Horizontal convective rolls

Horizontal convective rolls
Horizontal convective rolls producing cloud streets (lower left portion of the image) over the Bering Sea.
Simple schematic of the production of cloud streets by horizontal convective rolls.
Lines of clouds streets stretch from north-west to south-east in this natural-colour satellite view of New England.

Horizontal convective rolls, also known as horizontal roll vortices or cloud streets, are long rolls of counter-rotating air that are oriented approximately parallel to the ground in the planetary boundary layer. Although horizontal convective rolls, also known as cloud streets, have been clearly seen in satellite photographs for the last 30 years, their development is poorly understood, due to a lack of observational data. From the ground, they appear as rows of cumulus or cumulus-type clouds aligned parallel to the low-level wind. Research has shown these eddies to be significant to the vertical transport of momentum, heat, moisture, and air pollutants within the boundary layer.[1] Cloud streets are usually more or less straight; rarely, cloud streets assume paisley patterns when the wind driving the clouds encounters an obstacle. Those cloud formations are known as von Kármán vortex streets.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Etl93 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).