Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: What are the types of clouds?
The list of cloud types groups the tropospheric types as high (cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus), middle (altocumulus, altostratus), multi-level (nimbostratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus), and low (stratocumulus, stratus) according to the altitude level or levels at which each cloud is normally found. Small cumulus are commonly grouped with the low clouds because they do not show significant vertical extent. Of the multi-level genus-types, those with the greatest convective activity are often grouped separately as towering vertical. The genus types all have Latin names.
The symbols used for clouds emulate the cloud shape. Cirrus is indicated by a couple hooks, cumulus are indicated by a mound shape, with cumulonimbus indicated with an upside down trapezoid on top of the cumulus symbol to indicate its anvil. When there is more than one cloud type present per level, the cloud type with the highest priority is included. Knowing the cloud type at various locations can help determine whether or not a weather front has passed by a particular location. A low deck of stratus could indicate a station is still north of a warm front, while thunderstorms can indicate the approach of a squall line or cold front.
Noctilucent clouds are known to form near the poles at altitudes similar to or higher than the same type of clouds over Earth.[22]
There are three main types of tag cloud applications in social software, distinguished by their meaning rather than appearance. In the first type, there is a tag for the frequency of each item, whereas in the second type, there are global tag clouds where the frequencies are aggregated over all items and users. In the third type, the cloud contains categories, with size indicating number of subcategories.
Above or below the circle for manned stations (automatic stations do not report cloud types) that indicates sky cover can lie one or more symbols indicating cloud types in any of the low, middle, and high-étages for tropospheric clouds. One predominant cloud type may be depicted for each of three étages, if known. The middle and high-étage types are depicted above the sky cover circle of the station model, while the main low-étage cloud type is indicated below the circle. Since the station model has limited room, it makes no special provision for vertical or multi-level clouds that can occupy more than one étage at a particular time. Consequently, cloud genera with significant vertical development may be coded and plotted as low or middle depending on the altitude at which they normally form. Cumulus and cumulonimbus usually form in the low étage of the troposphere and achieve vertical extent by growing upward into the middle or high étage. Conversely, nimbostratus usually forms in the middle étage of the troposphere and becomes vertically developed by growing downward into the low étage. Although the SYNOP code has no separate formal group classification for vertical or multi-level clouds, the observer procedure for selecting numerical codes is designed to give high reporting priority to those genera or species that show significant vertical development.
Cumulus clouds are often precursors of other types of clouds, such as cumulonimbus, when influenced by weather factors such as instability, moisture, and temperature gradient. Normally, cumulus clouds produce little or no precipitation, but they can grow into the precipitation-bearing congestus or cumulonimbus clouds. Cumulus clouds can be formed from water vapor, supercooled water droplets, or ice crystals, depending upon the ambient temperature. They come in many distinct subforms, and generally cool the earth by reflecting the incoming solar radiation. Cumulus clouds are part of the larger category of free-convective cumuliform clouds, which include cumulonimbus clouds. The latter genus-type is sometimes categorized separately as cumulonimbiform due to its more complex structure that often includes a cirriform or anvil top. There are also cumuliform clouds of limited convection that comprise stratocumulus (low-étage), altocumulus (middle-étage) and cirrocumulus (high-étage). These last three genus-types are sometimes classified separately as stratocumuliform.
High clouds form at altitudes of 3,000 to 7,600m (10,000 to 25,000ft) in the polar regions, 5,000 to 12,200m (16,500 to 40,000ft) in the temperate regions and 6,100 to 18,300m (20,000 to 60,000ft) in the tropics.[26] All cirriform clouds are classified as high and thus constitute a single genus cirrus (Ci). Stratocumuliform and stratiform clouds in the high altitude range carry the prefix cirro-, yielding the respective genus names cirrocumulus (Cc) and cirrostratus (Cs). When limited-resolution satellite images of high clouds are analysed without supporting data from direct human observations, it becomes impossible to distinguish between individual forms or genus types, which are then collectively identified as high-type (or informally as cirrus-type even though not all high clouds are of the cirrus form or genus).[40]
The four primary types of personal cloud in use today are: Online cloud, NAS device cloud, server device cloud, and home-made clouds.
mesospheric layer; stratospheric layer; tropospheric layer. Within the troposphere, the cloud levels are listed in descending order of altitude range. Non-vertical genus types (including some genus sub-types) are sorted into approximate descending order of altitude of the cloud bases. Vertical or multi-level genera and genus sub-types can be based in the low or middle levels and are therefore placed between the non-vertical low and mid-level genus types and sub-types. These thick clouds are listed in approximate descending order of altitude of the cloud tops. The species associated with each genus type are listed in approximate ascending order of instability where applicable. The constituent varieties and associated supplementary features and mother clouds for each genus or species are arranged in approximate order of frequency of occurrence. A count of basic tropospheric variants that result from the division and subdivision of genus types into species and varieties is shown as a number in parentheses from V-1 (variant 1) through V-92 after each variety, after nimbostratus that has no sub-types, and after certain species that are not always dividable into varieties.
Under Luke Howard's first systematized study of clouds, carried out in France in 1802, three general cloud "forms" were established based on appearance and characteristics of formation: "cirriform," "cumiliform" and "stratiform." These were further divided into upper and lower types depending on altitude. In addition to these three main types, Howard added two names to designate multiple cloud types joined together: "cumulostratus," a blending of cumulus clouds and stratus layers, and "nimbus," a complex blending of cirriform, cumuliform, and stratiform clouds with sufficient vertical development to produce significant precipitation.
The "International Cloud Atlas" was revised numerous times in response to requirements of its principal user community, meteorologists. Nonetheless, it was not sufficient for all users, and consequently a number of other cloud atlases and critiques have been published. A 1901 popular German book about the weather reproduced photographs from the "International Cloud Atlas", and one reviewer of the 1901 book judged these reproductions to be its best feature. "Atlas photographique des Nuages", a 1912 cloud atlas of grayscale photographs, was praised for its sharp photographs but criticized for not following the International Cloud Classification. The 1923 book, "A Cloud Atlas", despite its title is not a cloud atlas. The author, the American meteorologist Alexander George McAdie, then director of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, advocated a classification of clouds that was not typological but rather predictive: a classification that did not merely describe what was before the observer. As McAdie put it, "when we look at a cloud we want to know, not what it resembles, but whether it portends fair or foul weather." The book is a discussion of what characteristics of clouds such a classification might take into account.
Only Type II clouds are necessarily nacreous whereas Type I clouds can be iridescent under certain conditions, just as any other cloud.
Since 2006, many similar cloud formations have been contributed to the gallery, and in 2009 Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society, began working with the Royal Meteorological Society to promote the cloud type as an entirely new type in and of itself.
Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. The usual intent is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), but hail and fog suppression are also widely practised in airports where harsh weather conditions are experienced.
Three types of vendor lock-in can occur with cloud computing:Heterogeneous cloud computing is described as a type of cloud environment that prevents vendor lock-in, and aligns with enterprise data centers that are operating hybrid cloud models. The absence of vendor lock-in lets cloud administrators select his or her choice of hypervisors for specific tasks, or to deploy virtualized infrastructures to other enterprises without the need to consider the flavor of hypervisor in the other enterprise.
The genitus and mutatus categories have been expanded to include certain types that do not originate from pre-existing clouds. The term flammagenitus (Latin for 'fire-made') applies to cumulus congestus or cumulonimbus that are formed by large scale fires or volcanic eruptions. Smaller low-level "pyrocumulus" or "fumulus" clouds formed by contained industrial activity are now classified as cumulus homogenitus (Latin for 'man-made'). Contrails formed from the exhaust of aircraft flying in the upper level of the troposphere can persist and spread into formations resembling any of the high cloud genus-types and are now officially designated as cirrus, cirrostratus, or cirrocumulus homogenitus. If a homogenitus cloud of one genus changes to another genus type, it is then termed a homomutatus cloud. Stratus cataractagenitus (Latin for 'cataract-made') are generated by the spray from waterfalls. Silvagenitus (Latin for 'forest-made') is a stratus cloud that forms as water vapor is added to the air above a forest canopy.[83]
The birth of an O-type star in a molecular cloud has a destructive effect on the cloud, but also may trigger the formation of new stars. O-type stars emit copious amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the gas in the cloud and pushes it away.
O-type stars also have powerful stellar winds, with velocities of thousands of kilometers per second, which can blow a bubble in the molecular cloud around the star.
O-type stars explode as supernovae when they die, releasing vast amounts of energy, contributing to the disruption of a molecular cloud.
These effects disperse the remaining molecular material in a star-forming region, ultimately stopping the birth of new stars, and possibly leaving behind a young open cluster.
The Magellanic Cloud galaxies were once classified as irregular galaxies. The Large Magellanic Cloud has since been re-classified as type SBm a type of barred spiral galaxy, the barred Magellanic spiral type. The Small Magellanic Cloud remains classified as an irregular galaxy of type Im under current Galaxy morphological classification, although it does contain a bar structure.
Non-vertical clouds in the middle level are prefixed by alto-, yielding the genus names altocumulus (Ac) for stratocumuliform types and altostratus (As) for stratiform types. These clouds can form as low as 2,000m (6,500ft) above surface at any latitude, but may be based as high as 4,000m (13,000ft) near the poles, 7,000m (23,000ft) at mid latitudes, and 7,600m (25,000ft) in the tropics.[26] As with high clouds, the main genus types are easily identified by the human eye, but it is not possible to distinguish between them using satellite photography. Without the support of human observations, these clouds are usually collectively identified as middle-type on satellite images.[40]
Supplementary features and accessory clouds are not further subdivisions of cloud types below the species and variety level. Rather, they are either hydrometeors or special cloud types with their own Latin names that form in association with certain cloud genera, species, and varieties.[76][85] Supplementary features, whether in the form of clouds or precipitation, are directly attached to the main genus-cloud. Accessory clouds, by contrast, are generally detached from the main cloud.[90]
Nomenclature works the same way as for genitus mother clouds except for the mutatus suffix to indicate the complete rather than the partial transformation of the original cloud type. e.g. Altocumulomutatus - formed by the complete transformation of altocumulus mother cloud.
After centuries of speculative theories about the formation and behavior of clouds, the first truly scientific studies were undertaken by Luke Howard in England and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in France. Howard was a methodical observer with a strong grounding in the Latin language and used his background to classify the various tropospheric cloud types during 1802. He believed that the changing cloud forms in the sky could unlock the key to weather forecasting. Lamarck had worked independently on cloud classification the same year and had come up with a different naming scheme that failed to make an impression even in his home country of France because it used unusual French names for cloud types. His system of nomenclature included twelve categories of clouds, with such names as (translated from French) hazy clouds, dappled clouds and broom-like clouds. By contrast, Howard used universally accepted Latin, which caught on quickly after it was published in 1803.[5] As a sign of the popularity of the naming scheme, the German dramatist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe composed four poems about clouds, dedicating them to Howard. An elaboration of Howard's system was eventually formally adopted by the International Meteorological Conference in 1891.[5] This system covered only the tropospheric cloud types, but the discovery of clouds above the troposphere during the late 19th century eventually led to the creation separate classification schemes for these very high clouds.[6]
Clouds form when the dewpoint of water is reached in the presence of condensation nuclei in the troposphere. The atmosphere is a dynamic system, and the local conditions of turbulence, uplift and other parameters give rise to many types of clouds. Various types of cloud occur frequently enough to have been categorized. Furthermore, some atmospheric processes can make the clouds organize in distinct patterns such as wave clouds or actinoform clouds. These are large-scale structures and are not always readily identifiable from a single point of view.
A stratocumulus cloud is another type of stratocumuliform cloud. Like cumulus clouds, they form at low levels and via convection. However, unlike cumulus clouds, their growth is almost completely retarded by a strong inversion. As a result, they flatten out like stratus clouds, giving them a layered appearance. These clouds are extremely common, covering on average around twenty-three percent of the earth's oceans and twelve percent of the earth's continents. They are less common in tropical areas and commonly form after cold fronts. Additionally, stratocumulus clouds reflect a large amount of the incoming sunlight, producing a net cooling effect. Stratocumulus clouds can produce drizzle, which stabilizes the cloud by warming it and reducing turbulent mixing. Being a cloud of limited convection, stratocumulus is divided into three species; stratiformis, lenticularis, and castellanus, that are common to the higher stratocumuliform genus-types.
Cloud gaming, sometimes called gaming on demand, is a type of online gaming. Currently there are two main types of cloud gaming: cloud gaming based on "video" streaming and cloud gaming based on "file" streaming. Cloud gaming aims to provide end users frictionless and direct play-ability of games across various devices.