4 Widespread Misconceptions About Clouds Clarified

There are teachable moments in all places. Through the intermission of a live performance Sunday night time, I stumbled upon a dialog on social media about clouds. As I learn by means of the feedback, I believed it will be helpful as a NASA scientist and Atmospheric Sciences Professor on the College of Georgia for me to drift this text on the market to make clear 4 widespread misconceptions I’ve heard through the years.

There Are Extra Than 4 Varieties Of Clouds

One false impression is that there are solely 4 kinds of clouds: cumulus, cirrus, stratus, and thunderstorm clouds. This false impression has its beginning in elementary faculty curricula and normally carries into our grownup years. It has pushed me loopy for years.

Although these are primary kinds of clouds, there are quite a few others, that are decided by type, altitude or different traits. For instance, altocumulus are clumps of puffy-type clouds discovered at mid-levels of the environment. Nimbostratus are stratus or stratocumulus clouds which are producing snow or rainfall. In the event you see a root of the phrase “nimbus,” suppose precipitation. There are additionally an array of attention-grabbing clouds like mammatus, lenticular, and asperitas. The UK Met Workplace has a wonderful web site for studying concerning the numerous cloud sorts.

Clouds Are Not Gases

That is false impression that I see typically in social media. I feel a part of the reason being as a result of clouds seem to “float” (extra on that later). I’ll flip to the Glossary of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for a definition of clouds. It defines a cloud as, “A visual combination of minute water droplets and/or ice particles within the environment above the earth’s floor.” Nevertheless, in some unspecified time in the future, the fuel section of water (water vapor) is concerned. The Glossary definition goes on to say, “Clouds type within the free environment on account of condensation of water vapor in rising currents of air, or by the evaporation of the bottom stratum of fog.”

Cloud water or ice crystals usually require a “seed” (known as a condensation or ice nucleus, respectively) to type. The method is definitely a bit extra difficult and likewise is dependent upon issues like temperature all through cloud depth, at what level saturation occurs (which suggests the environment can’t maintain extra water vapor at that temperature), and the distribution of nuclei (mud, clay, and so forth).

Clouds Are Floating? Type of.

There are two components that specify why clouds don’t fall. The primary issue is that cloud particles (water droplets or ice crystals) are very small. As a result of they’re so small, they don’t have important fall velocity.

OK, I’m about to get a bit technical, however I promise to clarify all of it.

Writing in Scientific AmericanDoug Wesley mentioned, “the space from the middle of a typical water droplet to its edge—its radius—ranges from a couple of microns (thousandths of a millimeter) to some tens of microns (ice crystals are sometimes a bit bigger).” That’s fairly tiny.

The velocity that an object falls is said to its mass and floor space. Wesley notes in that article, “which is why a feather falls extra slowly than a pebble of the identical weight.” Even the biggest cloud droplets don’t attain important fall velocities, and due to their form, such velocities are even smaller with ice crystals.

OK, so why do the clouds seem to drift? The reply is somewhat easy. There’s usually some sort of upward movement related to clouds. In a cumulonimbus cloud with important hail, these “updrafts” may be fairly robust. Even upward motions with extra benign stratus clouds are important sufficient to offset the autumn velocities of the droplets or crystals.

How the water vapor is distributed and density are additionally essential. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a neat web site that solutions the query“How a lot does a cloud weigh?” For his or her evaluation, they assumed a 1 cubic kilometer cloud incorporates 1 billion cubic meters. If 0.5 grams per cubic meter is assumed for cloud density, a little bit simple arithmetic yields roughly 1.1 million kilos or about 551 tons. Right here’s the science magic although. That mass is distributed over a big distance, and the air beneath the cloud is denser.

The USGS web site summarizes it this manner, “The important thing to why clouds float is that the density of the identical quantity of cloud materials is lower than the density of the identical quantity of dry air.” I demonstrated such density variations for my household one time by mixing a weight-reduction plan soda with a really sugary, yellow soda at a dinner buffet.

Clouds Are White Simply As a result of

Clouds seem white as a result of the droplet sizes are about the identical measurement because the wavelength of white mild. When that is the case, one thing known as “Mie scattering” occurs. A Nationwide Climate Service web site explains, “Mie scattering doesn’t differentiate particular person wavelength colours and subsequently scatters ALL wave size colours the identical….subsequently we see white clouds.”

Typically the clouds will seem gray or black. That’s as a result of a few of the drops within the cloud have grown to the dimensions of rain drops, which scatter much more mild and prevents white mild from reaching our eyes.