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The word most often refers to the water cycle. [1] It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to liquid water when in contact with a liquid or solid surface or cloud condensation nuclei within the atmosphere. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition.
Clouds consist of microscopic droplets of liquid water (warm clouds), tiny crystals of ice (cold clouds), or both (mixed phase clouds), along with microscopic particles of dust, smoke, or other matter, known as condensation nuclei. [1] Cloud droplets initially form by the condensation of water vapor onto condensation nuclei when the ...
The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. [2] The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment.
Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers. [2] Moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed by the low temperature into clouds ...
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and ...
Precipitation occurs when evapotranspiration takes place and local air becomes saturated with water vapor, and so can no longer maintain the level of water vapor in gaseous form, which creates clouds. This occurs when less dense moist air cools, usually when an air mass rises through the atmosphere to higher and cooler altitudes.
Condensation in the atmosphere forms cloud droplets. Also, a net condensation of water vapor occurs on surfaces when the temperature of the surface is at or below the dew point temperature of the atmosphere. Deposition is a phase transition separate from condensation which leads to the direct formation of ice from water vapor.
On a microscopic scale, clouds are formed through the condensation of water on cloud condensation nuclei. These nuclei are aerosols such as dust or sea salt but also include certain forms of pollution. [1] Nuclei come from a variety of natural or anthropogenic sources.