cloud

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Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

View a time-lapse video of cloud formations rolling across the sky followed by a thunderstorm

How do clouds float?

Learn about the four main types of clouds formed at different altitudes

What is cloud seeding and can it be used to fight climate change?

cloud: cumulonimbus

lightning: cloud-to-ground

Middle clouds(Top to bottom) Altocumulus undulatus, a layer of shaded, regularly arranged rolls; altocumulus perlucidus, a white and gray layer in which there are spaces between the elements; altostratus translucidus, showing the Sun as if seen through ground glass; altocumulus radiatus, a layer with laminae arranged in parallel bands.

false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot

For Students

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Lightning over the outskirts of Oradea, Rom., during the thunderstorm of August 17, 2005.

16 Questions About Earth’s Atmsophere and Weather Answered

Hot-air balloon against a sky (clouds, hot air ballooning, recreation)

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Discover

Titanic infographic. The 30th anniversary of its discovery is September 1, 2015. SPOTLIGHT VERSION.

Timeline of the Titanic’s Final Hours

Shah Jahan. Taj Mahal. Mughal architecture. Emperor Shah Jahan fifth Mughal Emperor (reigned 1628-1658) India, Himachal Pradesh, Basohli or Jammu and Kashmir, Mankot, circa 1690 Drawings; Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper (see notes)

6 Important Mughal Emperors

Hemp (Cannabis sativa).

9 Mind-Altering Plants

Candles Burning On Table In Church

What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World?

pg 229Nazi parade features a banner proclaiming, "Death to Marxism."The possibility of a peaceful Germany after World War I was precluded entirely by the terms of the Versailles Treaty and theintransigent hostility of France and England. Stripped of indu

Were the Nazis Socialists?

Currency. Money. Cash. Dollars. Bills. Pile of ten, twenty, fifty, and hundred dollar bills.

6 Questions About the History of Money and Banking Answered

Easter Procession of Maria Santisima del Sacromonte in Granada, Spain. This statue is known as Virgen de los Gitanos or The Virgin of the Gypsies.

What is Holy Week?

cloud: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

cloud: cumulonimbus

lightning: cloud-to-ground

Middle clouds(Top to bottom) Altocumulus undulatus, a layer of shaded, regularly arranged rolls; altocumulus perlucidus, a white and gray layer in which there are spaces between the elements; altostratus translucidus, showing the Sun as if seen through ground glass; altocumulus radiatus, a layer with laminae arranged in parallel bands.

false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot

computer-generated visualization of Jupiter's equatorial cloud layers

Clouds on Mars. The rippled clouds (top) are high in Mars's atmosphere and consist mainly of water crystals with lesser amounts of frozen carbon dioxide. Fog is faintly visible in the lower half of the picture. This false-colour picture is a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft on June 4, 1998.

clouds on Neptune

An enhanced photograph of Venus, obtained in February 1979 in ultraviolet light by the Pioneer Venus 1 spacecraft, shows the distinctive V-shaped cloud markings of the planet.

View a time-lapse video of cloud formations rolling across the sky followed by a thunderstorm

How do clouds float?

Learn about the four main types of clouds formed at different altitudes

What is cloud seeding and can it be used to fight climate change?

Learn how the Sun warms moist air near the ground and causes it to rise and condense on dust particles

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

How Do Clouds Form?noctilucent cloud contrail cumuliform cloud polar stratospheric cloud stratiform cloud cyclonic cloud system wave cloud layer cloud orographic cloud frost dew precipitation drought mist haze hydrometeor weather forecasting weather modification Can Animals Predict the Weather?

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

C.T.R. Wilson, 1927

C.T.R. Wilson

British physicist

Tor Harold Percival Bergeron

Scandinavian meteorologist

Quiz

Umbrella colored like a rainbow sticking out above a sea of black umbrellas while it rains. (storm, weather)

Weather Words Vocabulary Quiz

Iceland, Glacier lagoon (Jokulsarlon)

Winter Weather Words Quiz

rain. Child in the rain, wearing a rain coat, under a yellow umbrella. April Showers weather climate rain storm water drops

April Showers to March’s Lions and Lambs

Lightning over a farm field. Weather electricity thunderstorm light energy tree

Facts You Should Know: Weather Quiz

ten types of clouds and their elevation: cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus

Earth’s Atmosphere and Clouds

Model of a molecule. Atom, Biology, Molecular Structure, Science, Science and Technology. Homepage 2010 arts and entertainment, history and society

Science Quiz

Thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds above Montana. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology

Clouds and Cloud Types

Thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds above Montana. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology

Clouds and Cloud Types

List

Lightning over the outskirts of Oradea, Rom., during the thunderstorm of August 17, 2005.

16 Questions About Earth’s Atmsophere and Weather Answered

Demystified

Hot-air balloon against a sky (clouds, hot air ballooning, recreation)

Why Is the Sky Blue?