Cloud

Stratocumulus stratiformis cumulogenitus

In meteorology, a cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made ofwater or
various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of aplanetary body. These suspended
particles are also known as aerosols and are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology.
Terrestrial cloud formation is the result of air in Earth's atmosphere becoming saturated due to either or
both of two processes; cooling of the air and adding water vapor. With sufficient
saturation, precipitation will fall to the surface; an exception isvirga, which evaporates before reaching the
surface.
Clouds in the troposphere, the atmospheric layer closest to Earth's surface, have Latinnames due to the
universal adaptation of Luke Howard's nomenclature. It was introduced in December 1802 and became
the basis of a modern international system that classifies these tropospheric aerosols into several
physical forms or categories, then cross-classifies them into familiesof low-, middle- and high-
tage according to cloud-base altitude range above Earth's surface. Clouds with significant verticalextent
occupying more than one tage are often considered a separate family. One physical form shows free-
convective upward growth into low or vertical heaps of cumulus. Other forms appear as non-convective
layered sheets like low stratus, and as limited-convective rolls or ripples as with stratocumulus. Both of
these layered forms have middle- and high-tage variants identified respectively by the prefixes alto-
and cirro-. Thin fibrous wisps of cirrus are a physical form found only at high altitudes of the tropopshere.
In the case of clouds with vertical extent, prefixes are used whenever necessary to express variations or
complexities in their physical structures. These include cumulo- for complex highly convective
vertical nimbusstorm clouds, and nimbo- for thick stratiform layers with sufficient vertical depth to produce
moderate to heavy precipitation. This process of cross-classification produces ten basic genus-types
or genera, most of which can be subdivided into speciesand varieties. Synoptic surface weather
observations use code numbers to record and report any type of tropospheric cloud visible at scheduled
observation times based on its height and physical appearance.
While a majority of clouds form in Earth's troposphere, there are occasions when they can be observed at
much higher altitudes in the stratosphere and mesosphere. Clouds that form above the troposphere have
common names for their main types, but are sub-classified alpha-numerically rather than with the
elaborate system of Latin names given to cloud types in the troposphere. These three main atmospheric
layers that can produce clouds, along with the lowest part of the cloudlessthermosphere, are collectively
known as the homosphere. Above this lies the heterosphere (which includes the rest of the thermosphere
and the exosphere) that marks the transition to outer space. Clouds have been observed on
other planets andmoons within the Solar System, but, due to their different temperature characteristics,
they are often composed of other substances such as methane, ammonia, and sulfuric acid as well as
water.