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A cloud is a visible mass of condensed water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above Earth's (or another planetary body's) surface.
The condensing water vapor forms small droplets of water (typically 0.01 mm [1]) or ice crystals that, when surrounded with billions of other droplets or crystals, are visible as clouds. Clouds reflect all visible wavelengths of light equally and are thus white, but they can appear grey or even black if they are so thick or dense that sunlight cannot pass through.
Clouds on other planets often consist of material other than water, depending on local atmospheric conditions (what gases are present, and the temperature).
Clouds form in areas where moist air cools, generally by rising. This can happen
The actual form of cloud created depends on the strength of the uplift and on air stability. In unstable conditions convection dominates, creating vertically developed clouds. Stable air produces horizontally homogeneous clouds. Frontal uplift creates various cloud forms depending on the composition of the front ( ana-type or kata-type warm or cold front). Orographic uplift also creates variable cloud forms depending on air stability, although cap cloud and wave cloud s are specific to orographic cloud s.
Cloud properties (mostly, their albedo and rain-out rate) are strongly dependent on the size of the cloud droplets and the manner in which these particles coalesce. This is in turn affected by the number of cloud condensation nuclei present in the air. Because of this dependence, and lack of global climatological observations, clouds are difficult to parametrise in climate modelClimate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes: from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system, to projections of future climate.s and a bone of contention within the global warmingGlobal warming is an increase over time of the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Global warming theories attempt to account for the documented rise in average global temperatures since the late 19th century and assess the extent to whi debate. Condensation of steam in liquid water or ice happen initially around some kinds of micro-particles of solid matter called hub of condensation or freezing. At this stage the particles are still very small and collisions and aggregation can’t be the principal factors of growth. What happens is called the “Bergeron principle”. This mechanism stands on the partial pression of ice saturationThe term saturation can refer to the following: In chemistry, saturation has a number of meanings. In color theory, saturation refers to the intensity of a specific hue. Saturation is also a coordinate in the HSV color space. See also: hue. An atmospheric being lower than liquid water, which means that in a midst where coexist ice crystals and droplets of water supercoolSupercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without its becoming solid. A liquid below its melting point will crystallize in the presence of a seed crystal or nucleus around which a crystal structure can form. However, lacki.
Clouds are divided into two general categories: layered and convective. These are named stratus cloudA Stratus cloud is a cloud belonging to a class characterized by horizontal layering with a uniform base, as opposed to convective clouds that are as tall or taller than wide (these are termed Cumulus clouds). More specifically, the term Stratus (abbrevias (or stratiform, the Latin stratus means layer) and cumulus clouds (or cumiloform, cumulus means piled up). These two cloud types are divided into four more groups that distinguish the cloud's altitude. Clouds are classified by the cloud base height, not the cloud top.
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![[1]](http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~joel/g110_w03/chapt06/cloud_drops/agburt_06_01.jpg){kind=link}