100 likes | 448 Views
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
E N D
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