Types of Clouds & their Classification

Types of Clouds: Clouds are the bunch that is formed due to the accumulation of tiny water droplets and ice crystals that are mingled into the earth’s atmosphere. The classification of types of clouds is based on their shape or appearance and height. Clouds can be of various shapes, sizes, or colors. As the water vapors from the earth’s atmosphere evaporate they condense to form clouds, and as the cloud cooldowns and falls down as precipitation. the precipitation can be in various forms such as rain, snow, hail, etc. in this article we will discuss the types of colors based upon different parameters.

Classification of Types of Clouds

The classification of types of clouds can be based on two different parameters:

1. Based on height.
2. Based on shape or appearance

Factors That Affect The Formation of Types of Clouds

The air where the cloud formation takes place must be cool enough for the water vapor to condense. The water will condense around things like dust, ice, or sea salt – also referred to as condensation nuclei. The temperature, wind, and other conditions are the factors where that determination of what type of cloud it will be.

Classification Based on Height

The clouds are the associations of water droplets and crystals that mixed up into the earth’s atmosphere. It can be classified based on the heights of three types of clouds:

Cirrus Clouds: Cirrus clouds are layered, tufty, and patchy textured usually found at high altitudes. These delicate clouds are fine, with a silky. Such clouds are formed from the ascent of dry air, making the small quantity of water vapor in the air undergo deposition into ice. Cirrus is purely composed of ice crystals, which provide their white color and form in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

Cumulus Clouds: Cumulus clouds are fluffy, cauliflower-shaped clouds usually spotted in fair weather conditions. The appearance of these clouds is brilliant and appears like white tufts when lit by the Sun. All cumulus clouds are formed because of convection. As air is heated at the surface is lifted, it cools and water vapor condenses to produce the cloud.

Stratus Clouds: Stratus clouds are featureless clouds with a fairly uniform grey or white color. They are in ‘nebulosus’ form and can persist for long periods of time. Stratus clouds result in a calm, stable conditions environment where gentle breezes raise cool, moist air over colder land or ocean surfaces.

Classification Based on shape or appearance

The classification of types of clouds based on their shape or appearance is based on three different types, that is, Low Clouds, Middle Clouds, and High Clouds.

Low Clouds

Stack Layer: Usually arranged in a large, dark, rounded, or globular mass, which allows a very little amount of light to pass. They have the capacity to produce a little drizzle.

Stratus: Usually looks like a huge grey blanket that hangs at the lower part of the sky, resembles fog, comprises a uniform layer, and appears dull; if the clouds get warm it rains, if it rains it galls as snow.

Cloudy: Often referred to as ‘Rain Clouds’, and they are dark, thick, and accompanied by light to moderately falling precipitation.

Middle Clouds

Altostratus: These clouds are colored grey or bluish-grey in the form of a constant sheet or veil. They are composed of ice crystals and droplets of water. The sun can appear in its thinner fields as a round, dim disc.

Altocumulus: They are grey sheet-like clouds characterized in layers or patches by globular masses or rolls, the individual components being bigger and darker than those of cirrocumulus and lower than those of stratocumulus.

High Clouds

Cirrus: They are thin cirrus clouds that are often fine or thin. They are found at heights of higher than 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), and they are composed of ice crystals originating from the freezing of supercooled droplets of water.

Cirrostratus: They are large, and very thin sheet-like consisting of a uniform coating of ice crystals. They have the capacity of forming thin cirrostratus nebulosus, which is hard to identify, and are capable of forming halos.

Cirrocumulus: They are tiny, circled, cloud-shaped puffy, generally appearing in lengthy rows elevated in the sky and generally white, but sometimes appearing grey.