Lenticular clouds

vyv_cox

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Here's one I photographed in Corsica.
P1000886.jpg

They typically form downwind of mountains in moderate to fresh breezes.
 

jimbaerselman

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Those are "wave" clouds, lenticulars formed at the top of standing wave (often called clear air turbulance by power pilots). Orographic, unless I've forgotten my gliding met, forms on hills.

Well, to be pedantic, he asked for an explanation. Orography (hills) lift an air mass, which then drops on the lee side (and sometimes bounces further on, creating waves). As it rises, some upper air may drop below its dew point to form a cloud, only for the cloud to dissipate as the air mass drops again.

And yes, that's a standing wave. A particular form of orographic lift which occurs in stable air masses (in unstable air masses it would form cumulus clouds).
 

GrahamM376

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And yes, that's a standing wave. A particular form of orographic lift which occurs in stable air masses (in unstable air masses it would form cumulus clouds).

Hadn't realised lenticulars were also orographic, in gliding terms they were treated as separate things. Flying from a hill site, it was somewhat unnerving to find orographic settling on the hill below and having sometimes to pick a small Derbyshire field bounded by drystone walls, to land in.
 
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