Sunset Side Show

[AlanLichty]

I was looking around for an amazing sunset last night but got foiled once again by the pesky marine layer out along the horizon - or so I thought. I landed my drone and was just getting ready to fold up the arms when I spotted a higher layer of clouds that suddenly lit up with some nice oranges and reds so I set the drone back down and sent it back up to grab this four panel panorama at 28mm looking south over Vancouver Lake. Best viewed on a wide monitor at full size.

C&C always welcome.

 

[Michael13]

Awesome capture!

The different cloud layers seem to be moving in opposite directions across the frame.

 

[AlanLichty]

Awesome capture!

The different cloud layers seem to be moving in opposite directions across the frame.

Thanks Michael - my impression was the same as yours with two different cloud layers and each with their own direction of travel. The top later with the color here had only barely been visible during most of the sunset and only lit up after the light and color had almost entirely gone dark in the lower layer. There was no color at all 90º to the right of this view where the sun had set a little earlier.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Because of the Coriolis effect, the direction of wind flow changes (slightly to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere)
as you ascend in the atmosphere. The term for this phenomenon is the Ekman Spiral. As a result, the wind direction aloft will eventually be at 180 degrees to the movement at ground level.

 

[AlanLichty]

Because of the Coriolis effect, the direction of wind flow changes (slightly to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere)
as you ascend in the atmosphere. The term for this phenomenon is the Ekman Spiral. As a result, the wind direction aloft will eventually be at 180 degrees to the movement at ground level.

Thanks for filling in the blanks Doug! I see this a lot up here but never had a name for the atmospheric conditions that led to it

 

[Jeffrey]

Well done!

 

[JimFox]

"Curses, foiled again" I think that's from the old Batman tv show?

You still got a really nice show. Sometimes subtle can be as interesting as nuclear.

 

[JimFox]

Because of the Coriolis effect, the direction of wind flow changes (slightly to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere)
as you ascend in the atmosphere. The term for this phenomenon is the Ekman Spiral. As a result, the wind direction aloft will eventually be at 180 degrees to the movement at ground level.

I love the explanation Doug! This is one of a million reasons why we miss you.

 

[AlanLichty]

Well done!

Thanks Jeffrey!

"Curses, foiled again" I think that's from the old Batman tv show?

You still got a really nice show. Sometimes subtle can be as interesting as nuclear.

Thanks Jim - not certain of the origins for that one but your theory sounds plausible. I liked this sideshow better than the main event to the west that fizzled out

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice light and color. While the wide pano shows the clouds across the frame, the right side of the frame is another composition.