The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. Most of the mass (about 75-80%) of the atmosphere is in the troposphere. Most types of clouds are found in the troposphere, and almost all weather occurs within this layer.
Are clouds only found on Earth?
There are clouds on other planets, but Earth is the only planet in our solar system with clouds made almost entirely of water (or ice). Strictly speaking, clouds are collections of particles that are suspended in a gas and are visible — they do not have to be water, though on Earth they generally are.
Can a cloud fall?
Clouds consist of tiny water droplets (or ice crystals) and, like all objects, they do fall, but at a very slow rate. Cloud droplets remain suspended in the atmosphere because they exist in an environment of gently rising air that overcomes the downward force of gravity.
Can you touch a cloud?
Well, the simple answer is yes, but we will get into it. Clouds look like they would be fluffy and fun to play in, but they are actually made of trillions “cloud droplets”. … Nonetheless, if you were to be able to touch a cloud, it wouldn’t really feel like anything, just a little wet.
What clouds bring rain?
The prefix “nimbo-” or the suffix “-nimbus” are low-level clouds that have their bases below 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above the Earth. Clouds that produce rain and snow fall into this category. (“Nimbus” comes from the Latin word for “rain.”) Two examples are the nimbostratus or cumulonimbus clouds.
What are the 10 clouds called?
The foundation consists of 10 major cloud types. In addition to cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds, there are cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus, and cumulonimbus clouds.
Why are clouds white?
Clouds are white because light from the Sun is white. … But in a cloud, sunlight is scattered by much larger water droplets. These scatter all colours almost equally meaning that the sunlight continues to remain white and so making the clouds appear white against the background of the blue sky.
Why are there no clouds in the sky?
Even when it is very warm and sunny, there might not be any clouds and the sky is a clear blue. The usual reason for the absence of clouds will be the type of pressure, with the area being under the influence of a high pressure or anticyclone. Air would be sinking slowly, rather than rising and cooling.
Why do clouds float?
FLOATING CLOUDS.
The water and ice particles in the clouds we see are simply too small to feel the effects of gravity. As a result, clouds appear to float on air. Clouds are composed primarily of small water droplets and, if it’s cold enough, ice crystals. … So the particles continue to float with the surrounding air.
What holds clouds together?
In other words, cold air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air. Invisible particles in the air in the form of pollution, smoke, dust or even tiny particles of dirt help form a nucleus on which the water molecules can attach. When these droplets come together, they form a cloud.
Why are clouds dark at night?
The tiny water droplets and ice crystals in clouds are just the right size to scatter all colors of light, compared with the smaller molecules of air that scatter blue light most effectively. … As their thickness increases, the bottoms of clouds look darker but still scatter all colors. We perceive this as gray.
Why the sky is blue?
The scattering caused by these tiny air molecules (known as Rayleigh scattering) increases as the wavelength of light decreases. Violet and blue light have the shortest wavelengths and red light has the longest. Therefore, blue light is scattered more than red light and the sky appears blue during the day.
What is the rarest cloud?
Kelvin Helmholtz Waves are perhaps the rarest cloud formation of all. Rumored to be the inspiration for Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Starry Night”, they are incredibly distinctive. They are mainly associated with cirrus, altocumulus, and stratus clouds over 5,000m.
How heavy is a cloud?
A typical cloud has a volume of around 1km3 and a density of around 1.003kg per m3 – about 0.4 per cent lower than that of the surrounding air, which is why they float. So cranking through the maths, that means that a typical cloud weighs around a million tonnes.
How many clouds are there on Earth?
According to the World Meteorological Organization’s International Cloud Atlas, more than 100 types of clouds exist. The many variations, however, can be grouped into one of 10 basic types depending on their general shape and height in the sky.
How long does a cloud last?
The average lifespan of a cumulus cloud is less than one hour, after which it either turns to a cumulonimbus cloud or tends to disintegrate.
What is the wettest place on the earth?
The quiet, sleepy, yet mesmerising village of Mawsynram trounced Cherrapunji to become the wettest place in the world. Mawsynram receives over 10,000 millimetres of rain in a year.
Why are some clouds black?
Clouds are made up of tiny water droplets that reflect the sunlight. … As clouds build vertically and get thicker, such as a cumulonimbus cloud, less light can pass through the cloud. This will give it a darker appearance. This is also the reason why the bottom of clouds sometimes appear darker than the top.
How do clouds disappear?
The three primary ways that clouds dissipate is by (1) the temperature increasing, (2) the cloud mixing with drier air, or (3) the air sinking within the cloud. When the temperature increases, the air has a higher capacity to evaporate liquid water. … Some environmental air does mix into the cloud mass.
Are clouds hot or cold?
Clouds consist of microscopic droplets of liquid water (warm clouds), tiny crystals of ice (cold clouds), or both (mixed phase clouds). Cloud droplets initially form by the condensation of water vapor onto condensation nuclei when the supersaturation of air exceeds a critical value according to Köhler theory.
Can you touch a rainbow?
In short, you can touch someone else’s rainbow, but not your own. A rainbow is light reflecting and refracting off water particles in the air, such as rain or mist. … However, it is possible to touch the water particles and refracted light (if you agree that you can touch light) of a rainbow that someone else is viewing.
What are black clouds?
For decades medical residents have put themselves into two camps: “black clouds” and “white clouds.” Black-cloud residents carry with them the bad luck of consistently getting a patient load that requires more work; the perceived workload intensity and stress may keep them pacing the halls at night, while their white- …