Fascinating moonrise during an atmospheric inversion

After a bleak low stratus day, I decided to escape from the fog in the evening of the 13th of January 2009. I drove to the nearby Witthoh (Hegaualb, western Lake Constance, Southern Germany). There I wanted to record the rise of the moon – at least I hoped for a clinched moonrise, because of a prevailing atmospheric inversion.

Along the 860-metre-high Witthoh there was still a temperature of -10 degree centigrade. Two kilometers further away and 100 m higher the temperature was just 0 degree centigrade. Consequently, a very remarkable temperature layer existed in this region.
On the pre-calculated time, the moon’s upper margin pushed over the horizon.
What happened afterwards exceeded my boldest dreams. A “bubbling” of the rising moon followed as I had never seen it before.

Three times, approximately half of the rising moon completely detached from the lower half with red lightning.

The moon “boiled” on the upper half and it let vanish red and green rays upwards.

Only after circa 15 minutes, the moon calmed down completely.

Here is one more link of the moonrise as animated GIF file!

Posted by Harald Wochner

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