CLOUDS

Before the advent of weather satellites and advanced technology, clouds were the best means of predicting when the weather would come. Clouds high in the sky or no clouds at all meant good weather. But clouds moving in the sky or dark clouds meant rain was on its way. Common sayings even emerged from our observations of the clouds, such as "red sky in the morning, sailor warning, red night sky, sailor cheer." And there are many more over time with different cultures. Today, geologists and meteorologists still rely on the clouds to predict the weather by studying how and why they build. Clouds provide us with vital information about the proper temperature and humidity of the atmosphere, which can help us to weather the storms from a cloudless summer afternoon to a cloudy morning. In addition, a map of the earth's clouds tells us about modern energy flows and weather patterns. And unlocking the mysteries of the clouds will help us to better understand how the air is heated.

So today we are going to join countless people in all history and look up - in the clouds. INTRO Clouds are often described in terms of dramas such as "ethereal" or "ominous". They seem to be alive, born in the spirit, they seem to be mysterious like UFOs. But clouds are also useful information for the universe. Clouds are basically large buckets of water floating in space. They contain billions of tiny, invisible water droplets and crystals that are too small to form raindrops, so they remain suspended in the air. In fact, each cloud has its own shape, height, name, and reason, resembling a celestial being. Ancient sailors and modern scientists know that clouds can tell us much more about rain. For example, we often see a type of avillainous clouds hanging over cities, called smog. A London physician first coined the word "smog" in 1900 to describe a mixture of smoke and fog - a layer of clouds on the ground - which threw the city high. Smoke is a pollutant that damages our lungs, irritates our eyes and throat, and damages buildings for a long time.

It also absorbs more heat from the atmosphere, contributing to man-made global warming. But the presence or absence of clouds can make a huge difference in the amount of energy that reaches the surface of the earth, too. Let's go to Bubble Thought to meet them. As modern-day hurricanes, we are ready to drive for hours to record different cloud formations and send details to local weather forecasters. We should know who we are dealing with, but fortunately, most clouds are divided into three types, depending on how they look. The first clouds we see are bright white. These cirrus clouds or "mare's tails" are made up of ice crystals, and are only present at the surface of more than 6000 feet. Cirrus clouds like these show about 50% cooling, or incoming sunlight. But they are much better at catching long-distance radiation by trying to get back into space, protecting and warming the earth's atmosphere as part of the effect of natural heat. Miles down the road, the sky is filled with dark, gray, flat, straight spaces of less than 2,000 feet below the surface. Stratus clouds like these show and disperse about 90% of the earth's crust, which cools the Earth by keeping the incoming energy from reaching the ground.

You can blame them for the scary weather. We continue to drive as the weather clears, but now we see thick clouds of cumulus passing through the sky. Cumulus clouds indicate that atmospheric forces are changing. Because they can be very large and reach to the sofar at the top of the atmosphere, they often show as much energy away from the Earth as they take to warm the Earth. So they are actually neutral regarding air heating. If we are lucky enough to drive this hot afternoon, we will see bright, lumpy cumulus clouds that continue to grow higher and bigger. Now the rain begins and we find our storm: rain - or nimbus - a form of cloud cumulus. Cumulonimbus clouds are heavy rain clouds that show the force of energy exploding like giant storms. Thanks, Bubble Thought! For astronomers, understanding the clouds and how energy moves in them is important to understand how our earth warms and cools and how the climate changes. While cirrus clouds appear only at higher levels, stratus and cumulus clouds can emerge at any higher level. And the names of the clouds well describe this.

So just as humans can be complex, we can say, say, cumulus clouds with bumps growing in the middle of over 2,000 meters but less than 6000 meters - at alto level. There is an altocumulus. Or we can have stratus clouds horizontally high above 6000 feet, forming layers of frozen cirrostratus. Cirrus or origin cirro means high level, alto refers to the middle level, and low level clouds are stratus or clear cumulus. Probably with a "nimbus" tied when it rains.

But wherever it is, clouds are naturally cooler and warmer, no matter how high they are, the type of clouds, the number of cloud cover, and the size. Basically, when we think of clouds as floating buckets of water, each type holds a different amount of water. And clouds are just one part of the hydrological cycle that revolves around water between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, and the biosphere. (Clouds bind the atmosphere and the hydrosphere together, by the way!) To form clouds, water must enter the atmosphere by evaporation, during which water molecules absorb heat just to replenish and replenish the surface like water vapor. Water vapor retains this energy just as much as the steam heat evaporates.

To turn a gram of liquid water into watervapor absorbs 585 calories, which to us would be like eating 5 large bananas. That is why when sweat evaporates from our body, it usually has a cooling effect. Liquid water absorbs some of the heat in our bodies and some water molecules turn into water. Moisture determines how much water vapor is in the air. In general, the air in high altitudes such as the Arctic and Antarctic is naturally cold because of the scorching sun, so it has very little water vapor and has little moisture. Areas such as the Caribbean or other tropical and subtropical regions of the world have a hot, humid air and high humidity. Because water vapor can store energy such as heat evaporating heat, moisture is linked to how much energy is available in the atmosphere to produce climate. So low humidity is part of why we rarely hear of destructive weather events like hurricanes coming down from the Arctic. And we can feel the moisture on a personal level, because the hair grows as the humidity increases and contracts as the humidity decreases. [I know one or two things about that ...] In the weather reports in the news when they talk about the "warm front with 55% humidity outside, back to you, Barbara", they're actually talking about related humidity. The relative humidity is the comparison between the actual amount of water vapor in the air and how much it can be in the air.

When the air at a certain temperature is 100% relative humidity, it contains the highest amount of possible water vapor. So it's full - like a water-soaked sponge that can't sink unless you take it out. Without "squeezing the water out" in the atmosphere… rain. Any type of moisture is highly dependent on the temperature of the air and how much moisture is available. At higher temperatures, there is a high probability that large water molecules will have the ability to evaporate into water vapor and flow around the atmosphere. So in tropical areas, the wind can “catch” water. Of course, just because a warm air can hold a lot of water does not mean that there is always water vapor all around. Inland regions, such as the Sahara Desert, are extremely arid because they are far from oceans and there is not much liquid water available to evaporate. But suppose we live in a kwa kab lake - so there is a lot of liquid water all around. The same humidity can feel very different depending on the air temperature. On a hot day, 70% humidity can feel heavy, sticky, and uncomfortable, almost like standing in a cloud. Because air can keep the water full, 70% of the filling is too much steam! Also, when it is hot, we sweat, and when there is a ton of moisture already in the air, our sweat cannot evaporate easily, so we are trapped and feel wet.

On a cold day, 70% relative humidity is very comfortable because cold air can trap a little water, so 70% fullness is not a lot of water vapor. Also, it's cold so we don't need to sweat a lot. Temperature changes can also change the relative humidity even if the moisture content remains the same. As in the daytime it may be sunny and hot and the relative humidity is only 50%. But as the sun sets and temperatures drop overnight, the air becomes more and more difficult to absorb water vapor. In the morning, it feels very wet, and the dew falls on the grass. We have reached 100% saturation although no additional vapor of water has been added to the air. In the middle of the night, we arrive at a dewdrop, where the water vapor can no longer return to the droplets of the liquid, given the present amount of evaporation in the air. Like dew on the grass or fog (which is actually just a cloud on the ground). So in the dewdrops, our symbolic sponge would become full and a cloud would appear. When we compare a dry region like the Sahara desert with a humid region like Mississippi, it requires more cooling to reach the dew point and get a desert summary than Mississippi. Although water vapor and fluid are just two different settings of water molecules, it is almost impossible to reach them if there is no place for the water droplet to cling to it, such as