Rare 'portal to heaven' cloud observed in Turkey

Hurriyet Daily News
Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:00 UTC

Strange 'portal to heaven' cloud over Turkey

A rare cloud formation in western Turkey has gone viral on social media, dubbed "a portal to heaven."

A cloud over the Söke district of the Aydın province initially appeared as a ring on the evening of March 10. As the sun began to set, the circumference of the ring grew larger and the lower rim of the cloud approached the horizon.

Söke resident Yasin Toköz filmed the moment and shared it on social media, which led some Twitter users to liken the natural formation to supernatural phenomena.

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus, often an image or sound, being perceived as significant.

Comment: In recent months other strange cloud formations have been observed, from Australia to the United States. Some bizarre clouds, such as this one in Australia have a recognizable cause, this one being a Fallstreak Hole. Other factors which may contribute to these 'strange skies' are possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

An indicator of this dust loading is the intensification of noctilucent clouds we are observing. As explained in Pierre Lescaudron's book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection:

The increase in noctilucent clouds is one of the effects - among others - of increased dust concentration in the atmosphere in general, and in the upper atmosphere in particular. We suspect that most of this atmospheric dust is of cometary origin, while some of it may be due to the recent increase in volcanic activity.

See also: Chemtrails? Contrails? Strange skies