Cirrus Cloud - Relation To Other Clouds - Summary of High Cloud Genera

Summary of High Cloud Genera

There are three main genera in the family of high clouds: cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus. Cirrostratus clouds commonly produce halos because they are composed almost entirely of ice crystals. Cirrocumulus and cirrostratus are sometimes informally referred to as "cirriform clouds" because of their frequent association with cirrus. They are given the prefix "cirro-", but this refers more to their altitude range than their physical structure. Cirrocumulus in its pure form is actually a high cumuliform genus, and cirrostratus is stratiform, like altostratus and lower based sheet clouds.

Read more about this topic:  Cirrus Cloud, Relation To Other Clouds

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