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Clouds. Veronika Hamšíková Lucie Vydrová. What are clouds?. Clouds are water Either small liquid water drops or tiny pieces of ice. How are clouds formed?. Clouds form when the air rises
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Clouds Veronika Hamšíková Lucie Vydrová
What are clouds? • Clouds are water • Either small liquid water drops or tiny pieces of ice
How are clouds formed? • Clouds form when the air rises • As a blob of air rises it expands and gets colder, the colder air can´t hold as much water as warmer air • As the temperature and air pressure continue to drop, tiny water droplets group together into clumps called cloud droplets • At this point, the blob of air becomes a visible cloud • If the cloud keeps going up, the cloud droplets will clump together and form water droplets • These water droplets are too heavy to float in the air and they fall from the sky as either rain or snow
Types of clouds • Clouds are classified into a system that uses Latin words to describe the appearance of clouds as seen by an observer on the ground • The three basic cloud types are: Cirrus, Stratus, and Cumulus • Nearly every cloud can be classified by these groupings
High-Level Clouds • High-level clouds form above 6 km • These clouds are primarily composed of ice crystals (because of cold temperatures) • High-level clouds are typically thin and white in appearance, but can appear in a great array of colors when the sun is low on the horizon • This type includes: cirrus and cirrostratus
Mid-Level Clouds • The bases of mid-level clouds typically appear between 2 – 6 km • Because of their lower altitudes, they are composed primarily of water droplets, however, they can also be composed of ice crystals when temperatures are cold enough • This type includes: altocumulus and altostratus
Low-Level Clouds • Low clouds are of mostly composed of water droplets since their bases generally lie below 2 km • However, when temperatures are cold enough, these clouds may also contain ice particles and snow • This type includes: nimbostratus and stratocumulus
Clouds with Vertical Development • Probably the most familiar of the classified clouds is the cumulus cloud • These clouds can grow to heights in excess of 12 km releasing incredible amounts of energy through the condensation of water vapor • This type includes: fair weather cumulus and cumulonimbus
Something to remember • Droplet – kapička • Blob – kapka, kulička • Clump – shluk • Heap – hromada, kupa • Appear – jevit se • Altitude – nadmořská výška • Excess – přemíra, nadměrnost