Sharman, R. (2010). Ship waves in the atmosphere. In McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology, 2010 (pp. 340-342). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Waves in the atmosphere and oceans can have a wide variety of configurations and propagation characteristics, but one of the most distinctive is the so-called atmospheric ship-wave pattern that is commonly observed in the lee (downwind side) of flow over and around isolated obstacles. An example ... Show moreWaves in the atmosphere and oceans can have a wide variety of configurations and propagation characteristics, but one of the most distinctive is the so-called atmospheric ship-wave pattern that is commonly observed in the lee (downwind side) of flow over and around isolated obstacles. An example of several atmospheric ship waves in a high-resolution visible satellite image is shown in Fig. 1. These waves were generated by air flow over the South Sandwich Island chain in the South Atlantic, which extends roughly 240 mi (400 km) in the north–south direction. The same general structure of the lee wave pattern behind each island is obvious; each pattern is confined to a wedge or V-shaped region, with maximum amplitudes near the legs of the V with little attenuation downstream. Show less
