An atmospheric lake is a long-lived moisture-rich pool of slow moving water vapor.
Currently, such pools are only known to exist over the western equatorial Indian Ocean (WEIO).
[1][2][3] Atmospheric lakes are formed when streams of water vapor separate from the South Asian monsoons to become isolated objects.
[2] They move slowly as they exist in regions that lack strong winds.
Atmospheric lakes that occur away from the equator sometimes become tropical cyclones.