What cirrus stratus cumulus clouds look like. What do cumulus and cirrus clouds indicate?
Many people love to admire the sky. Thanks to the clouds, it can be very diverse. In the summer you can see fluffy white “horses” swimming overhead. With the onset of autumn, the sky is often covered with “leaden” low-hanging clouds. And sometimes even in clear weather you can see white, barely noticeable “feathers” high up. Each type of these clouds has its own corresponding name. So we know from school that there are stratus, cumulus and cirrus clouds. All of them, in turn, are divided into mixed subspecies.
How they are formed
Although all clouds differ in external signs, nature and altitude, they are formed for one reason. Air that is heated near the surface of the earth rises to the sky and gradually cools. Having reached a certain height, it begins to condense into water droplets. This happens because the cooled air cannot remain in a vapor state and forms into droplets. But for condensation to occur, solid particles such as dust or tiny salts must rise with the steam. It is to them that water molecules stick. All the clouds we see are collections of droplets and/or ice crystals.
Where is who located?
As you know, there are no identical clouds, since they always change their shape. It depends on what winds they are exposed to, at what altitude and at what temperature these “white-maned horses” are formed. Many of them are formed in the troposphere (there are some species that are much higher) and are divided into tiers, of which there are three. The upper one is considered to be from a height of 8-18 km. Cirrus clouds, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus form here.
In the middle layer, which starts from 2 km and ends at 8 km, altocumulus and altostratus species are formed. Cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds also form here; they have a vertical shape. But their amazing feature is that they can form in the lower tier and line up to the upper tier.
We also know stratus clouds, nimbostratus and stratocumulus. These types of formations are usually located on the lower level up to 2 km. Such clouds usually do not transmit the sun's rays, and they produce prolonged precipitation.
What do cirrus clouds say?
This species is often dismissed as true clouds because they do not carry obvious precipitation. They are scattered across the sky in a row in the form of white wisps or threads. The height of cirrus clouds depends on the latitude at which they formed, but in any part they occupy the upper tier of the troposphere. Thus, in tropical latitudes, their bases can form 6-18 km from the ground, in mid-latitudes from about 6 to 8 km, and in the polar part from 3 to 8. They consist of large ice crystals, so the speed of their fall is almost imperceptible. At the same time, cirrus clouds extend vertically for hundreds of meters.
Their formation occurs at a time when the air masses in the upper tier are practically motionless. But if the wind starts to get stronger, it pulls these clouds, and they take on the appearance of hooks raised up. This shape is a clear sign that a strong wind is raging high in the sky. For humans, they are a signal that a warm front will arrive in a day or two.
But sometimes in the night sky it becomes noticeable how a halo (luminous fringe) of thin cirrus clouds has formed around the Moon. This phenomenon has always been considered a sign that worsening weather is approaching.
Sometimes the sky is covered with cirrostratus clouds, which resemble a translucent veil. They can be blurry, or they can be fibrous. The thickness of the cloud layer can exceed several kilometers. They are also formed from ice crystals, which are combined into columns. These clouds usually belong to warm fronts.
Harbingers of good or bad weather
Often we see how the sky is decorated with white cumulus clouds, developing upward and resembling hills or pieces of cotton wool. They are formed only from watery drops, but there are no showers, only some of them can be lightly rained. Experienced observers know that such clouds indicate good weather for the day, and the higher in the sky they float, the warmer the air. Although, under certain conditions, cumulus clouds can develop into thunderstorms.
Layers of fragile clouds reminiscent of fish scales or a mackerel sky
It may seem implausible at first that cirrocumulus clouds, like their lower-tier cousins stratocumulus and altocumulus clouds, are composed of individual clouds. At this altitude (in mid-latitudes - typically 16,500 to 45,000 feet), the constituents of a cirrocumulus cloud can appear like tiny grains of salt. However, if you look closely, you can see that these grains are in no way connected with each other. A patch of cirrocumulus cloud (they usually do not cover the entire sky, but appear in separate patches) often appears as just a ripple on a high and calm cloud layer.
However, can a true cloud lover be satisfied with just the first impression? Looking more closely, he will discover that these ripples are formed by individual tiny clouds. In appearance, they appear smaller than the pad of a finger at arm's length at an altitude of 30° above the horizon: although each cloud is actually the size of a flat cumulus cloud (Cumulus humilis), they are located incomparably higher.
Establishing the apparent size of its constituent parts is one way to distinguish a cirrocumulus cloud from the lower-level altocumulus cloud (its constituent clouds can be up to three fingers wide). You can also pay attention to shading - or rather, the lack thereof: upper-tier cirrocumulus clouds appear whiter than mid-tier altocumulus clouds, and the individual clouds that make up the cirrocumulus cloud are even brighter, while the shadow side of individual clouds is brighter. A low altocumulus cloud looks darker.
Cirrocumulus is the most elusive of the ten cloud genera. Indeed, once it appears, the grains that make it up soon dissolve, being a transition phase between the thin fibers of the cirrus cloud and the smooth, whitish layer of clouds called cirrostratus. One way meteorologists use to distinguish clouds is to record accompanying clouds. Thus, the presence of easily recognizable stripes of cirrus cloud allows us to recognize the wonderful cloud in the apples - cirrocumulus.
From the fact that the cloud consists of individual small clouds, we can conclude that the air at the level of the cloud is restless and unstable. If only one or two patches of cirrostratus clouds are visible in the sky, they cannot significantly affect the coming weather. However, sometimes their scales cover a fair part of the sky - such clouds are classified as stratiformis, a type of undulatus. However, try to remember this awkward Cirrocumulus stratiformis undulatus! Another name for these clouds is much simpler - “mackerel sky”. Most likely, sailors came up with this name because they considered such clouds to be a warning of an impending storm. A storm is most likely if they are wavy strata adjacent to a hooked cirrus cloud (Cirrus uncinus), also called a “mare’s tail.”
Altocumulus clouds are sometimes called “mackerel skies.” However, they are not as similar to mackerel as cirrocumulus. It is the grooves of cirrocumulus clouds that most closely resemble the stripes that distinguish this fish, with individual clouds acting as scales.
But if large areas of the sky are covered with cirrocumulus clouds, why does this indicate worsening weather? Firstly, the more high-level clouds in the sky, the more moisture there is in the upper troposphere. In temperate zones, this indicates an impending drop in atmospheric pressure, bringing with it rain. Secondly, the unstable wave-like nature of the clouds indicates that strong winds are blowing at the level where they are located, which means the weather will change dramatically.
The waves of the mackerel sky are akin to the waves on the surface of the sea. Ocean waves are formed as a result of wind blowing over the surface of the water, picking up and amplifying any irregularities on that surface. The wind pushes the oscillating water upward, the force of gravity causes it to fall back down, and as a result of the collision of these forces, waves are created.
Of course, at those altitudes where cirrocumulus clouds form, the masses of liquid and air are not so clearly separated from each other. However, if clouds form in a “wind shear” region, the mechanism of their formation is approximately the same. Wind shear is when the air above a cloud layer moves in a different direction and/or at a different speed than the air below it. Part of the cloud that falls into the “scissors” between two air currents begins to oscillate in waves and - just like on the surface of the sea - the higher the wind, the more unstable the waves.
The atmosphere is like an ocean, only not water, but air. This air ocean is closely connected with the present, and the connection between them is extremely important from the point of view of cloud formation.
I wonder if the reader has ever thought that the atmosphere begins right at our feet? It turns out that we are like crustaceans swarming at the bottom of this sea of air. When we look up to the clouds, we see birds gliding in the air currents and other crustaceans traveling in the submarines we call airplanes. As for the clouds, with their evaporating tendrils of precipitation, which are called “fall streaks” (virga) and hang down like tendrils, these are, without a doubt, jellyfish.
Scales of a cirrocumulus stratus cloud, or "mackerel sky".
If you don't already know, 90% of the moisture in the atmosphere comes from ocean evaporation. The remaining 10% comes from rivers, lakes and other bodies of water, as well as from the leaves of plants, which are cooled through the so-called “evapotranspiration” - the botanical analogue of sweating. Of course, it can't do without people: people sweat and sneeze, dry their washed clothes, drink gin and tonic after playing croquet, and their beloved dogs run around with their tongues hanging out.
But it's not just that the ocean covers a fair portion of the planet's surface. Water is extremely efficient at retaining heat and transporting it over long distances around the world according to the general pattern of ocean currents. Therefore, the ocean not only supplies the atmosphere with moisture, but also heats or cools the air above the currents: both of these factors play an important role in cloud formation.
When atmospheric disturbances move over the sea, picking up heat and moisture from hot ocean currents, tropical cyclones and hurricanes form. For them to occur, special atmospheric conditions must be met, but once these conditions are present, the supply of heat and moisture provided by the sea gives the hurricane extraordinary power.
Spun into a huge rotating system, it becomes an irresistible force. As soon as it passes over the land - for example, over the houses of unfortunate residents of Louisiana, the Caribbean or India that it encounters along the way - and causing all sorts of destruction, it gradually begins to dissipate, and the supply of energy drawn from the warm surface of the sea is depleted.
Associated with cold ocean currents are less restless clouds. Rising from the continental coastline, these currents produce low stratus clouds and fog that spread over large areas. A striking example is the famous summer fogs of San Francisco.
This cirrocumulus cloud belongs to the floccus type, and in some places it can be distinguished by shafts characteristic of the undulatus variety.
Air currents blowing towards the earth are heated and saturated with water vapor over warm ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean. Passing over cold waters near the shore, they cool, and some of the water vapor is converted into droplets. Because these droplets do not need to rise to cool, they form what is called advective fog just above the ground's surface. As a result, San Francisco is one of the foggiest cities in the world, although the fog usually does not extend beyond the city's coastal area.
However, some areas of the northeastern coast of Japan are also ready to compete for this title. They are also characterized by a similar temperature contrast on the sea surface. Streams of warm, moist air, heated over the warm Kuroshio Current from the Pacific Ocean, rush inland, but immediately cool down, reaching the cold Kuril Current off the coast. A sharp drop in temperature again leads to the formation of fog or haze over large areas of the surface, which is drawn inland.
These mists formed the basis of some styles of traditional Japanese painting. The artistic technique of kasumi, which means “haze” in Japanese, has traditionally been used to add depth and perspective to landscapes. Typically, this haze was depicted as horizontal stripes, in early painting of the Heian period (circa 1000s AD) - dim and transparent, with a bluish tint. By the 13th century, the stripes of fog became more “material” (in particular, their outline was drawn in ink), and they began to be called suyarigasumi.
The beautiful kasumi mists not only gave the landscapes an impression of depth, but also punctuated the narrative contained in the paintings. They meant that some time had passed between individual scenes of the image. Never before has the “fog of time” found more literal embodiment in painting.
Stratus undulatus (Stratioformis undulatus), better known as “mackerel skies,” are by no means the only ones among the cirrocumulus clouds. In addition to this type of cloud, which covers large areas of the sky, there are three more types with their own external characteristics.
If the constituent elements of a cirrocumulus cloud have a flat base and a jagged top, it is a species of castellanus. However, individual clouds are too high, and the jagged edges are more difficult to see than with lower-level towering clouds such as altocumulus and stratocumulus. The same applies to flocculent clouds (floccus), individual clouds within which are distinguished by an uneven base and an uneven top. These are symptoms of the rapid growth of clouds, observed when the air at their height is “unstable” in nature.
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea" explains why a "stable atmosphere" favors the formation of lenticular clouds.
Lenticular clouds (lenticularis), which are clearly different from the rest in appearance, are formed, on the contrary, when the air is “stable”. In this case, fairly large parts of the cloud take on a lenticular shape. This is an upper-tier version of the UFO-like lenticular clouds that form in the lower layers. Here the rule that individual cirrocumulus clouds should appear no larger than a finger in width is broken: the constituent elements of a lenticular cloud appear significantly larger. Let's stay with this type of cloud for a while: they will help us introduce the important concept of "atmospheric stability."
The lenticular cloud, like similar types of clouds belonging to lower tiers, is formed when air moves over mountain ranges and comes into wave-like motion on the leeward side of the peaks. Lenticular or almond-shaped clouds form on the crests of air waves. It may seem strange that the flow of air currents over land obstacles (even if they are as high obstacles as mountains) leads to the formation of waves, which in turn lead to the fact that at an altitude of 26,000 feet (i.e. 5 miles ) and more clouds form. In fact, this is not that common, and it all depends on how stable the air is between the surface of the earth and the cloud.
The "stability" or "instability" of air is determined by how its temperature changes with altitude. Distinguishing between “stable” and “unstable” air is a very confusing issue (part of the atmosphere is considered stable or unstable relative to a “bubble” of air at a certain temperature and humidity). To simplify the problem to the extreme, the air is more likely to be considered unstable if it becomes sharply colder with increasing altitude, and stable if the cooling is gradual.
This temperature profile plays an important role in cloud formation. For example, in the case of a cirrocumulus lenticularis cloud, the stability of the air over a mountain ridge determines how “bouncy” the air is, which in turn is critical to whether air waves originating downwind of the ridge will reach large distances. heights
The air flow, forced to rise up to cross the mountain, expands and cools - this is what always happens to rising air. But if the atmosphere directly above the air flow is noticeably colder, the rising air, despite cooling, continues to remain warmer than the atmosphere. Therefore, it will float up like a float, while the surrounding air will sink down. The atmosphere above is unstable relative to the air flow, so it will absorb the crest of the wave without the wave pushing the air above it upward.
If, on the contrary, the temperature of the atmosphere above the air flow decreases gradually with increasing altitude, the flow itself, rising upward and cooling as it flows over a mountain range, may eventually reach the same temperature as the atmosphere. The atmosphere above is stable relative to the air flow, and therefore it does not rise through it, but pushes the air upward.
All this reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea". It tells how, during a terrible thunderstorm, a princess, soaking wet, appeared at the castle gates. The old king and queen, living in the castle, dreamed of marrying their son. The guest seemed suitable to them as a daughter-in-law, but they wanted to make sure that she was a real princess. They offered her a place to stay for the night, and the old queen, obeying the logic inherent only to future mothers-in-law, decided to secretly put the princess to the test: while preparing a bed for her, she hid a pea under twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. The princess slept terribly, and the king and queen were convinced that she was indeed of noble birth. The prince soon married her, they lived happily ever after... well, and so on.
The unstable layers of the atmosphere above the air flow, like very soft mattresses, absorb the rising ridges of air flowing over the mountain. It doesn't matter how powerful the waves are: the atmospheric air won't rise too much. If the atmospheric layers are stable, a wave of rising air will push them upward, and the atmosphere many miles above will “feel” the crest of the wave, like a fairy pea, and rise slightly with it. If the air throughout the atmosphere above the ridge is sufficiently moist, the result may be a lenticular cirrocumulus cloud.
This origin clearly proves that the lenticular cloud is a real princess among the clouds. This means that the King of the Clouds, the cumulonimbus cloud, will consent to her marriage with his son, the cumulonimbus cloud. I don't know what type of cloud the old queen is, but I have no doubt that they will all live happily ever after no matter what.
Different types of cirrocumulus clouds may, although not necessarily, belong to one of two varieties: holey (lacunosus) or wavy (undulatus). Their external features are similar to those of lower-tier clouds belonging to these varieties.
Clouds that resemble a lattice around clearly perceived holes are of the holey variety. Because they are at high altitude, these honeycombs in the sky are smaller than altocumulus and stratocumulus clouds of the same type.
If individual clouds gather into waves that look similar to ribbons, then the cloud belongs to the wavy variety. Sometimes two waves of different shapes overlap each other, and the clouds appear as wide waves and small ripples. simultaneously. In the same way, smaller ones can be seen on the surface of huge ocean waves. In both cases, the waves can move in different directions.
However, more often than not, wavy clouds are waves of one single shape: this is exactly the case with the mackerel sky - stratified wavy cirrocumulus clouds.
The holey cirrocumulus cloud (Cirroculumus lacunosus) looks like a honeycomb.
In this conversation about the types and varieties of cirrocumulus clouds, we touched on many topics that will interest a true cloud lover. Surely you are already tormented by this question: what kind of mackerel is this that the mackerel sky looks like? Could it be a king mackerel? Or Spanish mackerel? Or just an ordinary mackerel? I decided that such an important question should not be left unanswered, and I went in search.
Rising at five o'clock on a bright August morning, I was just in time to catch the first tube train and head across town to Billingsgate Fish Market on the Isle of Dogs in the East End. This market offers the largest selection of fish in the whole of Great Britain, and I thought there would be no better place to compare the colors of different species of cirrocumulus mackerel. It is clear that I did not at all expect that the clouds I needed would appear in the sky this morning. I had even less hope that some merchant would lend me a fish so that I could raise it to the sky and make a comparative analysis.
Coming out of the subway and finding myself among the administrative high-rises of Canary Wharf, I was pleased to note that in the sky, among the bright stripes of cirrus clouds, patches of cirrocumulus were visible here and there. However, Billingsgate is an indoor market, so even if these clouds soon turned into stratus wavy clouds, I would still have to rely only on my memory. Imagining a cloud, I ducked through the doors of the market and began to make my way through the bustle of traders, movers and restaurant owners. I had a special task: to find mackerel.
The easiest thing to find was the common mackerel. Among mackerel fish, this fish appears most often on the shores of Britain. I moved closer to the bunch of fish resting on ice in a polystyrene shipping crate and began to closely examine the iridescent silver and dark gray stripes that dotted the back of the fish.
Can you help me, buddy? - the seller in a white overalls stained with fish entrails asked me.
Thank you, I’ll just take a look for now,” I replied, barely resisting the temptation to add: “However, I’m disappointed, because your mackerel doesn’t look anything like a stratus wavy cirrocumulus cloud.”
The fact is that the mackerel stripes turned out to be drawn too brightly. Cirrocumulus clouds, as well as any other upper-level clouds consisting (if not entirely, then at least partially) of ice crystals, have much less clear contours than lower-level clouds. In this same mackerel fish, the light and dark stripes were too sharply different from each other.
But the problems with mackerel did not end there. Although the silver scales on the light stripes of the fish could be mistaken for clouds, the stripes interspersing them were too dark and certainly did not resemble the sky. They seemed almost black.
I tried to imagine a stratus, wavy cirrocumulus cloud illuminated by moonlight—bright streaks of cloud against a black night sky—but I couldn't. Waves of cirrocumulus clouds against the blue sky look much paler and not so contrasting. It became clear that my mackerel search would not be exhausted with mackerel alone.
What kind of Spanish mackerel is this, my friend? replied the hawker when I asked him about the next candidate on my list of mackerel suspects. “They don’t bring her here anymore,” he added regretfully. - I haven’t seen you for a hundred years.
Here are those on. And they also say that this market has the largest selection of fish in the UK! But they don’t have Spanish mackerel. I thought that I had gone here in vain. However, the seller immediately gave me practical advice: if I find someone who sells young king mackerel, my problem will be solved. “By her youth,” he whispered to me furtively, looking around, “the royal one looks little different from the adult Spanish one.”
Coloring of a common mackerel. Alas, this fish has too clear stripes, which means the “mackerel sky” was not named after it.
No, of course, he didn’t whisper to me about it on the sly, but simply said...
As for the king mackerel, I had to find it anyway. Well, if you now find a young king mackerel along with an adult one, it will be able to act in the identification procedure as a backup for the missing Spanish mackerel.
And I moved on, passing hake, perch, bream and halibut. Walked past sea dogs, angelfish, eels and lobsters. The inhabitants of the depths literally caught my eye. Red reef snappers, mullet, whiting... and finally, on a counter near the wall, next to the crab sticks, I found what I was looking for - young king mackerel.
Young king mackerel were twice the size of adult mackerel and very different in color. Her belly was an even silver color, turning into pale blue on the sides. And against this blue background, rows of round yellow spots were visible.
Wait a minute, but this looks even less like clouds! The coloration of this fish had nothing in common with the “mackerel sky”: the spots were too far apart from each other to resemble a cirrocumulus cloud, and there were no wavy stripes of primary importance at all. If this particular color is characteristic of the Spanish mackerel, then this mackerel got away from participating in the identification procedure without even standing in a row with the others.
And finally, on one of the neighboring counters, I saw several impressive specimens of adult king mackerel - and I realized that I was not far from the truth. This fish was much larger, about three feet long, and no yellow spots. Her iridescent silver-blue sides were decorated with pale white and silver wavy stripes. Eureka!
On the back of each fish from this impressive catch was the wavy pattern characteristic of the mackerel sky - beautiful curved rows of silver scales, punctuated by the pale blue of the sky. Eight pounds a kilo - and here it is, the same fish after which the mackerel sky is named.
What a joy it is to finally throw this worry off your shoulders! I headed out of the market, feeling almost like a world-class expert in the field of comparing fish and clouds. Of course, I thought, Spanish mackerel does not look like a real mackerel sky, but its yellow spots are very reminiscent of a sparse altocumulus cloud in the amber rays of the rising sun...
But then my train of thoughts was interrupted, and my gaze stopped at a large fat carp lying on the counter next to smoked salmon from Alaska. He, too, stared at me with his unblinking gaze of a dead fish.
Can't be! There was something very cloudy about its scales, which were too wide for a fish of its size and ranged in color from dirty yellow on its belly to deep bronze on its back. In the center, each scale was amber, and towards the edges it darkened and became more brown. I thought that I had seen such a sky somewhere... Come on, come on... listen, you are a world-class expert... what kind of sky is on this carp?
Surely! Altocumulus stratospheric cloud with gaps! How could I forget? This cloud and I are old friends, I just didn’t recognize it in the new environment.
ABOVE: King mackerel.
RIGHT: Stratus wavy cirrostratus cloud (Cirrocumulus stratiformis undularis), or "mackerel sky".
ABOVE: Common carp.
RIGHT: Altocumulus stratiformis perlucidus, which will soon be called the “carp sky.”
The clouds that make up an altocumulus cloud—lower than a cirrocumulus cloud—appear larger, consistent with the carp's larger scales. Moreover, in low sunlight, they are darker on the shadow side - just as individual scales are darker at the edges. Such scales could never belong to a cirrocumulus cloud, on which, as we know, there is no shading. It was an altocumulus cloud of the Altocumulus stratiformis perlucidus variety (that is, a cloud layer covering a large area of the sky, with small gaps between individual clouds). A little time will pass, I thought, and the sky decorated with these clouds will be called “carp sky.”
Common carp, being a freshwater fish that lives in the dark depths of murky lakes, simply must be strikingly different from such powerful deep-sea game fish as king mackerel. As if knowing its place, the “carp sky” predicts nothing more than the approach of a little rain. The gray-haired old sailors, when he appears, do not at all consider it necessary to remove the mainsails and batten down the hatches on the eve of a violent Atlantic storm.
No, the “carp sky” rather reminds the dozing angler that in a couple of hours he should take out his raincoat, since it is possible that a light rain awaits him before tea.
Consisting of small waves, flakes or ripples.
Characteristic
They are located at an altitude above 6-7 km, have a layer thickness of about 200-400 meters, visibility inside the clouds is about 150-500 meters. There is no shading on them - even on the side that is turned away from the sun. Formed when wave and upward movements occur in the upper troposphere and consist of ice crystals. In cirrocumulus clouds there may be halo and crowns around sun And moon. Precipitation they don't fall out.
Kinds
There are four types of cirrocumulus clouds. Layered ( stratiformis) are not just patches of clouds, but extensive layers of clouds. Lenticular ( lenticularis) - clouds in the form of one or several distinct almond-shaped or lenticular masses with a flat surface that are not connected to each other. Each element of the turret-shaped ( castellanus) clouds is a small vertical tower with a relatively clear base. Flake ( floccus) clouds look like cumulus, with ragged, blurry bases.
There are also two species of cirrocumulus. Wavy ( undulatus) are arranged in waves, like fish scales. Leaky ( lacunosus) are dotted with uniform holes, similar to a sieve or sieve.
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Literature
- Praetor-Pinney G. Entertaining cloud science. - M.: Gayatri, 2007. - 392 p. - ISBN 978-5-9689-0088-3.
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Excerpt describing Cirrocumulus clouds
“She said... yes, she said: “girl (a la femme de chambre), put on the livree [livery] and come with me, behind the carriage, faire des visites.” [make visits.]Here Prince Hippolyte snorted and laughed much earlier than his listeners, which made an unfavorable impression for the narrator. However, many, including the elderly lady and Anna Pavlovna, smiled.
- She went. Suddenly there was a strong wind. The girl lost her hat and her long hair was combed...
Here he could no longer hold on and began to laugh abruptly and through this laughter he said:
- And the whole world knew...
That's the end of the joke. Although it was not clear why he was telling it and why it had to be told in Russian, Anna Pavlovna and others appreciated the social courtesy of Prince Hippolyte, who so pleasantly ended Monsieur Pierre’s unpleasant and ungracious prank. The conversation after the anecdote disintegrated into small, insignificant talk about the future and the past ball, performance, about when and where they would see each other.
Having thanked Anna Pavlovna for her charmante soiree [charming evening], the guests began to leave.
Pierre was clumsy. Fat, taller than usual, broad, with huge red hands, he, as they say, did not know how to enter a salon and even less knew how to leave it, that is, to say something especially pleasant before leaving. Besides, he was distracted. Getting up, instead of his hat, he grabbed a three-cornered hat with a general's plume and held it, tugging at the plume, until the general asked to return it. But all his absent-mindedness and inability to enter the salon and speak in it were redeemed by an expression of good nature, simplicity and modesty. Anna Pavlovna turned to him and, with Christian meekness expressing forgiveness for his outburst, nodded to him and said:
“I hope to see you again, but I also hope that you will change your opinions, my dear Monsieur Pierre,” she said.
To an observer from the ground, it seems that the clouds are at approximately the same level, but in reality there are several types of clouds based on their height above the surface of the planet.
Clouds are atmospheric formations consisting of droplets or ice crystals formed by the condensation of steam. The vertical distance between formations of different types can be several kilometers.
Morphological classification of clouds
According to modern classification, there are 10 main cloud forms, divided into many types and varieties. There are more than 90 varieties, many of which are not even introduced to students during meteorological practice. Types of clouds are studied by schoolchildren in the 6th grade; a simplified classification is given in geography textbooks for children.
Based on their appearance, the following forms are distinguished:
- cumulus - cumulus;
- stratus – layered;
- cirrus – feathery;
- nimbus - rainy.
Based on their distance from the earth's surface, clouds are:
- cir – high;
- alto – average;
- low.
Below is a description with photos of types of clouds. A comparison of atmospheric formations located at different levels from the surface of the planet is provided.
Upper clouds
Located above 6 km from the ground:
Mid-level clouds
Formed at a distance from 2 to 6 km from the ground:
Low clouds
Located below 2 km from the ground:
Clouds of vertical development
They extend upward for many kilometers:
Other types of clouds
Under certain conditions that form on the ground, rare types of clouds are observed:
- Silver(mesospheric). They appear at a distance of about 80 km from the planet. They are a thin translucent layer that shines against the background of the night sky after sunset or before dawn.
The source of light is the rays of the sun below the horizon, invisible from the ground. - Polar(mother-of-pearl). Formed above 30 km above the planet. They have an iridescent iridescent color.
Observed after sunset north of the Arctic Circle. - Umniformes(stratocumulus mammatus). A rare form observed in the tropical zone. The shoots hang from the lower surface, like teats from the udder.
Such formations signal the approach of a thunderstorm. At sunset they turn golden-red. - Lenticular(lenticular). They appear behind mountain peaks at a distance of up to 15 km from the surface of the planet. Fixed even in strong winds.
The air flows around the mountains in waves, and these formations are observed at the tops of the waves. - Pyrocumulative(fiery). Formed during a volcanic eruption or severe fire. The heated air rises, condenses, and eventually cumulonimbus clouds form.
If a thunderstorm begins, lightning appears more often than from a regular thundercloud. - Kelvin-Helmholtz cirrus. They have a tube-like shape and are located low above the earth's surface. They form ahead of a cold front when air pressure and relative humidity are high.
When the cloud rushes upward with the heated front part, it begins to curl. This type is called a “thunderstorm collar.” It exists separately from the main cloud and does not change shape when moving. - Cloud Hat(pyleolus). Small, horizontally located formations, reminiscent of a Catholic priest's cap.
Form above cumulus clouds when powerful rising air masses impact moist air at low altitude, causing the air to reach dew point temperatures. - Offshore(speakers). They look like a horizontal arch and precede a thunderstorm front. Also called “squall collars”, they look scary and warn of a thunderstorm.
They are combined with the main cloud, which makes them different from cirrus curls. - Wavy-lumpy(undulatus asperatus). Unusual formations that have appeared recently, unexplored. Predictors associate their origin with the approaching “end of the world.”
These powerful, massive, horned or ragged clouds, reminiscent of a frozen raging sea, do not portend a storm. - Wavy(undulatus). A beautiful view formed when the feathery curls are unstable, when the air layers touching each other move at different speeds. The cooler layer floats faster. The warm layer rises, cools, and condenses.
The cold layer blows off the condensation, resulting in a cloud ridge. As it descends, the condensate warms up and evaporates. The process is repeated several times. The result is a wave-shaped cloud.
Clouds may completely or partially obscure the sky. The degree of sky coverage is determined on a 10-point scale.
Cloudless sky – 0 points. A third of the sky is closed – 3 points. The sky is half overcast – 5 points. Cloudy sky – 10 points.