Clouds

Clouds are great big visible masses of tiny water droplets or ice crystals. There are four major groups of clouds: High Clouds, Middle Clouds, Low Clouds, Vertical Clouds.

High clouds: These will form between 3,000 and 8,000 m (10,000 and 25,000 ft) in the polar regions. They will form at 5,000 and 12,000 m (16,500 and 40,000 ft) in the temperate regions. They will form at 6,000 and 18,000 m (20,000 and 60,000 ft) in the tropical regions. There are three different types of high clouds:

Cirrocumulus

-Cirrocumulus (Cc): the term cirrocumulus actually refers to one cloud, but it is typically used to refer to an entire blanket of cirrocumulus. The single unit is referred to as a 'cloudlet'. These appear as large, white patches or tufts without a gray shadow. One 'cloudlet' usually appears no larger than a finger held at arms length.

Cirrus

-Cirrus (Ci): a cirrus cloud is easily recognisable by its appearance. It is thin, wisp like, kind of looking like long thin strands of hair. The wind is very strong and the strands of cloud often take on the shape of wind's direction.

Cirrostratus

-Cirrostratus (Cs): these are thin, very hard to recognise clouds. They usually form halos around the sun, and when they do appear visibly, they are whitish in colour, without any other distinguishing features.

Middle Clouds: middle clouds form at 2,000 m (6,500 ft) but can form at up to 8,000 m (25,000 ft) depending on the region. Nimbostratus clouds are sometimes included with the middle clouds but are officially a part of the low clouds.

Altostratus

-Altostratus (As): this is generally a uniform gray sheet across the sky, slightly lighter in color than nimbostratus and slightly darker than cirrostratus. They usually cover the whole sky and the sun can be seen shining through them.

Altocumulus

-Altocumulus (Ac): this cloud appears as rolls, or balls all in a patch. They are usually white or gray, and can vary from wavy forms, to rounded forms, to roll-like forms.

Low Clouds: These are found up to 2,000 m (6,500 ft) and include the stratus clouds (dense and grey). When a stratus cloud comes into contact with the ground, it turns into fog.

Cumulus

-Cumulus cloud (Cu): Cumulus means "heap" or "pile" in Latin. These appear as fluffs of wool, and the edges are defined, i.e. you know where the cloud begins and where it ends. These are the most commonly known clouds.

Stratocumulus

-Stratocumulus cloud (Sc): This cloud can be regarded as lots of Cumulus clouds only all mushed and lumped together. This is a very big cloud, and low hanging.

Nimbostratus

-Nimbostratus cloud (Ns): this is a formless cloud which is dark grey in colour. Its name comes from the Latin 'Nimbus' meaning rain. It has a smooth grey appearance.

Stratus

-Stratus cloud (St): these are flat, featureless, hazy, clouds. They hang at low altitudes, and colour varies from dark gray to almost white. Weather described as 'cloudy' usually means a sky filled with stratus clouds, without being able the see the sun.

I will not be going into Vertical Clouds, but they are basically clouds which have a strong current driving them up. Some sorts of Cumulus clouds are a part of this group.

Did you know clouds are not exclusive to planet Earth, some moons and planets in our solar system also have different clouds of their own?

Images: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cirrocumulus_to_Altocumulus.JPG, http://www.uvm.edu/~inquiryb/webquest/fa07/efilipek/Journey.html, http://www.biocrawler.com/w/images/archive/3/3b/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AltostratusClouds.jpg, http://cl0uds.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/14/, http://discoverscience.rutgers.edu/extras/weatherwise/clouds.html, http://www.raincalendar.com/2009/07/05/stratocumulus-clouds/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nimbostratus_before_thunderstorm.jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stratus-Opacus-Uniformis.jpg

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