Shelf Cloud and Different Types of Cloud
Source : DNA
GS I : Geography
Overview
- What is Shelf Cloud
- What are the different types of cloud?
Why in News ?
Formation of terrifying shelf cloud recently appeared in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar.
What is Shelf Cloud
- The term “shelf cloud” or “Arcus cloud” are both used to describe this meteorological phenomenon.
- A shelf cloud is a particular kind of low-lying, horizontal cloud formation that has a distinct line of solid clouds running across it.
- For its unusual wedge-shaped structure, Arcus Cloud is well-known.
- It often occurs on the front edge of a storm and extends horizontally beneath the primary cloud base.
- When a mass of cold, dense air is driven by the wind into a warmer air mass, shelf clouds are formed.
- This occurrence occurs when cold air swiftly descends and dissipates during a thunderstorm’s downdraft, producing a powerful gust front.
What are the different types of cloud?
Clouds are classified based on
- Height or Altitude
- Shape or Formation
Based on the Height or Altitude
A. High Clouds
B. Middle Clouds
C. Low Clouds
A. High Clouds
- They may soar higher than 20,000 feet or 6000 metres.
- They go by the name Cirrus Clouds as well.
- They are often composed of ice and are thin.
- They frequently herald fine weather, therefore they don’t bring rain.
Types of High Clouds
- Cirrus Clouds
- Typically found at heights greater than 6,000 meters.
- They are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of supercooled water droplets.
- The cirrus clouds are tiny and very thin.
- Cirrostratus Cloud
- When the cloud assumes the shape of a thin cirrostratus nebulosus, it can generate halos and is difficult to identify.
- Cirrostratus are transparent high clouds, which cover large areas of the sky.
- Cirrocumulus
- They are tiny, spherical puffy clouds with long rows that often appear high in the sky.
- Usually white, they can occasionally seem grey.
B. Middle Clouds
- Altitude : 2000 to 6000 metres
- This types of cloud shows the chance of storm.
- They are also called as Alto Clouds.
Types of Middle Clouds
- Altostratus
- It is made up of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of the two.
- Formation: Large quantities of warm, humid air ascend, forcing water vapour to condense, resulting in the formation of altostratus clouds.
- Warm fronts are typically predicted by altostratus clouds.
- Altocumulus
- Clouds having globe shaped masses or can be viewed as rolls in layers.
- Globes found to be darker than the the layer in a greyish sheet.
C. Low Clouds
- Altitude: 2500 metres
- Also called as Stratus Clouds.
- Formation: Dense, dark, and rainy (or snowy)
- It is viewed as hump on a blue sky.
Types of Low Clouds
- Strato Cumulus
- Formation: Large dark, rounded or globular masses, usually in groups, lines, or waves.
- Stratus
- Low-level stratus clouds have a largely uniform grey or white tint.
- Near the coast, stratus clouds form dense cloud cover.
- Nimbostratus
- Formation: Dark, Thick
- They forms precipitations, continous rain or snow.
- These clouds appear frequently in the atmosphere.
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