Post on 12-Sep-2021
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LECTURE 6, Clouds31JAN05
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,And still, somehow, I don’t know clouds at all.
Judy Collins
I downloaded these pictures from the following siteshttp://www.cloudman.com/http://www.atmos.washington.edu/atlas/Houze/http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/
Please don’t use them for anything but teaching meteorology at FIUMET 3003, Spring, 2005
How do clouds form?
• Buoyant updrafts in a conditionally unstable atmosphere
• Forced lifting of moist, stable air due to passing weather systems
• Forced lifting as air passes over mountains• Cooling by contact with a cold surface• Mixing of parcels with different temperatures• Adiabatic expansion in tornadoes and waterspouts
How do we classify clouds?
• Cumulus (heaps, puffy, vertical development , water or ice)
• Stratus (Layers, low-level, mostly water)• Alto (-cumulus or -stratus, middle level, water or
ice)• Cirrus (wisps, streaks, high-level, always ice)• Nimbus (raining or snowing)
Proposed by Luke Howard (1803)
Cloud Levels (Etages)
0-2km0-2km0-2kmLow
(St, Sc,Ns)
2-4 km2-7km2-8kmMiddle(As,Ac)
4-8 km5-13 km6-18kmHigh
(Ci,Cs,Cc
PolarTemperateTropicsEtage
Clouds of V
ertical Developm
ent
Cumulus
Stratus
2
Altostratus
Altocumulus
CirrusCumulonimbus
Sea Fog Stratus & Fog
3
Stratus
Stratus
Nimbostratus
Nimbostratus
Stratocumulus
Stratocumulus
4
Stratocumulus Stratocumulus
Stratus & Stratocumulus Altostratus
Altostratus
Altocumulus
5
AltocumulusAltocumulus
Cirrus & Stratocumulus Cirrus
Halos
Cirrostratus
6
Cirrocumulus
Cirrocumulus
Fair Weather Cumulus Towering Cumulus
Cumulus Congestus Entrainment
7
Cumulus Congestus Cumulonimbus
CumulonimbusCumulonimbus &
Pileus
Cb Forming Anvil Various Cumuli
8
CU Growth abcd CU Growth egfh
Orographic CloudsLenticular Clouds
Air-mass convectionCumulonimbus &
Pileus
9
FINISFINIS
For more images, visit the FIU on-line Cloud Atlas:http://www.ihrc.fiu.edu/academic_research/courses/hew/cloud_atlas/FIU_Cloud_Atlas_04.html