These delicate streams of Altocumulus stratiformis radiatus clouds spreading over a vast checkerboard of cultivated fields around Wichita, Kansas, US were spotted by instruments aboard NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite.

Two crisp holes puncture the Altocumulus like moth holes in a blanket. They’re cloud features known as a cavum, meaning a ‘hollow’ or ‘cavity’. A cavum looks like a circular or oval hole punched out from a mid-level cloud like Altocumulus, often with feathery wisps appearing to fall from it. 

Sometimes known as fallstreak holes or hole-punch clouds, cavum often appear near airports. That’s because they can form as aircraft pass through the cloud layer, the cooling around their wings causing its supercooled liquid droplets to freeze and fall below. Cavum are like the sky’s equivalent of sinkholes.