Cirrus clouds come in four varieties: intortus, radiatus, vertebratus, and duplicatus.
The clouds in this photo are cirrus clouds. I took this photo while I was hiking around the lake at Collis P Huntington Park. This park spans 1,017 acres in Redding, Connecticut. It was donated to the state in 1973 by the Huntington family. Huntington Park is known for its small lakes and surrounding trails. This photo was taken at the East Lagoon Pond on the north end of the park while hiking on the red trail. There are approximately 10 miles of trails throughout the park.
Cirrus clouds come in four varieties: intortus, radiatus, vertebratus, and duplicatus. The intortus variety has extremely contorted shapes. This variety includes the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability that appears as twisted loops and is caused by layers of wind blowing at different speeds. The radiatus variety is made up of large radial bands of clouds that stretch across the sky. The vertebratus variety is present when cirrus clouds are set side-by-side as if they were ribs. Lastly, the duplicatus variety is seen when the cirrus clouds stack above one another in layers.
Contrails are actually an artificial type of cirrus cloud. You have probably seen a contrail before if you’ve ever seen the trail of clouds tailing behind an airplane. These cirrus clouds form when the water vapor from the jet engine exhaustion condenses on particles. The surrounding particles are either from the surrounding air or the exhaust itself. These particles then freeze which leaves behind a visible trail.
Contrails are actually an artificial type of cirrus cloud.
Did you know?
- Cirrus clouds can cover up to 25% of the Earth’s surface at any given time. In the tropics this can be as high as 70% at night! These clouds end up having a net heating effect on the Earth.
- Cirrus clouds allow 91% of the sun’s light through, and they prevent 50% of the outgoing infrared radiation from escaping when they are 330 feet thick.
- There are on average 270,000 ice crystals per 10 cubic yards. This can be as low as 1 ice crystal per 10 cubic yards.
- These clouds are usually colder than -4 degrees Farenheit.
- On Jupiter, the cirrus clouds that form there are made of ammonia.
- Cirrus clouds can form on the edge of hurricanes
0 Comments