Interesting Facts About Clouds: Which Planet Apart From Earth Has Clouds?

The skies have often been a constant source of real fascination for humans. One typical mass which everyone on the planet has seen in one form or another are clouds.
In meteorology, a cloud is described as an aerosol consist of a visible mass of frozen crystals or liquid droplets, both of which are made of water or other various chemicals. The particles or droplets are suspended in the atmosphere beyond the surface of the planetary body.
On Earth, clouds are usually formed by the saturation of air that covers the homosphere (that includes the stratosphere, troposphere, and mesosphere) when the air gains water vapor or cools. The science of clouds is nephology that is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorology.
The types of cloud in the troposphere, the atmospheric layer nearest to the surface of the Earth, have some Latin names due to the widespread adaptation of the nomenclature of Luke Howard.
It was officially proposed in December 1802 and eventually published for the first time the succeeding year. It became the origin of a modern international system which classifies these tropospheric aerosols into 5 physical forms; stratocumuliform, stratiform, cumuliform, cirriform, and cumulonimbiform.
The majority of these forms can be found in the low, middle, and high altitude levels or stages of the troposphere, even though cirriform clouds only happen in the high altitude range. The étages and forms are cross-classified to create 10 basic genera or genus-types.
A cloud genus can thus be defined as any physical form which is specific to a ceratin étage, or simultaneously to over one étage if the genus-type has substantial vertical extent. Many genera can be divided into species which are usually subdivided into other varieties where applicable.
epic cloudsClouds which form higher up in the mesosphere and stratosphere have common names for their major types but are also sub-classified alpha-numerically rather than using an elaborate system of Latin names provided to cloud kinds in the troposphere.
They’re relatively unusual and are majorly seen in the polar regions of the Earth. Clouds have been seen on moons and other planets within the Solar System, but, because of their different temperature characteristics, they’re usually composed of other substances like sulfuric acid, ammonia, and methane as well as water.
Genus kinds are normally divided into subtypes known as species which indicate particular structural details that can differ based on the wind shear and stability characteristics of the atmosphere at given location and time.
Despite this hierarchy, a specific species may be a subtype of over one genus, specifically if the genera are of the similar physical form and are distinguished from every other mainly by stage or altitude. Some species can even be genera’s subtypes belonging to over one physical form.
The species kinds are generally grouped depending on the general, and physical forms with that each is often associated. The genera, species, and forms the of the clouds are listed in an approximate ascending order of convective activity or instability.
Polar mesospheric clouds are usually the highest in the atmosphere and form close to the top of the mesosphere at approximately 10 times the altitude of tropospheric high-clouds. From ground level, they can infrequently be seen especially when illuminated by the sun during intense twilight.
Ongoing research reveals that convective lift in the mesosphere is sufficiently strong during the polar summer to create an adiabatic cooling of the low amount of water vapor to the point of saturation.
This seems to produce the coldest temperatures in the whole atmosphere just under the menopause. These conditions will result in the right environment for the formation of polar mesospheric clouds.
Also, there’s evidence that smoke particles from any burnt-up meteors offer much of the condensation nuclei needed for the formation of noctilucent cloud.
They can appear in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Their different formations have been studied by several meteorologists for centuries. Clouds will either comprise of water droplets or ice based on the temperature of the atmosphere and the height of the cloud. Since the droplets are tiny, they can stay in liquid form in temperatures as low as -300 C. In fact, very high clouds at temperatures below -30°C comprises ice crystals.
Clouds Formation-Epic Clouds
Five factors can lead to air rising and cooling, and eventually clouds forming:
1. Surface heating-This when the foundation is heated by the sun that heats the air in contact with it resulting in its rise. The rising volumes are usually called thermals. Surface heating seems to produce cumulus clouds.
2. Orographic or topography forcing-the topography of an area can cause clouds to be formed. When air is only forced to rise over a barrier of hills or mountains it cools as it rises. Layered clouds are usually produced this way.
3. Frontal-Clouds which are formed when a mass of warm air rises over a mass of dense, cold air vast areas along fronts. A ‘front’ is the boundary between moist. Warm air and the drier, cold air.
4. Convergence-streams of air flowing from various directions is forced to rise where they converge or flow together. This can result in the formation of cumulus cloud and showery conditions.
5. Turbulence-A sudden variation in wind direction with height creating turbulent eddies in the atmosphere.
The variable nature of the atmosphere and the multiple ways in which clouds can be formed results in a wide variety of size, shapes, and textures of clouds.

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