 Map of Australia, the Gulf of Carpentaria can be found in northern Australia
 Satellite photo of a morning glory cloud over the Gulf of Carpentaria The Morning Glory cloud is a rare meteorological phenomena observed in Northern Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria. A Morning Glory cloud is a roll cloud that can be up to 1000 kilometers long, 1 to 2 kilometers high, and can move at speeds up to 40 kilometers per hour. The morning glory is often accompanied by sudden wind squalls, intense low-level wind shear, a rapid increase in the vertical displacement of air parcels, and a sharp pressure jump at the surface. In the front of the cloud, there is strong vertical motion that transports air up through the cloud and creates the rolling appearance, while the air in the middle and rear of the cloud becomes turbulent and sinks. The cloud can also be described as a solitary wave or a soliton, which is a wave that has a single crest and moves without changing speed or shape. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
A meteorological phenomenon is a weather event which can be explained by the principles of meteorology. ...
The term northern Australia is generally considered to include the Australian states and territories of Queensland and the Northern Territory. ...
The Gulf of Carpentaria from a 1859 Dutch map The Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and Indonesia). ...
A roll cloud is a low, horizontal tube-shaped arcus cloud associated with a thunderstorm gust front (or sometimes with a cold front). ...
Cirrus uncinus ice crystal plumes showing high level wind shear, with changes in wind speed and direction. ...
A solitary wave is a special sort of solution of a non-linear partial differential equation. ...
In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a self-reinforcing solitary wave (a wave packet or pulse) that maintains its shape while it travels at constant speed; solitons are caused by a delicate balance between nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium. ...
Causes
Despite being studied extensively, the Morning Glory cloud is not clearly understood. Regardless of the complexity behind the nature of this atmospheric phenomenon, some conclusions have been made about the causes of the cloud. Through research, one of the main causes of most Morning Glory occurrences are due to the mesoscale circulations associated with sea breezes that develop over the peninsula and the gulf. On the large scale, Morning Glories are usually associated with frontal systems crossing central Australia and high pressure in northern Australia. Locals have noted that conditions ripe for the formation of the Morning Glory is for high humidity in the area, which provides moisture for the cloud to form and for strong sea breeze winds to be blowing the day before.
Scenario for formation The following is a summary of the conditions that cause the Morning Glory cloud to form in the Gulf of Carpentaria. First, Cape York which is the peninsula that lies to the east of the gulf is large enough that sea breezes develop on both sides. The breeze from the Coral Sea coast blows in from the east and the breeze from the gulf blows in from the west. The two breezes meet in the middle of the peninsula and forces the air to rise there and a line of clouds form over the spine of the peninsula. When night comes, the air cools and descends and at the same time a surface inversion forms over the gulf (where the air as you go up in height becomes warmer rather than cooler). The densities in this stable layer are different above and below the inversion. The air descending from the peninsula to the east goes underneath the inversion layer and generates a wave or series of waves and travels across the gulf like ripples in a lake. The air rises in the front of the wave and sinks in the rear. In the early morning, the air is saturated enough so that the rising air in the front produces a cloud, which forms the leading edge of the wave, and evaporates in the back... hence forming the Morning Glory cloud. The cloud lasts until the surface inversion is burned off by the heating of the day. This scenario describes the most common way in which the Morning Glory cloud forms. There are other ways in which they form, especially in rarer cases in other parts of the world, but these are far less understood. Categories: Australia geography stubs | Peninsulas | Headlands ...
The best vantage point to see Australia's Morning Glory is from Burketown in the remote Far North Queensland around September and October. Towns in this part of the world are small and a long way apart, and Burketown has an influx of glider and hang-glider pilots at this time of year.
Similar spectacular Morning Glory type roll clouds have also been reported to occasionally happen off the Mexican coast in the Sea of Cortez. The phenomenon has also been observed from Sable Island, a small Canadian island located 180 km southeast of Nova Scotia. In contrast to Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria where the Morning Glory cloud is visible in the morning, the cloud has a predilection to hit the island in the early evening. The Gulf of California (highlighted) The Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez or Sea of Cortés; locally known in the Spanish language as Mar de Cortés or, much less frequently, Golfo de California) is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula...
Sable Island from space, April 1994. ...
Motto: Munit Haec et Altera Vincit(Latin) One defends and the other conquers Capital Halifax Largest city Halifax Regional Municipality Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Mayann E. Francis - Premier Rodney MacDonald (PC) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 11 - Senate seats 10 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area...
References - Menhofer A, Smith RK, Reeder MJ, Christie DR (1997) “Morning-Glory” Disturbances and the Environment in which They Propagate. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 54, No. 13 pp. 1712–1725
- Smith, Deborah. The Sydney Morning Herald: Morning Glory lures scientists to ride cloud nine.
- http://www.austms.org.au/Jobs/Library1.html
- http://www.abc.net.au/northcoast/stories/s1012973.htm
- http://www.meteo.physik.uni-muenchen.de/~roger/Tropics/Tropclds-o.htm
External links |
Feeds |
Contact