Talk:Cloud

From Academic Kids

I'm skeptical that Cumulonimbus with mammatus and pileus should be in the high altitude section rather than in section D. Can someone with greater authority in the area look this over? Dr. Z 19:03, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

can someone who knows about clouds add Coalescence, Ceilometer and Cloud base into this article so that Coalescence ceases from being an orphan? Kingturtle 23:09 May 13, 2003 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 19:47, 2004 Mar 31 (UTC)) Done.

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This from a duplicate page. some bits may need merging:

Contents

1 Cloud Types 2 Interesting topic that should be included. 3 More photographs available 4 Why do clouds stay aloft? 5 Some Images

Cloud Types

• cumulus, stratus, cirrus, nimbus
  • fair weather cumulus, cumulonimbus
  • altocumulus, altostratus
  • nimbostratus, stratocumulus
  • cirrostratus
  • mammatus, orographic clouds, pileus clouds

Cumulus clouds are usually created through thermal convection or frontal lift.

See meteorology.

-- Tarquin

And which page is it from? I Wiki-searched and Googled without results. --Menchi 09:06 30 May 2003 (UTC)

Interesting topic that should be included.

I came across an interesting cloud question, and I think this arctile should cover this.

How much does a cloud weight?

here is one answer (detailed): http://www.weatherwise.org/qr/qry.cloudweight.html

More photographs available

I am an amateur photographer and have taken many cloud pictures. Anyone with an interest in adding more pictures to the right places may feel free to use my photographs. You can find them at my web site (http://jcole.us/gallery/sky). I don't know what Wikipedia requires, but I will provide whatever is necessary to ensure release into the public domain.

--JeremyCole 09:01, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)

Why do clouds stay aloft?

I came across a page that describes fully (and I believe correctly) why clouds stay aloft here: http://www.amasci.com/miscon/miscon4.html#cld

It appears that the Wikipedia and his reasoning are in conflict. In the Wiki article, you claim in the same paragraph that clouds wiegh several million tonnes and that updrafts keep all those tonnes of water up there. I don't know any updraft capable of holding that much water airborne. If there were such a thing, we should build a generator of one and build a city in the sky ;)

Joking aside, there is a very easy counter-example to site to disprove the 'small droplet' explanation. A cloud machine, like you see in the mall. Those small water dishes that generate 'clouds' The material doesn't rise and it certainly isn't slowed down by it's size (much).... it races to the floor!

The reason clouds remain aloft is that they are warmer inside than the surrounding air, so they float just like a hot air balloon! Simple.

Some of the dynamics sited in the article are certainly valid, such as the dynamic processes within a cloud. However they sidestep the reason millions of tonnes of water stay up there (and how.)

I have also noted the absence in many explanations of the source of cloud updrafts. Many people describe the strong updrafts within a thunderstorm and thier effects on a hapless pilots who may navigate them, but what it the source? It is a second proof of the temperature explanation of cloud bouyancy. Updrafts occur when the warmer air between water droplets is separated from the droplets and the warmer air shoots upward.

In other words, I can prove hot air is keeping the cloud up there. Because when it rains, hot air shoots skyward! It also shoots out of my mouth.

Mark DiNubila

• Those "small droplets" produced by humidifiers and similar devices are huge relative to the droplets within clouds. If you doubt the power of air currents within clouds to maintain lift, go outside on the next foggy day and notice the effect of microturbulence on real droplets. Get a pair of binoculars and look at the edge of a cumulus cloud if you think rising air can't manage to keep droplets aloft. You may also check http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-06/1117621104.Es.r.html for an answer to the question in your title. Denni☯ 00:12, 2005 Jun 7 (UTC)

• What is the difference between fog and clouds? One thing... temperature differential!
• What is the source of the 'updrafts' keeping clouds up there, at the edge of clouds? There is no external updraft! The forming of cloudstuff on the edge of clouds is the result of water vapor going from a gas to a liquid and heating the surrounding air, keeping it bouyant, even rising. There is no big fan on the edge of clouds blowing the material up holding it there.

MD

Its a combination of many different factors - hence the many different types of clouds. Some clouds stay aloft, some don't, and some are 80,000 metres above the ground (noctilucent clouds), some are 500. -- Natalinasmpf 23:54, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Some Images

I uploaded these images, [1] (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Mount_Kinabalu_Clouds_1.jpg), [2] (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Mount_Kinabalu_Clouds_2.jpg) and [3] (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Mount_Kinabalu_Clouds_3.jpg), (image references obvious by their filename) - which are high altitude photos of clouds from Mount Kinabalu, and I was wondering if it would be appropriate to insert them in either the Mount Kinabalu Article or the Cloud article, because I know both of them are already image saturated. The thing is that I'm not too sure of all the cloud formation classifications (although it fascinates me) to insert them in specific pages either. -- Natalinasmpf 23:54, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)