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

Read Next

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

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)

11 Banned Books Through Time

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Title: Senate Square, St. Petersburg, December 14, 1825: repression of the troop mutiny - watercolor by Carl Ivanovitch Kollman, 1825 depicts Decembrist uprising clashing with cavalry, with spectators watching. (new style December 26, 1825) Europe. Saint

8 of the Largest Empires in History

Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland.

Why Is Ireland Two Countries?

Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics

10 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time

Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army

8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

Woman tied to a ducking stool, a method of punishment by means of humiliation, beating, or death. (cucking stool)

8 Unusual Punishments Inflicted on Women Throughout History

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

orographic cloud cumuliform cloud polar stratospheric cloud nonprecipitating cloud wave cloud noctilucent cloud contrail cyclonic cloud system stratiform cloud layer cloud frost dew precipitation drought mist haze hydrometeor weather forecasting weather modification air mass

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

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

Facts You Should Know: Weather Quiz

Iceland, Glacier lagoon (Jokulsarlon)

Winter Weather Words Quiz

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

Weather Words Vocabulary 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

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

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

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

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?