Cloud road

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Simplified scheme

As clouds street is called the appearance of bands like arranged cumulus clouds . Convective, vertical air movements are influenced by the wind, so that the updraft and downdraft fields spread along the wind direction as vortices with a horizontal axis. If there is sufficient humidity , lines of cumulus clouds form above the updraft fields, the cloud streets. The same updraft and downdraft structure can arise in dry air even without cloud formation. Due to the lower friction losses at the edges, the updrafts in lines are usually stronger than individual updrafts.

Since cloud roads have a constant updraft field , they offer ideal conditions for high-speed flights with paragliders , hang-gliders or gliders . In weather conditions with individual updraft sources, circles must be flown in the updraft, while in the downdraft it is flown straight ahead. Several kilometers, sometimes even hundreds of kilometers, can be covered in or against the wind direction almost straight under a cloud road. Since no breaks are required for circling, the average speed is usually significantly higher.

literature

  • Siegfried Raasch: Numerical simulation for the development of vortex rolls and convective boundary layer in cold air outbreaks over the sea

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