Lenticular clouds

Many people have ever mistaken a cloud for a UFO. Everyone who has seen these types of clouds They have thought that nature is laughing at the existence of life outside of our planet. However, this is not so. These formations in the sky are due to the existence of lenticular clouds. They are a type of cloud that has the shape of a saucer or converging lens that usually appears in mountainous areas.

In this article we are going to tell you what these lenticular clouds are and how they are formed. If you are curious and want to unravel these mysteries, this is your post 

What are lenticular clouds?

As we said, They are a type of clouds that have a saucer or UFO shape and that appears in mountain areas. Already the fact that it appears only in mountain places can give us clues of the training conditions that it needs to appear like this. They are clouds that form in the troposphere, that is, in the lowest of the layers of the atmosphere.

The characteristics of this cloud are those of altocumulus. Unlike normal Altocumulus, it is a stationary and lenticular type (called by scientists altocumulus lenticularis). It can also take the forms of stationary lenticular cirrocumulus or stationary lenticular stratocumulus. These formations depend on the environmental and atmospheric conditions such as the wind regime, the atmospheric pressure, the humidity or temperatures there is at that time.

The most characteristic aspect of these clouds is that they create impressive landscapes and have been mistaken for UFO sightings on numerous occasions. Furthermore, their formation resembles other atmospheric phenomena such as orographic clouds and altocumulus.

Training process

So that we can clear up all the unknowns about the exceptional rarity of these clouds, we are going to explain the origin of their formation. As we have said before, it needs various atmospheric and environmental conditions to occur. The first thing is a relatively strong upwind flow and encountering a reversal in the atmosphere. These conditions are more likely to occur in mountain areas, where the air, once it collides with the rock formations, is forced to ascend.

Mountains are mechanical obstacles to the flow of air in the atmosphere and thanks to them some events such as the Foëhn effect. When traveling through the air in an upward direction and with a thermal inversion, turbulences are generated that are classified as mechanical turbulence. The air finally reaches the top with much lower temperature than it was on or near the surface.

As the air continues to rise higher and higher in the atmosphere, the temperature continues to drop due to the temperature inversion. If the air that has risen along the mountain is humid, that is, laden with water droplets, the humidity condenses as the temperature decreases at altitude, as it reaches the dew point. As the rising air condenses, we find the formation of a cloud mass that grows to the top of the mountain and that, when they encounter the thermal inversion, lenticular clouds will form. This formation is related to other types of clouds such as and is part of the study of the formation of lenticular clouds.

Necessary conditions for their training

Surely you are thinking that there is always a thermal inversion and that, as we are ascending in altitude, it is colder. Therefore, lenticular clouds should always form. It is true that, in general, the upper layers of the atmosphere are colder than the lower ones. These lower ones are fed by the heat that is released from the ground when the solar radiation on the earth's surface.

But this need not always be the case. There are times when the ground is colder due to a decrease in the amount of sunlight that hits a surface or even the color of said surface (remember that darker colors absorb heat and whites reflect it. it is called albedo). In the case where the ground is colder, the ground itself can absorb all the heat from the surrounding air, making the lower layers of air are at a higher temperature than the upper ones. It is in this situation that we find the thermal inversion.

The areas that have thermal inversion are usually stable over time, so that the air, when trying to climb the mountainside, will be displacing the upper warm air that will go down again creating stationary areas that they trap condensed moisture and give the cloud a lenticular shape. This is why these clouds resemble UFOs and have been mistaken for them numerous times. To better understand their formation, it's fascinating to explore other types of clouds.

Why avoid flying near lenticular clouds?

It has always been said that flight pilots try to avoid flying in the areas near lenticular clouds at all costs. Let's see why this happens. As lenticular clouds form when the wind is strong and comes loaded with moisture, the ascent up the mountain and the condensation as you go up is quite fast. Having a high stationary layer of thermal inversion makes the wind circulate for a long time in an upward position.

Formations of these clouds can also be found when two opposing air masses collide and cause the hottest part to rise and cold air takes on the role of mechanical obstacle. The reason pilots don't want to fly in these areas is because the winds associated with these clouds are very strong and upward-moving, which can seriously disrupt the flight. This characteristic is also linked to other meteorological phenomena that can impact the flight.

On the other hand, this type of wind is highly sought after for flights that don't use an engine, as the air currents are used to glide better and maintain flight for longer. Interestingly, the world record for non-engine flight it has been achieved thanks to the air currents that give rise to lenticular clouds.