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An ice cloud is a colloid of ice particles dispersed in air. The term has been used to refer to clouds of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice on Mars. [1] Such clouds can be sufficiently large and dense to cast shadows on the Martian surface. [1] Cirrus and noctilucent clouds on Earth contain ice particles. [2]
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) [46] —a process known as the greenhouse effect. [47]
Clouds of the genus nimbostratus tend to bring constant precipitation and low visibility. This cloud type normally forms above 2 kilometres (6,600 ft) [10] from altostratus cloud but tends to thicken into the lower levels during the occurrence of precipitation. The top of a nimbostratus deck is usually in the middle level of the troposphere.
Ice crystals create optical phenomena like diamond dust and halos in the sky due to light reflecting off of the crystals in a process called scattering. [1] [2] [15] Cirrus clouds and ice fog are made of ice crystals. [1] [16] Cirrus clouds are often the sign of an approaching warm front, where warm and moist air rises and freezes into ice ...
Also actiniform. Describing a collection of low-lying, radially structured clouds with distinct shapes (resembling leaves or wheels in satellite imagery), and typically organized in extensive mesoscale fields over marine environments. They are closely related to and sometimes considered a variant of stratocumulus clouds. actinometer A scientific instrument used to measure the heating power of ...
An icy lake in southwestern China's high plateau region north of the Himalayas. ... Wispy noctilucent clouds in Earth's upper atmosphere are illuminated by the sunlight just after sunset above the ...
Polar stratospheric clouds over Western Norway. The stratosphere is very dry; unlike the troposphere, it rarely allows clouds to form.In the extreme cold of the polar winter, however, stratospheric clouds of different types may form, which are classified according to their physical state (super-cooled liquid or ice) and chemical composition.
The effect is created by the reflection of light from tiny ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or that comprise high-altitude clouds (e.g. cirrostratus or cirrus clouds). [1] If the light comes from the Sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar.