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Wave cloud

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This wave cloud pattern formed off of the Île Amsterdam (lower left corner, at the "tip" of the triangular formation of lenticular clouds) in the far southern Indian Ocean.
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This wave cloud pattern formed off of the Île Amsterdam (lower left corner, at the "tip" of the triangular formation of lenticular clouds) in the far southern Indian Ocean.

A wave cloud is a type of cloud form created due to the effects of orographic lift. Wave clouds are actually long strings of lenticular clouds, created when an air mass passes over a geographic feature and a standing wave forms downwind. As an air mass travels through the wave it undergoes repeated uplift and descent. In the uplift previously clear air may cool sufficiently for a cloud to form. In the descending part of the wave this cloud will evaporate, leading to the characteristic repeating cloud/clear bands of a wave cloud.

 


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