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A vapor cone ( shock collar, or shock egg, also known as a Mach diamond ) is a visible cloud of Condensation water that can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air, such as an aircraft flying at Transonic. When the localized air pressure around the object drops, so does the air temperature. If the temperature drops below the dew point, a cloud forms.
In the case of aircraft, the cloud is caused by expansion fans decreasing the air pressure, density, and temperature below the dew point. Then pressure, density, and temperature suddenly increase across the shock wave associated with a return to subsonic flow behind the aircraft. Since the local Mach number is not uniform over the aircraft due to factors such as wind, parts of the aircraft may be supersonic while others remain subsonic as air moves at different speeds across different surfaces of the aircraft—a flight regime called transonic flight.
In addition to making the shock waves themselves visible, water condensation can also occur in the trough between two crests of the shock waves produced by the passing of the object. However, this effect does not necessarily coincide with the acceleration of an aircraft through the speed of sound or Mach number.
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