Christmas Sky

Enroute to a wonderful Christmas 2007 dinner with friends, I was stunned to see a rather complex sky with numerous waves.  I've taken to carrying my camera on a regular basis, so I pulled into a cemetery to grab a couple of shots.  The problem was that I could not see all of the sky - oh, is that a good reason to add to may equipment arsenal?  The view above is five "waves" but the series of "waves' extended both to the left and to the right of the photo you see.  My good friend, Tim Coleman, is doing research at UAH on gravity waves in the atmosphere, an absolutely fascinating topic.  In a nutshell, the air acts like a fluid, so just like the waves we see in the ocean, there are waves in the atmosphere - we just can't see them unless the moisture helps out be evaporating or condensing as seen here with the undulation of the air.

-Brian-