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Today on Photon Phriday,

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we answer the question, do mountains
wear hats?

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This pass that we're looking
at is over Mt.

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Rainier in western Washington, which is
the largest of the Cascade volcanoes.

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It's also known as Tahoma
or Tacoma to the local Salish people.

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On clear windy days Mt.

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Rainier has a cloud form on top of it,

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as moist air is forced up,
passing over the mountain.

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And as it goes up, the air
cools, condenses, and forms the cloud.

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This particular type of cloud
is called a lenticular cloud.

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And they can look like disks or UFOs.

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And they form a cloud hat.

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ICESat-2 is providing a wealth of data
for glaciologists here in Washington.

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We can take looks at our glaciers
that form on these volcanoes.

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And we can see how they change
as we get more and more repeat passes.

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This is one of the few occasions
where we have ice,

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cloud and land detected by satellite.

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So we did it!