9 Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz Clouds
Here is a photograph of another Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud, however you may notice that this wave starts off small and gradually becomes larger and less defined.
As mentioned earlier, this is because layers of air form these clouds, however they just as easily destroy them too. But how did this strange cloud formation get its name? This type of cloud was first described in the late nineteenth century by Scottish physicist Baron Kelvin (1824-1907 and German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-94). The title of the cloud combines both men’s last names, linking back to the cloud’s origins.
Many of us have most likely never seen this type of cloud before, but there is an understandable explanation for this. Weather experts claim that there is usually “insufficient moisture present to generate cloud and render the pattern visible”. These clouds do occur commonly in the upper troposphere, however these often remain invisible to the human eye.
