Cauliflower You Can't EatEmily PrenticeAward: Top 100
School: kentucky country day school This is a photograph that I took while in a plane soaring over Georgia. These massive, cauliflower looking clouds are a real, natural example of atmospheric thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, called Cumulonimbus Calvus clouds, deriving from Latin, with cumulus meaning "heap" or "pile", and nimbus meaning "rainstorm" or "cloud", because of their strong ability to bring lightning and hail. The physics of this cloud is fascinating because of its turbulent air dynamics in the sky. Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat to work energy transformations within the Earth's atmosphere, ruling natural processes like cloud formation, convection, and climate. How are these clouds formed? Cumulonimbus calvus clouds form through intense & rapid convection of moist and unstable air, marking the transitional stage between the smaller, cumulus congestus, and the towering, mature stage of cumulonimbus incus. Although these cumulonimbus calvus clouds are very similar to the regular wellknown cumulonimbus clouds that have an anvil shape at the top, cumulonimbus calvus clouds are often called the "bald" clouds due to their rounded top. These clouds also have fluid dynamics working on them, because inside of their updraft structure, they drive intense upward air currents, up to 45 m/s. With these fluid dynamics, they reach a transition to maturity. As the top of the cloud reaches the tropopause and cools, their massive vertical momentum stalls, and causes the top to flatten, initiating the fully mature stages of strong downdrafts. Cumulonimbus calvus clouds serve as the bald bridge between tower growth and electrical maturity. 
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