Three different evolutions of the column density as a function of time over several orbits for i = 90° (top panel), i = 45° (middle panel) and i = 0° (bottom panel) – and different clump radii, orbital separations, periods and β exponent.The dashed green line is the corresponding smooth wind column density profile. The top profile displays eclipses due to the high inclination. The insets show zoomed in portions of the curves where the numerical time sampling of the column density, 3 × 10⁴ times per orbital period, is visible. The origin of time is set at inferior conjunction (i.e., t = 0 at ϕ = 0.5).