Arctic sea smoke(frost smoke) Fog that appears in very cold air from the Arctic ice or frozen-land regions, when it comes over the warmer water of open parts of the Arctic Ocean. The rapid heating induces convection currents which rise in the air: these carry moisture upwards from the water surface, and this becomes visible as the moisture quickly condenses again in the very cold surrounding air. Thus a fog of rising columns of condensing water vapour is formed. The fog is usually fairly shallow, wispy, and smoke-like. This, and its common occurrence in coastal seas around cold land masses (e.g. Labrador, Greenland, and Norway), gave rise to the name. Similar steam fogs may be seen in winter over the open water of rivers when the air is 10°C or more colder than the water.

arctic sea smoke (frost smoke) Fog appearing in very cold air from the arctic-ice or frozen-land regions, when it comes over the warmer water of open parts of the Arctic Ocean. The rapid heating induces convection currents which rise in the air: these carry moisture upwards from the water surface, and this becomes visible as the moisture quickly condenses again in the very cold surrounding air. Thus a fog of rising columns of condensing water vapour is formed. The fog is usually fairly shallow, wispy, and smoke like. This, and its common occurrence in coastal seas around cold land masses (e.g. Labrador, Greenland, and Norway), gave rise to the name. Similar steam fogs may be seen in winter over the open water of rivers when the air is 10°C or more colder than the water.