Cloud

Cumuliform cloudscape over Swifts Creek, Australia

In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of minute liquid droplets, frozen
crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space.[1] Water
or various other chemicals may compose the droplets and crystals. On Earth, clouds are formed as a
result of saturation of the air when it is cooled to its dew point, or when it gains sufficient moisture
(usually in the form of water vapor) from an adjacent source to raise the dew point to the ambient
temperature.

They are seen in the Earth's homosphere (which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and
mesosphere). Nephology is the science of clouds, which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of
meteorology.

The two methods of naming clouds in their respective layers of the atmosphere are Latin and common.
Cloud types in the troposphere, the atmospheric layer closest to Earth's surface, have Latin names due to
the universal adaptation of Luke Howard's nomenclature. Formally proposed in 1802, it became the
basis of a modern international system that divides clouds into five physical forms that appear in any or
all of three altitude levels (formerly known as étages). These physical types, in approximate ascending
order of convective activity, include stratiform sheets, cirriform wisps and patches, stratocumuliform
layers (mainly structured as rolls, ripples, and patches), cumuliform heaps, and very large
cumulonimbiform heaps that often show complex structures. The physical forms are divided by altitude
level into 10 basic genus-types.

Clouds reflecting in a puddle, Sutton-on-Trent, England

The Latin names for applicable high-level genera in the troposphere carry a cirro- prefix, and an alto-
prefix is added to the names of the mid-level genus-types. Clouds with sufficient vertical extent to
occupy more than one altitude level are officially classified as low- or mid-level according to the altitude
range at which each initially forms. However they are also more informally classified as multi-level or
vertical, which along with low level clouds, do not carry any altitude related prefixes. Most of the genera
can be subdivided into species and further subdivided into varieties. Very low stratiform clouds that
extend down to the Earth's surface are given the common names fog and mist, but have no Latin names.
Several clouds that form higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere have common names for their
main types. They are seen infrequently, mostly in the polar regions of Earth. Clouds have been observed
in the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System and beyond. However, due to their
different temperature characteristics, they are often composed of other substances such as methane,
ammonia, and sulfuric acid, as well as water.

The following table is an overview that is very broad in scope. It draws from several methods of cloud
classification, both formal and informal, used in different levels of the Earth's homosphere by a number
of cited authorities. A cross-classifation of form and level is used to derive the 10 tropospheric genera,
the fog and mist that forms at surface level, and several additional major types above the troposphere.
The cumulus genus includes four species that indicate vertical size and structure. The table should
therefore be seen as an illustration of how various major cloud types are related to each other at a full
range of altitude levels from Earth's surface to the "edge of space", rather than as a strict classification
per se.