Wave cloud

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Wave cloud pattern as seen from below in southern Algeria.

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.

This climatology/meteorology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.