Sky Waves NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of an interesting striped sky over the Indi

Sky Waves NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of an interesting striped sky over the Indian Ocean. The pattern seen here is the result of ‘mountain wave’ clouds, which form when clouds pass over a raised landform. The landform in this instance is the remote destination of Amsterdam Island, a volcanic island formed around 300,000 years ago, with a peak of 867 metres (2,844 feet) above sea level. The high peaks on Amsterdam Island can interrupt the air passing overhead, pushing some of the air up into the atmosphere. This rising air is cooled, and subsequently clouds are formed through condensation. However, the rest of the air, which was not forced to rise, remains warm and too low in the atmosphere for cloud formation. These clouds tend to be stationary, and will hang around until another weather pattern of mass of air breaks up the party. The result of this continual, but intermittent, rising of air is a ripple-like pattern that resembles ocean waves.-Jean Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory -- source link

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