Operation Cloud Lab: 5 lessons learned from BBC Two series including the average weight of clouds

Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about clouds a team a scientists show you right up


Tonight on BBC Two, a team of scientists will take to the skies in one of the world's largest airships - to look at clouds.

The team investigates how the atmosphere changes with altitude and the impact this has on the life found there, with Chris van Tulleken and Andy Torbet searching for living micro-organisms at 26,000ft.

Flying coast to coast across the United States, the team have been exploring clouds, with expedition leader and meteorologist Felicity Aston examines how clouds capture and store liquid water in the skies with an ambitious experiment to try and weigh a cloud.

So what have we learned?

  1. Clouds shift around 1.4 trillion tonnes of water from the oceans to inland each and every day - which is rather a lot.
  2. The average cloud - which is around a kilometer cubed - weighs as much as 100 elephants, but still remains floating in the atmosphere.
  3. A typical cumulus cloud - similar to the one Andy measures - generates enough heat energy to power the average home for 17 years.
  4. Bacteria are more effective at seeding rain than other, well-known cloud seeding agents such as dust.
  5. Microbiologist Dr Chris Van Tulleken has discovered that living bacteria can exist well above 10,000ft in a hostile environment with low pressure, increased UV radiation, freezing temperatures, high winds and no oxygen or water.

* Operation Cloud Lab is on BBC Two tonight at 8pm


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