Punching holes in the sky
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - 10:02
in Astronomy & Space
Scientists, photographers and amateur cloud watchers have been looking up with wonderment and puzzlement at "hole punch" clouds for decades. Giant, open spaces appear in otherwise continuous cloud cover, presenting beautiful shapes but also an opportunity for scientific investigation. A new paper published last week in Science inquires into how the holes get punched airplanes are the culprit and into the potential for the phenomenon's link to increased precipitation around major airports.