Dean's World

Next thing you know some moonbat will say Nostradamus predicted this.

"...accumulate and sometimes even hold condensed vapor..."

They don't, actually.

The vapor you see is just behind the shockwave, and the pressure drop immediately behind the shock compression results in a temperature drop. If the local dewpoint is at or above that temperature, you'll see the vapor cloud.

As soon as the temperature rises again above the dewpoint (as the pressure drop zone moves past, the cloud disappears.

The aircraft isn't accumulating a cloud, the cloud is just running as fast as it can, keeping up with the jet.

Still nifty.

Or, okay, as I think about it, if the vapor is being constantly accumulated and dissipated, a more fair thing to say is that it's the halo phenomenon, not the mist itself, that's being "carried."