Adapted from Vergeiner and Lilly 4).

These waves do occur in the actual stratosphere on the leeward side of mountains. This graph shows the waves formed by a westerly crossing the Rocky Mountains. 4) (Note that the vertical scale has been magnified 10 times.) In the same fashion as the waves in our experiment, you can also see here that a characteristic of these waves is that they lean toward the mountain as if to cover it. Accompanying these waves, ascending and descending currents occur, and if gliders and birds make the most of these drafts, they can gain a great deal of height. However, it can be dangerous if an airplane unknowingly stumbles on to one of these waves. Also, the occurrence of these waves also means that strong winds blow on the leeward side of the mountain, sometimes causing damage.