Cirrus cloud
Cirrus (
Cirrus clouds can form from the tops of
Cirrus clouds form in the atmospheres of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; and on Titan, one of Saturn's larger moons. Some of these extraterrestrial cirrus clouds are made of ammonia or methane ice, much like water ice in cirrus on Earth. Some interstellar clouds, made of grains of dust smaller than a thousandth of a millimeter, are also called cirrus.
Description
Cirrus are wispy clouds made of long strands of ice crystals that are described as feathery,[1] hair-like, or layered in appearance.[2] First defined scientifically by Luke Howard in an 1803 paper,[3] their name is derived from the Latin word cirrus, meaning 'curl' or 'fringe'.[4] They are transparent, meaning that the sun can be seen through them. Ice crystals in the clouds cause them to usually appear white, but the rising or setting sun can color them various shades of yellow or red.[2][5] At dusk, they can appear gray.[5]
Cirrus comes in five visually-distinct species:
- Cirrus castellanus has cumuliform tops caused by high-altitude convection rising up from the main cloud body.[2][6]
- Cirrus fibratus looks striated and is the most common cirrus species.[2][6]
- Cirrus floccus species looks like a series of tufts.[7]
- Cirrus spissatus is a particularly dense form of cirrus that often forms from thunderstorms.[8]
- Cirrus uncinus clouds are hooked and are the form that is usually called mare's tails.[6][9]
Each species is divided into up to four varieties: intortus, vertebratus, radiatus, and duplicatus:[10]
- Intortus variety has an extremely contorted shape, with Kelvin–Helmholtz waves being a form of cirrus intortus that has been twisted into loops by layers of wind blowing at different speeds, called wind shear.[6]
- Radiatus variety has large, radial bands of cirrus clouds that stretch across the sky.[6]
- Vertebratus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged side-by-side like ribs.[11]
- Duplicatus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged above one another in layers.[12]
Cirrus clouds often produce hair-like filaments called
Cirrus cloud cover varies diurnally. During the day, cirrus cloud cover drops, and during the night, it increases.[14] Based on CALIPSO satellite data, cirrus covers an average of 31% to 32% of the Earth's surface.[15] Cirrus cloud cover varies wildly by location, with some parts of the tropics reaching up to 70% cirrus cloud cover. Polar regions, on the other hand, have significantly less cirrus cloud cover, with some areas having a yearly average of only around 10% coverage.[14] These percentages treat clear days and nights, as well as days and nights with other cloud types, as lack of cirrus cloud cover.[16]
Formation
Cirrus clouds are usually formed as warm, dry air rises,
At latitudes of 65° N or S, close to polar regions, cirrus clouds form, on average, only 7,000 m (23,000 ft) above sea level. In temperate regions, at roughly 45° N or S, their average altitude increases to 9,500 m (31,200 ft) above sea level. In tropical regions, at roughly 5° N or S, cirrus clouds form 13,500 m (44,300 ft) above sea level on average. Across the globe, cirrus clouds can form anywhere from 4,000 to 20,000 m (13,000 to 66,000 ft) above sea level.[18] Cirrus clouds form with a vast range of thicknesses. They can be as little as 100 m (330 ft) from top to bottom to as thick as 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Cirrus cloud thickness is usually somewhere between those two extremes, with an average thickness of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).[22]
The jet stream, a high-level wind band, can stretch cirrus clouds long enough to cross continents.[23] Jet streaks, bands of faster-moving air in the jet stream, can create arcs of cirrus cloud hundreds of kilometers long.[24]
Cirrus cloud formation may be effected by organic aerosols (particles produced by plants) acting as additional nucleation points for ice crystal formation.[25][26] However, research suggests that cirrus clouds more commonly form on rocky or metallic particles rather than on organic ones.[17]
Tropical cyclones
Thunderstorms
Individual cirrus cloud formations can be the remnants of anvil clouds formed by thunderstorms. In the dissipating stage of a cumulonimbus cloud, when the normal column rising up to the anvil has evaporated or dissipated, the mat of cirrus in the anvil is all that is left.[33]
Contrails
Use in forecasting
Random, isolated cirrus do not have any particular significance.[19] A large number of cirrus clouds can be a sign of an approaching frontal system or upper air disturbance. The appearance of cirrus signals a change in weather—usually more stormy—in the near future.[37] If the cloud is a cirrus castellanus, there might be instability at the high altitude level.[19] When the clouds deepen and spread, especially when they are of the cirrus radiatus variety or cirrus fibratus species, this usually indicates an approaching weather front. If it is a warm front, the cirrus clouds spread out into cirrostratus, which then thicken and lower into altocumulus and altostratus. The next set of clouds are the rain-bearing nimbostratus clouds.[1][19][38] When cirrus clouds precede a cold front, squall line or multicellular thunderstorm, it is because they are blown off the anvil, and the next clouds to arrive are the cumulonimbus clouds.[38] Kelvin-Helmholtz waves indicate extreme wind shear at high levels.[19] When a jet streak creates a large arc of cirrus, weather conditions may be right for the development of winter storms.[24]
Within the tropics, 36 hours prior to the center passage of a tropical cyclone, a veil of white cirrus clouds approaches from the direction of the cyclone.[39] In the mid- to late-19th century, forecasters used these cirrus veils to predict the arrival of hurricanes. In the early 1870s the president of Belén College in Havana, Father Benito Viñes, developed the first hurricane forecasting system; he mainly used the motion of these clouds in formulating his predictions.[40] He would observe the clouds hourly from 4:00 am to 10:00 pm. After accumulating enough information, Viñes began accurately predicting the paths of hurricanes; he summarized his observations in his book Apuntes Relativos a los Huracanes de las Antilles, published in English as Practical Hints in Regard to West Indian Hurricanes.[41]
Effects on climate
Cirrus clouds cover up to 25% of the Earth (up to 70% in the tropics at night[42]) and have a net heating effect.[43] When they are thin and translucent, the clouds efficiently absorb outgoing infrared radiation while only marginally reflecting the incoming sunlight.[44] When cirrus clouds are 100 m (330 ft) thick, they reflect only around 9% of the incoming sunlight, but they prevent almost 50% of the outgoing infrared radiation from escaping, thus raising the temperature of the atmosphere beneath the clouds by an average of 10 °C (18 °F)[45]—a process known as the greenhouse effect.[46] Averaged worldwide, cloud formation results in a temperature loss of 5 °C (9 °F) at the earth's surface, mainly the result of stratocumulus clouds.[47]
Cirrus clouds are likely becoming more common due to
Cloud properties
Scientists have studied the properties of cirrus using several different methods.
Cirrus clouds have an average ice crystal concentration of 300,000 ice crystals per 10
In addition to forming in different sizes, the ice crystals in cirrus clouds can crystallize in different shapes: solid columns, hollow columns, plates, rosettes, and conglomerations of the various other types. The shape of the ice crystals is determined by the air temperature,
Cirrus clouds are usually colder than −20 °C (−4 °F).[55] At temperatures above −68 °C (−90 °F), most cirrus clouds have relative humidities of roughly 100% (that is they are saturated).[56] Cirrus can supersaturate, with relative humidities over ice that can exceed 200%.[57][56] Below −68 °C (−90 °F) there are more of both undersaturated and supersaturated cirrus clouds.[58] The more supersaturated clouds are probably young cirrus.[56]
Optical phenomena
Cirrus clouds can produce several optical effects like halos around the Sun and Moon. Halos are caused by interaction of the light with hexagonal ice crystals present in the clouds which, depending on their shape and orientation, can result in a wide variety of white and colored rings, arcs and spots in the sky, including sun dogs,[55] the 46° halo,[59] the 22° halo,[59] and circumhorizontal arcs.[60][61] Circumhorizontal arcs are only visible when the Sun rises higher than 58° above the horizon, preventing observers at higher latitudes from ever being able to see them.[62]
More rarely, cirrus clouds are capable of producing glories, more commonly associated with liquid water-based clouds such as stratus. A glory is a set of concentric, faintly-colored glowing rings that appear around the shadow of the observer, and are best observed from a high viewpoint or from a plane.[63] Cirrus clouds only form glories when the constituent ice crystals are aspherical; researchers suggest that the ice crystals must be between 0.009 millimeters and 0.015 millimeters in length for a glory to appear.[64]
Relation to other clouds
Cirrus clouds are one of three different genera of high-level clouds, all of which are given the prefix "cirro-". The other two genera are cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. High-level clouds usually form above 6,100 m (20,000 ft).[1][65][66] Cirrocumulus and cirrostratus are sometimes informally referred to as cirriform clouds because of their frequent association with cirrus.[67]
In the intermediate range, from 2,000 to 6,100 m (6,500 to 20,000 ft),[1][65] are the mid-level clouds, which are given the prefix "alto-". They comprise two genera, altostratus and altocumulus. These clouds are formed from ice crystals, supercooled water droplets, or liquid water droplets.[1]
Low-level clouds usually form below 2,000 m (6,500 ft) and do not have a prefix.
Cirrocumulus
Cirrocumulus clouds form in sheets or patches[69] and do not cast shadows. They commonly appear in regular, rippling patterns[66] or in rows of clouds with clear areas between.[1] Cirrocumulus are, like other members of the cumuliform category, formed via convective processes.[70] Significant growth of these patches indicates high-altitude instability and can signal the approach of poorer weather.[71][72] The ice crystals in the bottoms of cirrocumulus clouds tend to be in the form of hexagonal cylinders. They are not solid, but instead tend to have stepped funnels coming in from the ends. Towards the top of the cloud, these crystals have a tendency to clump together.[73] These clouds do not last long, and they tend to change into cirrus because as the water vapor continues to deposit on the ice crystals, they eventually begin to fall, destroying the upward convection. The cloud then dissipates into cirrus.[74] Cirrocumulus clouds come in four species: stratiformis, lenticularis, castellanus, and floccus.[71] They are iridescent when the constituent supercooled water droplets are all about the same size.[72]
Cirrostratus
Cirrostratus clouds can appear as a milky sheen in the sky[71] or as a striated sheet.[66] They are sometimes similar to altostratus and are distinguishable from the latter because the Sun or Moon is always clearly visible through transparent cirrostratus, in contrast to altostratus which tends to be opaque or translucent.[75] Cirrostratus come in two species, fibratus and nebulosus.[71] The ice crystals in these clouds vary depending upon the height in the cloud. Towards the bottom, at temperatures of around −35 to −45 °C (−31 to −49 °F), the crystals tend to be long, solid, hexagonal columns. Towards the top of the cloud, at temperatures of around −47 to −52 °C (−53 to −62 °F), the predominant crystal types are thick, hexagonal plates and short, solid, hexagonal columns.[74][76] These clouds commonly produce halos, and sometimes the halo is the only indication that such clouds are present.[77] They are formed by warm, moist air being lifted slowly to a very high altitude.[78] When a warm front approaches, cirrostratus clouds become thicker and descend forming altostratus clouds,[1] and rain usually begins 12 to 24 hours later.[77]
Other planets
Cirrus clouds have been observed on several other planets. In 2008, the Martian Lander
On Jupiter, cirrus clouds are composed of
Notes
References
Footnotes
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