Context: NASA’s Terra satellite captured a cluster of cavum clouds over the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s west coast.

About the Cavum Clouds

• These clouds appear as if a large circle or ellipse has been neatly cut from the clouds, leaving feathery wisps in the middle of the hole.
• They are also known as hole-punch clouds or fallstreak holes.
• These are a testament to the intricate and dynamic processes that occur in our atmosphere.

Formation:

• Cavum clouds are formed when aeroplanes fly through banks of altocumulus clouds, mid-level clouds that contain supercooled water droplets.
• As air moves around the plane, a process called adiabatic expansion can make the droplets freeze into ice crystals.
• The ice crystals eventually grow heavy and fall out of the sky, leaving a hole in the cloud layer.
• The falling ice crystals are visible in the centre of the holes as wispy trails of precipitation that never reach the ground – features called virga.