Image: Flow Visualization - A Course in the Physics and Art of Fluid Flow
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2006 Gallery - Clouds 2
Clouds represent a fabulous form of flow visualization that is available to everybody, almost every day. Clouds can reveal a tremendous amount about the flows and physics of the atmosphere.
Instructions for the cloud assignment: Photograph a cloud. In fact, photograph clouds as often as possible. You will soon discover that it is not easy to do but that it is a very pleasant diversion from everything else that you do. Do keep track of where, when, and how the image was made. A report is required. Seek atmospheric sounding data and discuss the physics revealed. Exceptional images made prior to this course are acceptable; document them as best you can.
The most famous "cloud" photographs were made in black and white by the legendary early twentieth century New York art dealer, photographer, and husband of Georgia O'Keefe, Alfred Steiglitz. He called them "equivalents" and considered them to be music. Sunrise and sunset are sometimes quite colorful or even extraordinary, but difficult to picture in a satisfying way. During the day, individual clouds can be extremely interesting. In the course of this assignment you will discover what the English writer and amateur photographer George Bernard Shaw once said about the photographer: "The photographer is like the cod (fish) who lays a million eggs so that one may hatch." So, keep looking up and keep pressing the button. And, if you have access to an extreme wide angle lens as well as a telephoto lens, use them as needed and as often as possible. Clouds require that you think outside the box.
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Chris Ostoich

Dawn, 4/4/2006, over Boulder, CO, with cirrus radiatus and altostratus duplicatus.

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Molly Selting

Sunset, 4/15/06, Boulder CO. Stable conditions create a foehn cloud wall with mountain wave cumulus.

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Chris Bonilha

3/30/06, 5 pm, Pueblo, CO. Cirrocumulus stratiformis with some altocumulus.

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Chris McCray

Noon, 4/18/06, near Denver, CO. Cumulus medeocris.

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Mike Demmons

Lok Kin Lee

3:30 pm, 4/12/06, Boulder, CO. Mountain wave altocumulus.

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Dustin Scaplo

4/18/06, Boulder CO. Foehn cloud wall.
Tim Read

5 pm, 1/30/06, Bouder, CO.Altocumulus lenticularis in a vertically propagating mountain wave. A foehn cloud wall is on the left.

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Taylor Simonson

5:20 pm, 4/18/06, Boulder, CO. Cumulus humilis.

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Tyler Harrison

8/12/06, 7pm, west of Boulder, CO. Stratocumulus.

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Andrea Fabri

February, 2006, 4 pm. Mountain wave cloud: altocumulus lenticularis.

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Geneva Wilkesanders

4 pm, 1/4/06, Portal Point, Antartica. Stratocumulus cloud street, possibly orographic in origin.

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Grant Bovee

7 am, 2/25/06. Eldorado Canyon, CO. Stratus and fog.

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James Palmer

11 am, 2/14/06, Boulder, CO. Cirrus ucinus and cirrostratus.

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Hwapyong Ko

4 pm, 4/18/06. Foehn cloud wall forms over the Rockies to the west of Boulder, CO.

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Tanner Ladtkow

11 am, 3/30/06, Superior, CO. Altocumulus congestus, with cirrus stratiformis above.

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Chris Kuhn

6 pm, 4/11/2004, Sonoran desert near Tucson, AZ. Stratocumulus.

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Christopher Skallerud

5pm, 4/1/06, 100 miles east of Denver. Stratocumulus.

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Ryan Mansfield

6 am, 4/14/06, Boulder, CO. Lenticular altocumulus undulates.

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Jacob Lilevjen

1 pm, 4/1/06, near Las Vegas, NV. Fair weather cumulus.

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Melissa Talmage

1:30 pm, 1/30/06, Boulder, CO. Altocumulus lenticularis, mirrored and 'liquified' digitally.

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Nigel Gorbold

7 pm, 4/13/06, Boulder, CO. Altocumulus perlucidus clouds.

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