian. It's a pretty basic Indo-European name. The most likely origin was Proto-Balto-Slavic, possibly centered roughly where Belarus is now, sometime in the Bronze Age. The exact where and why "Danika" came to

  11. I've looked at clouds from both sides now ... by thadtheman · · Score: 1

    From up and down and still somehow

    It's cloud's illusions I recall

    I really don't know clouds at all

    1. Re:I've looked at clouds from both sides now ... by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

      Is that you, Judy Collins?

  12. Whew, I misunderstood the title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cringed when I thought some scientist came up with 11 more buzzwords for the "cloud" architecture.

  13. Twelve types by PPH · · Score: 1

    In Washington state we have dank clouds.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  14. Nibiru Chemtrails ... I thought slashdotters were by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had hoped to see many comments describing the intense chemtrailing that is occurring in a feeble attempt to hide Nibiru.

    Instead, I see full-on acceptance of this BS cover story of new cloud types.

    Come on sheeple, WakeUp!

  15. The first time I saw an article about cloud names. by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    I rolled my eyes becaus I thought they were talking about cloud computing and swiped it out. Articles on cloud computing and motherboard hard ware really do get kinda old. News vs. advertising. If I can't do something without the internet, then I just don't bother. I'll find an open source desktop (no php, ruby, etc.) version and make it work or build my own.

  16. Next VW model names.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Volkswagon uses cloud and jetstream names for their vehicles.... Surely we'll be seeing these as new models next to the Jetta/Golf/etc....