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Asperitas, a rough, wave-like underside to a layer of cloud, was added to the World Meteorological Organization's International Cloud Atlas in 2017. Amateurs got it there: the Cloud Appreciation Society collected its members' photographs of the pattern and campaigned for its recognition.

International Cloud Atlas, 2017

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The story behind the card

The International Cloud Atlas is the official reference that weather services around the world use to name and classify clouds. The 2017 edition was its first full revision in about 30 years, and asperitas, Latin for 'roughness', was one of its new supplementary features: a detail that can appear on several kinds of cloud rather than a cloud type of its own. Despite its menacing look, it does not usually bring severe weather itself. The Cloud Appreciation Society was founded in January 2005 by the British writer Gavin Pretor-Pinney to celebrate clouds for their own sake and now has more than 60,000 members in about 120 countries. It is a rare case of amateur observers shaping the official vocabulary of meteorology.

Türkçe oku
Bulut tabanının çalkantılı bir deniz gibi dalgalandığı görünüme asperitas denir ve 2017'de Dünya Meteoroloji Örgütü'nün Uluslararası Bulut Atlası'na eklendi. Atlasa girmesini amatörler sağladı: Bulut meraklılarının kurduğu Cloud Appreciation Society, üyelerinin çektiği fotoğrafları toplayıp bu görünümün tanınması için uğraştı.
Uluslararası Bulut Atlası, 2017

Uluslararası Bulut Atlası, dünyanın dört bir yanındaki meteoroloji kurumlarının bulutları adlandırırken ve sınıflandırırken başvurduğu resmî kaynaktır. 2017 baskısı, atlasın yaklaşık 30 yıl sonra baştan sona yenilenmiş ilk baskısıydı. Latincede “pürüzlülük” anlamına gelen asperitas da bu baskıda eklenen yeni “tamamlayıcı özellikler”den biri oldu; yani kendi başına bir bulut türü değil, farklı bulut türlerinde görülebilen bir ayrıntı. Ürkütücü görüntüsüne karşın genellikle şiddetli bir hava olayı getirmez. Cloud Appreciation Society, İngiliz yazar Gavin Pretor-Pinney tarafından Ocak 2005'te, bulutları yalnızca güzellikleri için sevenleri bir araya getirmek amacıyla kuruldu; bugün yaklaşık 120 ülkede 60.000'i aşkın üyesi var. Amatör gözlemcilerin meteorolojinin resmî diline katkı yaptığı ender örneklerden biri.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Asperitas (cloud)
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