Mysterious spherical cloud caught on camera in Japan
A strange, circular cloud captured on camera in Japan has lead many to question the wonders of Mother Nature.
The photo of the cloud, which looks like a cotton ball, appeared last weekend on the Twitter feed belonging to user @pmxpvrtmx. The cloud was originally spotted hanging over the city of Fujisawa, which is located 50 kilometres south of Tokyo.
The photographer, only known as Poppy, said she snapped the shot just moments before the unusual cloud lost its odd shape and disappeared.
@luc_eat_eis そうなんですよね。多分見やすいように修正をしたのではないかと思います。
元の画像がこれです、と3枚出していたうちの1枚がこれです。多分3枚を1枚にしてアップするのに加工ソフトを使ったのではないかと思います。紛らわしいですが（笑）。 pic.twitter.com/ByruhCvcO0— poppy (@pmxpvrtmx) December 6, 2016
The woman told RocketNews24 that she took the photo from her vehicle and did not edit the image.
“When I looked out of the car window I saw a round ball-shaped cloud. I gazed at the cloud for a while then I rushed to take the photo,” she told RocketNews24 in an online article last updated last Wednesday. “When I saw the cloud it was an even more spherical shape, so I regret not taking the photo more quickly.”
A similarly shaped cloud was snapped a year earlier, also in Japan.
16:00頃の郡山市安積上空の怪しい球体の雲
気味が悪い( ノД`)#イマソラ pic.twitter.com/LQmoVNbxHA— nico (@NicoSpqy9ba9) November 21, 2015
Social media users wondered what could cause such a strange phenomenon, with theories ranging from tornadoes to rare roll clouds.
Todd Lane, an atmospheric scientist from the University in Melbourne, told ScienceAlert that he suspects the photographer managed to capture the image of a regular cloud from a good angle.
“The photographer was lucky to be in the right place to capture an interesting image of what is likely an uninteresting cloud,” he said in an article published on Dec. 12. “It looks to me to be some form of cumulus fractus cloud.”
Cumulus fractus clouds are low hanging cloud fragments, which have broken off from other clouds.
Whatever it is, it’s a pretty cool sight to spot in the sky.
