Formation
Altostratus is caused by a large air mass that is lifted then condensed, usually by an incoming frontal system, and they can be found over widespread areas. Their altitude is from 2,400 to 6,100 metres (7,900 to 20,000 ft). They are primarily composed of water droplets. They can rise at velocities up to 0.05 to 0.1 metres per second (0.16 to 0.33 ft/s). They can also be the result of the thickening of a cirrostratus cloud. Altostratus is rarely seen alone in the sky, as there is usually some accompanying stratocumulus or stratus fractus underneath it, this being due to the increased moisture beneath the altostratus or cumulus clouds dying as the altostratus reduces surface heating by the sun.
Read more about this topic: Altostratus Cloud
Famous quotes containing the word formation:
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful—the formation of fixed habits of work.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)