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High-contrast time lapse video stock footage available at Sometimes mistaken for UFOs, this type of cloud is known as a “Lenticular“ cloud (Altostratus lenticularis) and is formed when moist air from lower altitude is “bounced“ (deflected) up into cooler, lower-pressure layers of the troposphere by terrestrial objects such as mountain ranges. Just like the ripples and rapids in a stream or river caused by rocks and other obstacles, air also behaves similarly as it flows over large terrestial features such as mountain ranges. Unlike water, air is invisible most of the time, unless we are lucky enough to see its motion with the presence of clouds. As the air ascends the invisible “rapid“ into cooler atmosphere with lower pressure, the moisture and particulates in it condense into a visible cloud. Conversely, that consensed moisture evaporates back into invisible water vapor as it descends on the downwind side of the rapid. Just like in water
