Cloud

Cloud

In meteorology, a cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. These suspended particles are also known as aerosols. Clouds in earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated; cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. In general, precipitation will fall to the surface; an exception is virga, which evaporates before reaching the surface.

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Famous quotes containing the word cloud:

    Hearing the low sound
    of a cloud scattering rain
    at midnight
    and thinking for an eternity
    on his absent young wife,
    a traveller heaved a sigh
    and with a flood of tears
    howled the whole night long.
    Now, villagers won’t let him stay
    in their place anymore.
    Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)

    On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose,
    Tired of his dark dominion, swung the fiend
    Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened,
    George Meredith (1828–1909)

    Not for no cold did freeze,
    Nor any cloud beguile
    Th’eternal flowering spring,
    Torquato Tasso (1544–1595)