Rising Tide Images
Riding the Lift
With two meters of high aspect ratio wingspan, a Laysan albatross rides the orographic lift adjacent to a sea cliff. At sea it will have an oscillating glide path as it rises on orographic lift off wave faces then gravity accelerates into the wave troughs to efficiently glide for thousands of miles across the Pacific. Mōlī (Phoebastria immutabilis) spend many solitary months and thousands of nomadic miles at sea only returning to land to nest.
Riding the Lift
With two meters of high aspect ratio wingspan, a Laysan albatross rides the orographic lift adjacent to a sea cliff. At sea it will have an oscillating glide path as it rises on orographic lift off wave faces then gravity accelerates into the wave troughs to efficiently glide for thousands of miles across the Pacific. Mōlī (Phoebastria immutabilis) spend many solitary months and thousands of nomadic miles at sea only returning to land to nest.