Astonished Wyoming sky-watchers managed to document a one-in-a-million moment. Photographers captured unique and stunning cloud formations that resembled ocean waves.
Above Sheridan's Bighorn Mountain crest, the mesmerizing view was visible on Tuesday. This formation is called Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. It develops as a quicker airstream passes over rising air from below. The flutter clouds are another name for it.
Wyoming-Based Photographers Shared Stunning Wave Clouds Across State
Rachel Gordon uploaded the pictures to the Facebook group Wyoming Through the Lens. Other photographers also contributed to the group with several images of the clouds.
"I think everyone should see this beautiful phenomenon," Gordon wrote in the group (per The Washington Post).
Environments with upper-level strong winds and rising channels of instability of the surface are characteristics of Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. Strong winds above force the instability channel over as it ascends, churning and generating eddies in the process.
Orographic lift, a phenomenon associated with the Bighorn Mountains, has played a role in this situation. As the sun warmed the ground and climbed into the much colder air above, some pockets of instability may have formed.
The waves appear to be moving southward along the spine of the Bighorn Mountains in a time-lapse film of the event.
The wave train on Tuesday night was large enough for weather satellites in orbit to see it!
Van Gogh-Inspired Clouds
According to Matt Taylor of BBC Weather (per BBC News), the images are among the most magnificent and epic displays of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds he has ever seen.
Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, according to Taylor, are gorgeous because they vividly display the flexibility of the environment.
Taylor said how the atmosphere moves and reacts to its surroundings, is much like ocean waves do. In essence, the air is ascending and collapsing upon itself.
Scientists Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, who investigated the physics underlying the phenomena, gave the cloud formation their names.
Other fluids on Earth and in space, besides the atmosphere, also exhibit Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
These wave clouds in the atmosphere are ubiquitous, especially close to mountain tops, however they usually only last a short while. Pure cases are uncommon.
According to the UK-based Cloud Appreciation Society, these formations are the pinnacle of many cloud spotters' collections.
They are also referred to as fluctus clouds, and are thought to have served as an inspiration for Van Gogh's painting Starry Night.
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