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Mists and fogs

A good example of the 'cloth' condensation cloud formed in this case by warm breath in cold air. Potentially an explanation for 'cloth' or foggy boggart sightings in the 18th century... — A good example of the ‘cloth’ condensation cloud formed in this case by warm breath in cold air. Potentially an explanation for ‘cloth’ or foggy boggart sightings in the 18th century…

One of the most commonly seen image types on ghost investigation websites and social media is that of the ghostly mist, where these amorphous ‘floating’ mists are claimed to hold shapes, forms and sometimes even faces…

While these images can look somewhat spooky, their origins are usually purely environmental (unless chemical agents are involved, for information on this see the Smoke page), and the reason folk can see faces and such within the mists invariably falls to pareidolia: usually proven by different people seeing subtly different things.

So what is a mist? A mist is formed by the rapid cooling of warm air, which by the process of condensation causes visible water droplets to form.

Historically, before the process was known and understood, simple environmental condensation could well explain some of the allegedly paranormal/supernatural sightings reported – specifics that spring to mind are some of the 16th-18th century descriptions of boggarts and similar, described as amorphous shapes (sometimes described as cloth) rising on roads and in hedgerows in front of travellers – or down by streams and rivers: locations where condensation would be extremely likely in the right environmental conditions.

Condensation

To understand what the camera captures in these cases, we must first understand the process of condensation. Condensation is the name of the process which occurs when the water content of the air around us becomes cold, with the result that the water held in the atmosphere as a gas (water vapour) cools into a liquid.

The level of cooling needed to change the water vapour into its liquid form is called the dew point. When this process occurs, items close to ground level, such as grass and other items are found to have condensed water liquid droplets on them, ie dew. Ground dew is formed when cold air moves over the surface, essentially cooling the water vapour in the air above the warmer ground into its liquid form.

Outdoors, mists can form spontaneously (and naturally) when the dew point is hit, most commonly when the temperature plummets overnight. One example of a natural process associated with this is transpiration, when the water within plants and trees evaporates into the atmosphere and gets cooled by the cold air – forming the fog and mist often seen hanging in the air around forests and fields on a cold night.

Fog/mists are essentially formed near to the ground surface (with clouds forming higher in the atmosphere), with the water vapour cooling into liquid and the droplets being suspended on dust or microscopic airborne particles in the air. This is a very basic definition, with a number of more detailed causes having been identified, but for the purpose of this article, the simple explanation suffices. A fog is deemed to be a dense cloud of these suspended particles where it reduces visibility to 1km or less: a mist is essentially the same phenomenon but less dense and allowing visibility beyond the 1km range.

So why is this relevant to alleged photographs of misty paranormal phenomena?

This purely natural phenomenon often creates misty images identified by some as paranormal. But how? Mostly, it comes down to a lack of knowledge and understanding of how mists form in the air and the process of condensation.

Basically put, the atmosphere around us is constantly in motion, with a number of conflicting air currents, all holding microscopic airborne particles picked up from the surface and other elements (such as pollution). The human body is also a source of projected water vapour, primarily in the form of breath – but also other processes such as flatulence and sweating.

So, a photographer enters a room which is full of cold air – or simply has a cold airstream that moves around – and takes a photograph which produces an anomalous misty image. The most likely explanation is that the mist is caused by the warm breath being expelled as the photographer breathes. The warm breath reacts with the cold air and condenses the water vapour in the breath into liquid droplets, which hang in the air (suspended on airborne particles) until the mist dissipates. As mentioned earlier, its not just breath that can cause this. Flatulence also introduces warm water vapour into the same conditions, and in some cases, as a fart is not only composed of water vapour, a fart cloud can be seen on photographs to hold different colours (usually when photographed with a flash).

Spontaneous mists can form and ebb and flow in a location even when a photographer isn’t nearby, such as a cold blast of air over a warmer damp stone surface, which can cause a spontaneous mist. A classic example of this lies in doorways, windows, basement/cellar entrances and loft hatches.

Case Study: Newcastle upon Tyne, Castle Keep, Galleries

A classic example of airflow, building surfaces and investigator presences causing spontaneous mists to form lies in the galleries of Castle Keep (now simply titled Newcastle Castle), Newcastle upon Tyne. For background in this, I undertook over twenty site investigations at the Keep between 2003 and 2009, either running my own group at the time (Otherworld North East) or as a guest of other teams. I concentrated my efforts on for the most part a study of the building, photography and environmental data collection (temperature and humidity). Humidity is the concentration of water vapour in the air.

The plan below shows a very simplistic view of the incoming airflows affecting the galleries level of the keep, which lie just below the roof (click to see bigger version):

Mist forming as the warmer air rises from the floors below and reacts with the colder air moving through the gallery from the spiral staircases (open to the roof)

Firstly, the roof itself is flat-topped and open to the sky – as such once the sun drops below the horizon the roof cools rapidly, essentially after a short time meaning that the floor levels of the building are warmer than the roof. Warmth rises, which means that as the warmer air from below rises, it meets the colder stone from the ceiling of the galleries, and voila, condensation occurs potentially resulting in a mist in the gallieries, likely hanging near the ceiling level.

Similarly, the galleries have two spiral staircases directly up onto the roof. These staircases draw the cold air down into the keep, which then moves along the corridors. So as the warm air rises through the keep, and meets the cold air moving down the corridors, mists can form near floor level.

For direct airflow/currents themselves, the diagram shows a very simplistic view of the incoming airflow. Airflow will come in from the windows (unless they are airtight sealed), from the balcony areas overlooking the Great Hall and from the two spiral staircases, potentially bringing up warmer air from the floors below, or colder air from the roof above. So look at all of those blue arrows and extrapolate all of the directions in between each opening, then think of the chaotic swirl of airflows running through the galleries, coupled with warmer air rising from below, and colder air from the roof. Now look at the top left hand corner of the galleries plan, and you can see a small stepped alcove in the corner of the galleries. The presence of this windowed alcove against its opposite number in the lower left of the building plan, and the two spiral staircases in the opposite corners means that the alcove is likely the most turbulent area for airflow chaos.

Back to 2006, and on an investigation as a guest of another group I set up a data logger in the alcove. The logger (see chart below) showed that as the hour after the logger was set up progressed, the humidity rose (concentration of the water vapour in the air) as the temperature dropped, but the temperature did not reach dew point. As such no spontaneous mists should have formed due to this. Sure enough, the photographs were clear in the galleries on that night.

Of note is the spike in humidity at the beginning of the frame – this was caused by myself setting the logger going and then a camcorder to film looking from the alcove to the right of the plan towards the spiral staircase at the far side. The photo was taken at 00:34:52 (according to the EXIF data on the original image) with myself leaving the area half a minute later. This can be seen in the humidity stablising at this time before ascending on a gradual scale as the water vapour rose from the warmer air in the floors below to be cooled by the colder air of the roof and air inflow from the spiral staircases.

Of course, when you look at all of these environmental factors its not hard to see that when you then add a group of investigators to the mix, its very easy to create mists from the vapours being expelled from those people. Breath is obviously the most common factor: warm air also rises of course, so warm breath can sometimes rise away from the breather before encountering colder air (such as nearer the ceiling) and then condensing. The fact also is that the temperature and humidity of the breath expelled by people can differ depending on a number of factors such as age and health – as as such, when breath mists for one person, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will also mist for the person next to them. In the galleries of the keep as well, a nice good breath-cloud is also manipulated by all those air currents previously mentioned, which can result in some interesting ‘forms’ and shapes… bringing pareidolia back into the mix.

Notes and conclusions

Question: Can ‘anomalous’ mists in photography be seen as evidence of spirit manifestation?
Observations: Beyond the first simple issue of the existance of spirits and ghosts having not been yet proven (ie, the question would be moot if spirits and ghosts do not actually exist), then other causal factors must first be examined, primarily the environment in which the photographs are taken.
Hypothesis: This images are likely caused by environmental factors or human induced factors rather than the paranormal or supernatural.
Predictions: That mists can be produced on photographs via the environmental process of condensation.
Experiment: Multiple photographs over years in many locations and under different conditions, with tests done on deliberate breathing in front of cameras, and the environment recorded via temperature and humidity measurement.
Analysis and conclusions: The data collected suggests that mists of all sizes and forms can be re-created and formed utilising simple condensation experiments, with the same not forming during periods where dew point was not reached.
Issues: the main issue lies in the question over whether these mists can be seen as evidence of spirit manifestation as there is no proof of the existance of ghosts and spirits, and thus no way of actually recording their presence and so their effect on the environment.

The phenomena in question can be explained by the environmental process of condensation, and can be re-created in the field and also under laboratory conditions. However, as there is no evidence that ghosts and spirits exist, and thus no way of measuring their presence and their effect on the environment, the question over whether anomalous mists on photography can be seen as evidence of a spirit manifestion cannot be answered.

Examples

Examples of the condensation process producing mists