Chapter 1

Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere

clouds, as they are observed visually and by satellite,

Here lions threat, there elephants will range, without trying to explain them physically or dynamically.
And camel-necks to vapoury dragons change. . . A purely descriptive approach to cloud identification is both
Goethe, In Honour of Howard 1 traditional and practical. Descriptive nomenclature is
implemented consistently around the world to provide
weather observers at all locations with a simple and direct
way to report clouds without having to make a physical
Clouds are those everchanging occupants of the everyday
interpretation of what they see. For our purposes, it allows
sky that led Goethe to imagine lions, elephants, and camels
us to identify the major categories of clouds that we must
turning into dragons. Although clouds are made up of
explain and interpret in later chapters. In Section 1.1, we
numerous microscopic droplets of water and ice particles,
will briefly review the nomenclature used to describe the
the objects that we see in the sky are the broad reflections
vertical and horizontal dimensions of atmospheric phe-
produced when these tiny particles reflect light showing
nomena. In Section 1.2, we examine the internationally rec-
that they are contained in volumes of air taking the shapes
ognized cloud-identification scheme, which is based solely
of bubbling white towers, streaks of thin cloud against a
on what clouds look like to a person observing them
blue sky, and numerous other forms that have given rise
visually from a location on Earth or by an observer in an
to such poetic imagery as mackerel sky, mares’ tails, thun-
aircraft.
derheads, funnels, banners, and many others. From a scien-
Observations by an earthbound or aircraft bound
tific standpoint, these diverse shapes are important to
observer miss some of the important morphology of clouds.
recognize and identify because they are manifestations
Since the 1960s, meteorological satellites have observed
of the fluid motions of the atmosphere that produce the
clouds from space and revealed that clouds have structures
clouds. We refer to these fluid motions of the air as cloud
too large to be appreciated by a lone human visual
dynamics. As air rises, water condenses to form small
observer. These larger cloud structures are associated with
water drops or ice particles, whose individual formation
larger scale wind and pressure patterns, including those of
and growth processes are called cloud microphysics. In
organized storm systems such as fronts and tropical
Chapters 2 and 3, we will review the basic dynamical
cyclones. Section 1.3 describes the signature cloud patterns
and microphysical relations governing cloud formation.
of major atmospheric storm types. Finally, satellite remote
Because clouds are difficult to observe directly, cloud
sensing has allowed determination of the global clima-
study requires methods of sensing them remotely, and such
tology of the basic cloud types, and Section 1.4 presents
techniques are reviewed in Chapter 4. Part II of this book
this view of clouds over Earth as detected by specialized
delves into how dynamics combine with microphysics to
satellites.
produce the different types of clouds that occur in the
atmosphere.
Before embarking on these chapters, we first review the 1.1 ATMOSPHERIC STRUCTURE
nomenclature used to describe the basic categories of
AND SCALES
The atmosphere is usually divided into several layers, based
on the mean vertical profile of temperature (Figure 1.1).
1. Goethe’s In Honour of Howard is a poem about clouds dedicated to his
Most, but not all, clouds occur in the lowest layer, called
admiration of Luke Howard, the early nineteenth-century British phar-
macist and meteorologist, who devised the naming system of clouds in the troposphere, which contains nearly all of the water in
use today. Goethe was enthusiastically interested in clouds and corre- the atmosphere. The mean temperature decreases with
sponded with Howard. A few other lines from Goethe’s poem appear later height in the troposphere. At its top is the tropopause, which
in this book. For more on Howard and his relationship to Goethe, see Scott occurs at about the 12-km level but is lower over the poles
(1976). and higher in equatorial regions. Above the tropopause, the

Cloud Dynamics, Vol. 104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-374266-7.00001-9

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 3
4 PART I Fundamentals
FIGURE 1.1 Vertical temperature profile for the U.S. Standard Atmo-
sphere. From Wallace and Hobbs (1977). Copyright Elsevier.
mean temperature profile is first isothermal and then
increases with height in the stratosphere. Above the
stratosphere is the mesosphere, which is another layer in
which clouds occur, though in very small amounts (see
Section 1.2.6).
At the bottom of the troposphere, the atmosphere is
affected by the presence of Earth’s surface, through the
transfers of heat and momentum. The layer in which this
influence is felt is called the planetary boundary layer
(Figure 1.2). As will be discussed in Section 2.11.2, the
depth of the planetary boundary layer is highly variable,
ranging from
10 m to 2–3 km. The lowest 10% of the
planetary boundary layer is referred to as the surface layer.
The region lying above the boundary layer is referred to as
the free atmosphere.
The scales of air motion encountered in cloud dynamics
can be divided roughly into three ranges. The synoptic scale
encompasses phenomena exceeding about 2000 km in hor-
izontal scale; the mesoscale covers phenomena between
about 20 and 2000 km in scale; and the convective scale
covers phenomena between 0.2 and 20 km.2 These defini-
tions are loose and somewhat overlapping, and a universally
accepted physical (as opposed to phenomenological) dis-
tinction of these scales has not been achieved.3 The discus-
sions and interpretations in this book are not strongly
2. These ranges were suggested by Orlanski (1975). For an extension of
Orlanski’s scheme into the domain of cloud and aerosol microphysical pro-
cesses, see Hobbs (1981).
3. For a discussion of the problem of defining the mesoscale physically,
see Emanuel (1986b).
dependent on the distinctions among these three scales;
however, the above ranges are useful to keep in mind as
a guide.
1.2 CLOUD TYPES IDENTIFIED VISUALLY
1.2.1 Genera, Species, and Étages
Visual observation of clouds shows that they take on several
distinctive forms. These forms have internationally agreed
upon names that allow official weather observers to record
and report the local state of the sky in a way that is readily
understandable without the aid of pictures. Once every 6 h,
observers at weather stations around the world identify the
amount and types of clouds present, and this information is
transmitted for immediate use, as well as archived for cli-
matological purposes. Many stations make a more limited
evaluation of the state of the sky every hour.
The internationally agreed method of naming clouds
serves as a convenient way to begin to organize our dis-
cussion of cloud dynamics. The categories of clouds reported
by observers are identified purely on the basis of their visual
appearance. Thus, the observer is not required to make a
physical interpretation. Our task as scientists is to provide
a dynamical explanation for each type of cloud, and that is
the focus of this book. Chapters 5–8 and 12 will be devoted
to the dynamics of those clouds that can be identified visually
by a ground observer. Chapters 9–11 will be concerned with
the dynamics of larger conglomerates of clouds, which are
too spatially extensive to be identified by a ground observer
and must be identified from a satellite perspective.
The method of visual identification and classification of
clouds that we follow in this book is basically that of the
World Meteorological Organization’s International Cloud
Atlas,4 which is the guidebook for official weather
observers around the world.5 According to this scheme,
4. There have been several editions of this atlas. The first was the Inter-
national Atlas of Clouds and Study of the Sky, General Atlas, published
in 1932 by the International Commission for the Study of Clouds. The
World Meteorological Organization (established in 1951) published the
first edition of the International Cloud Atlas, Volumes I and II in 1956.
The first volume contains descriptive and explanatory text, while the
second volume contains 224 illustrative plates. An abridged version com-
bining the essential information in the two original volumes was published
in 1969. A revised edition of Volume I was published under the title
Manual on the Observation of Clouds and Other Meteors in 1975. An
extensively updated version of Volume II, containing 196 plates, was pub-
lished in 1987.
5. Other useful pictorial cloud guides include Cloud Atlas, An Artist’s
View of Living Cloud (Itoh and Ohta, 1967), Clouds of the World: A Com-
plete Color Encyclopedia (Scorer, 1972), A Field Guide to the Atmosphere
(Schaefer and Day, 1981), The Cloud Atlas of China (National
Meteorological Service of China, 1984), and Spacious Skies (Scorer and
Verkaik, 1989).
 Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 5

FIGURE 1.2 Division of the atmosphere into two layers:

a boundary layer near the surface and the free atmosphere
above. The top of the boundary layer is often
1 km
but may be much less, e.g.,
100 m, depending on wind
and thermodynamic properties of the air near the surface.
The tropopause height is
10–12 km at high altitudes
and
14–18 km in the tropics. From Stull (1988).
Copyright Elsevier. Republished with permission of
Springer Science þ Business Media B.V.

TABLE 1.1 Genera and Étages of Clouds Identified Visually

Height of Cloud Base

Genus Étage Polar Regions Temperate Regions Tropical Regions

Cumulus
Cumulonimbus
Stratus Low Below 2 km Below 2 km Below 2 km
Stratocumulus
Nimbostratus

Altostratus Middle 2–4 km 2–7 km 2–8 km

Altocumulus
Cirrus
Cirrostratus High 3–8 km 5–13 km 6–18 km
Cirrocumulus

cloud types are given descriptive names based on Latin root
words.6 Cumulus means heap or pile. Stratus is the past par-
ticiple of the verb meaning to flatten out or cover with a
layer. Cirrus means a lock of hair or a tuft of horsehair.
Nimbus refers to a precipitating cloud, and altum is the word
for height. These 5 Latin roots are used either separately or
in combination to define 10 mutually exclusive cloud
genera, which are organized into 3 groups, or e´tages, cor-
responding to the typical height of the base of the cloud
above the local height of Earth’s surface, as indicated in
Table 1.1.7 The étages overlap and their limits vary with
altitude. Each genus may take on several different forms,
6. The Latin naming scheme was proposed in 1803 by Luke Howard.
The Latin names quickly caught on and have been used in meteorological
textbooks since the mid-nineteenth century.
7. The method of dividing the atmosphere vertically into three layers
(étages) where clouds form was introduced by the French naturalist Jean
Babtiste Lamarck in 1802. He proposed a cloud classification with French
names, which were not universally adopted. Today’s cloud classification
scheme is a combination of Howard’s Latin names and Lamarck’s organi-
zation into three étages.
which are designated as species. Species are further subdi-
vided into varieties. In this book, we will refer to only a few
species and varieties; however, we will consider all of the
10 genera.
In addition to the genera in Table 1.1, we will consider
fog as an 11th cloud type. Fog is generally any cloud whose
base touches the ground. It does not appear as a cloud genus
in Table 1.1 because, according to the internationally spec-
ified procedures for reporting and archiving meteorological
data, fog is coded by weather observers not as a cloud but
rather as a “restriction to visibility.” In this book, we depart
from this convention and consider fog to be a type of cloud.
It is grouped with clouds of the lowest étage, since the cloud
base is at the ground.
In Sections 1.2.2–1.2.4, we will define, describe briefly,
and show examples of each of the cloud types corre-
sponding to the 10 genera listed in Table 1.1 plus fog.
We will examine these 11 cloud types in groups, according
to étage, considering first the low clouds, then middle
clouds, and finally high clouds. This order of discussion
follows roughly the way in which a trained weather
observer normally proceeds, as the observer’s job is to
6 PART I Fundamentals
(a)
FIGURE 1.3 (a) Cumulus humilis. (b) Cumulus congestus over Puget Sound near Anacortes, Washington. (a) Photo by Ronald L. Holle. (b) Photo by
Steven Businger.
describe the entire state of the sky, in terms of all of the
clouds present. First, the low clouds are identified. Then,
to the extent that low clouds do not obscure them, the
middle cloud types and amounts are determined. Finally,
the high clouds are evaluated, to the extent that they are
not obscured by low and middle clouds.
After discussing the 11 basic cloud types and their
grouping according to the three étages in Sections 1.2.2–
1.2.4, we will discuss the particular form taken by certain
orographically induced clouds in Section 1.2.5. Many of
these orographic clouds are designated as lenticularis,8
which is a species of stratocumulus, altocumulus, or cirro-
cumulus. Lenticularis, however, is such a unique cloud
form that it could be considered a genus unto itself, and
we will treat it separately in this text. Chapters 5–9 are con-
cerned with the dynamics of clouds of the 11 basic cloud
types, except for the lenticularis species, which is covered
in Chapter 12 as part of the separate treatment of the
dynamics of orographic clouds.
1.2.2 Low Clouds
Clouds of the lowest étage include six types: the five low-
cloud genera listed in Table 1.1 plus fog. These six types
may be divided into two subgroups: cumuliform clouds
(cumulus and cumulonimbus), which are composed of
rapidly rising air currents that give the clouds a bubbling
and towering aspect, and stratiform clouds (fog, stratus,
stratocumulus, and nimbostratus), which are broad sheets
of quiescent clouds characterized by little or no vertical
movement of air.
The cumuliform clouds are of two genera, depending on
whether or not they are precipitating. The nonprecipitating
ones are called cumulus clouds and are described as
“detached clouds, generally dense and with sharp outlines,
developing vertically in the form of rising mounds, domes
or towers, of which the bulging upper part often resembles
a cauliflower. The sunlit parts of these clouds are mostly
brilliant white; their base is relatively dark and nearly
8. Meaning the shape of a lentil in Latin, or, in more modern terms, lens
shaped.
(b)
horizontal. Sometimes cumulus is ragged.”9 Cumulus
clouds occur in a wide range of sizes. They are less than
a kilometer in horizontal and vertical extent in their early
stages of development, and often never become any larger
(Figure 1.3a), particularly when the individual clouds are
isolated. However, when there is a tendency for the clouds
to cluster, cumulus may grow to larger size (Figure 1.3b).
These large cumulus (species congestus) consist of a heap
of rapidly fluctuating bulbous towers, which give it its “cau-
liflower” appearance. It may have tops extending into the
second étage. However, it is always considered to be a
low cloud because its base is usually in the lowest layer.
Precipitating cumuliform clouds are called cumulo-
nimbus and are described as “heavy and dense cloud, with
a considerable vertical extent, in the form of a mountain or
huge towers. At least part of its upper portion is usually
smooth, or fibrous or striated, and nearly always flattened;
this part often spreads out in the shape of an anvil or vast
plume. Under the base of this cloud, which is often very
dark, there are frequently low ragged clouds either merged
with it or not, and precipitation sometimes in the form of
virga [precipitation not reaching the ground].” The cumulo-
nimbus is an advanced stage of cumulus development. As
cumulus congestus continue to grow, they develop precip-
itation (hence the nimbus designation), and the top usually
turns to ice. The precipitation falling from a dynamically
active cumulonimbus is often called convective precipi-
tation. An example of cumulus congestus growing to the
cumulonimbus stage is shown in Figure 1.4a–d. In its later
stages, the icy structure at the top has a fibrous appearance,
and high winds aloft can blow the top downwind, thus pro-
ducing the anvil structure (Figure 1.4c and d). The top of the
anvil in the tallest clouds is usually very near the tropopause
level; it is flattened because the rising air in the cloud cannot
significantly penetrate the very stable stratosphere. As the
glaciated anvil ages, large quantities of icy cloud material
are injected into the upper troposphere (Figure 1.5). From a
satellite perspective, the anvil spreading downwind is the
primary feature identifying a cumulonimbus (Figure 1.6).
9. Definitions of cloud genera given in quotes are from the International
Cloud Atlas. (The same definitions are used in all versions of the atlas.)

(a)
(c)
FIGURE 1.4 Time sequence showing cumulus congestus developing into cumulonimbus south of Key Biscayne, Florida. Photos by Howard B.
Bluestein.
FIGURE 1.5 Anvil of a cumulonimbus, as seen from Cimarron, Col-
orado. The anvil is classified as cirrus spissatus cumulonimbogenitus. If
the anvil were more widespread, as from a line or group of cumulonimbus
clouds, it would be classified as cirrostratus cumulonimbogenitus. Photo by
Ronald L. Holle.
Like cumulus congestus, the cumulonimbus is classified as
a low cloud by earthbound observers because its base is
within the lowest étage. It often extends through all three
layers, with its anvil occurring in the highest étage. Users
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 7
(b)
(d)
FIGURE 1.6 Visible wavelength satellite photograph of cumulonimbus
anvils of supercell thunderstorms over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
(Bar
100 km.)
of satellite data often refer to the cumulonimbus as a high
cloud owing to the altitude of its top.
The ice-cloud anvil is not an essential feature of cumu-
lonimbus. In the tropics, a towering cumulus whose top is
8 PART I Fundamentals

well below the 0  C level and therefore lacks an anvil often
produces a heavy shower of rain. Since it rains, the towering
cumulus designation changes to cumulonimbus. At higher
latitudes, an anvil shape may not be seen at the upper levels
of a precipitating cumuliform cloud if the wind shear in the
environment of the cloud is weak, even if the upper portion
of the cloud is composed of ice particles.
Low stratiform clouds contrast sharply with the cumu-
liform clouds. Their internal air motions do not achieve
nearly the vigor of the up- and downdrafts found in the
cumuliform clouds. Technically, fog is any cloud whose
base touches the ground. Thus, a cloud intersecting a hill
or mountain would be reported as fog by an observer on
the portion of the hill enshrouded by cloud, while an
observer located below the base of the cloud would identify
the cloud by 1 of the 10 genera listed in Table 1.1. What we
will consider to be a true fog occurs as a result of the air
being in contact with the ground and as such is not described
in terms of 1 of the 10 genera. Steam fog forms when cold
air is over warm water, and a turbulent steam rises from the
water surface (Figure 1.7a). The most common and wide-
spread types of fog occur when a layer of air is in contact
with a cold surface. Radiation fog forms when the under-
lying surface was cooled by infrared radiation. For radiation
fog to form, the air must be very calm, as the turbulence
associated with any wind would destroy the fog. An
example of radiation fog is shown in Figure 1.7b. Radiation
fog may be quite widespread, covering mesoscale or
synoptic-scale regions of Earth (e.g., fog is seen covering
the entire Central Valley of California in Figure 1.7c).
Advection fog forms when warm air moves over a pre-
existing cold surface. Advection fog often forms over

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

FIGURE 1.7 (a) Steam fog over a pond. (b) A shallow layer of radiation fog, sometimes called “ground fog.” (c) Satellite view of fog in California’s
Central Valley. (d) Satellite view of advection fog and stratus cloud along the west coast of the United States. (a) Free photo from cepolina.com. (b) Photo
by Matthias Suessen. (c) NASA image, bar
100 km. (d) NASA satellite photo, bar
100 km.

the cool water off the California coast Figure 1.7d; since
we cannot see the surface, it is difficult to be certain that
the cloud’s base is actually in contact with the ocean
surface.
Stratus comprises a “generally grey cloud layer with a
fairly uniform base, which may give drizzle, ice prisms,
or snow grains. When the sun is visible through the cloud,
its outline is clearly discernible. Sometimes stratus appears
in the form of ragged patches.” This type of cloud is dif-
ficult to observe completely from the ground because it is
often so horizontally extensive that it lies like a blanket
overhead, so that it is impossible to see the top or sides
of the cloud (Figure 1.8a). When viewed from above, as
in Figure 1.8b, and the sun is not blocked by middle or high
clouds, the top of the cloud may be brilliantly white, in con-
trast to its grayish cast when viewed from underneath.
Stratus is generally not a thick cloud (1 km), as indicated
by the fact that the outline of the sun is typically visible
through it.
Stratocumulus refers to a “grey or whitish, or both grey
and whitish, patch, sheet, or layer of cloud which almost
always has dark parts, composed of tessellations, rounded
masses, rolls, etc., which are non-fibrous (except for virga)
and which may or may not be merged; most of the regu-
larly arranged small elements usually have an apparent
width of more than five degrees.” This type of cloud is
often very similar to stratus in that it is a low overhanging
blanket of cloud. It is distinguishable from stratus in that
it has clearly identifiable elements. In the example of
Figure 1.9a, the elements are in the form of long lines or
tessellations. Another common behavior is for the ele-
ments to be in the form of a mosaic of clumps, as seen from
an aircraft in Figure 1.9b.
FIGURE 1.8 (a) Stratus cloud seen from the (a)
ground. (b) Stratus seen from Denny Mountain.
Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. (a) Photo by Reid
Wolcott. (b) Photo by Steven Businger.
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 9
When stratocumulus occur in long lines, they are some-
times called cloud streets (or by the Latin radiatus). The
cloud streets form along lines of wind shear and this process
will be discussed further in Chapter 5. Cloud streets can be
quite long, and the individual cloud elements in the streets
can become more vigorous toward their downshear or
downwind ends, where they can take the form of small to
moderate cumulus (Figure 1.10).
Satellite pictures show that stratus and stratocumulus
may cover regions
1000 km in horizontal scale
(Figure 1.11). They also show that a field of stratus is
usually not separate from stratocumulus. In the example
of stratus and stratocumulus off the west coast of South
America (Figure 1.11a), the clouds nearest to the coast
show little texture and consist of stratus and/or fog.
Farther out to sea, the cloud layer turns into stratocumulus.
The pattern becomes progressively more textured, breaking
up into gradually larger stratocumulus clumps. In the
cloud pattern off the eastern and southeastern coastlines
of North America shown in Figure 1.11b, the stratocu-
mulus is organized into cloud streets by strong cold surface
winds blowing off the continent over the warm waters of
the Atlantic Gulf Stream and Gulf of Mexico. The cloud
streets widen farther out to sea and eventually turn into
a pattern of clumpy stratocumulus. Some of the cloud
elements in the cloud streets may be small to moderate
cumulus or cumulonimbus rather than stratocumulus, as
in Figure 1.10.
Nimbostratus is a “grey cloud layer, often dark, the
appearance of which is rendered diffuse by more or less
continuously falling rain or snow, which in most cases
reaches the ground. It is thick enough throughout to blot
out the sun. Low, ragged clouds frequently occur below
(b)
10 PART I Fundamentals
(a)
(b)
FIGURE 1.9 (a) Stratocumulus near Mitchell, South Dakota. (b) Stratocumulus seen from aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean, west of the southwest coast of
England, toward north. (a) Photo by Arthur L. Rangno. (b) Photo by Ronald L. Holle.
FIGURE 1.10 “Cloud streets” viewed from aircraft. Photo by Daniel
Melconian, obtained with the photographer’s permission via the Cloud
Appreciation Society, with the aid of Gavin Pretor-Pinney and Ian Loxley.
the layer, with which they may or may not merge.”
The main difference between nimbostratus and stratus is
that the former can be extremely deep, with a top at the
tropopause level. Also, stratus never produces significant
precipitation while nimbostratus usually does. Thus, deep
nimbostratus clouds, like cumulonimbus, can extend
through all the étages and have upper layers composed
entirely of ice. It is difficult to illustrate the visual appearance
of nimbostratus in a photograph. It is simply a dark, rainy
cloud covering the entire sky (Figure 1.12). Cloud base
may be in either the low or middle étage. The rain area is
extensive and restricts horizontal visibility. Distant objects,
such as the islands in Figure 1.12, are progressively more
obscured as their range from the viewer increases. The pre-
cipitation falling from nimbostratus is often called stratiform
precipitation, to distinguish it from the convective precipi-
tation falling from active cumulonimbus clouds. As we
will see in Chapter 6, a cloud complex may contain both
active cumulonimbus and nimbostratus, and it is sometimes
important to distinguish the convective from the stratiform
precipitation within a given cloud complex.
1.2.3 Middle Clouds
There are just two genera of clouds of the middle étage
(Table 1.1). Altostratus is a “greyish or bluish cloud sheet
or layer of striated, fibrous or uniform appearance, totally
or partly covering the sky and having parts thin enough
to reveal the sun at least vaguely, as through ground glass.

(a)
FIGURE 1.11 (a) Satellite view of stratocumulus off west coast of South America. (b) Satellite view of stratocumulus off the eastern and southeastern
coast of North America. NASA photos.
FIGURE 1.12 Nimbostratus. From Guemes Island, looking toward
Orcas Island, Puget Sound, Washington. Photo by Steven Businger.
Altostratus does not show halo10 phenomena.” It differs
from stratus in that the base of the cloud is in the middle
étage. The base of altostratus is well above the mountain
in the example shown in Figure 1.13. It differs from nimbo-
stratus in that precipitation from it does not reach the ground
and it does not always obscure the sun. A corona, consisting
of colored rings of light close to and centered on the sun or
moon,11 is sometimes seen in altostratus.
Altocumulus is a “white or grey, or both white and grey,
patch, sheet or layer of cloud, generally with shading, com-
posed of laminae, rounded masses, rolls, etc., which are
sometimes partly fibrous or diffuse and which may or
10. The “halo” is an optical phenomenon produced by the sun shining
through a particular type of ice crystal cloud. It is associated with high
clouds. See the definition of cirrostratus in the next subsection.
11. The “corona” is of angular radius 15 or less and produced by dif-
fraction of light by small water droplets.
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 11
(b)
FIGURE 1.13 Altostratus. Bodø, Norway. Photo by Steven Businger.
may not be merged; most of the regularly arranged small
elements usually have an apparent width between one
and five degrees.” Altocumulus is usually quite thin. Its
distinguishing trait is that it is composed of distinct ele-
ments. The elements may take on various forms, which
define different species and varieties of altocumulus. Thin,
flat layers broken up into distinct elements are called
altocumulus stratiformis and are similar to stratocumulus
except for being based in midlevels. Sometimes the ele-
ments of these clouds are clumps, either well detached from
one another or like pieces of a mosaic (Figure 1.14a).
In other cases, the elements may be like long rolls12
(Figure 1.14b). Altocumulus castellanus (meaning castle
shaped, see Figure 1.14c) consists of elevated small
cumulus clouds rather than elevated stratocumulus.
12. This type of altocumulus is sometimes called a “mackerel sky.”
12 PART I Fundamentals
(a) (b)
FIGURE 1.14 (a) Altocumulus stratiformis in the form of cellular clumps. (b) Altocumulus stratiformis in the form of long rolls (undulatus). (c) Alto-
cumulus castellanus. Seattle, Washington. (a, b) Photos by Ron Holle. (c) Photo by Arthur L. Rangno.
1.2.4 High Clouds
According to Table 1.1, there are three genera of high
clouds: cirrus, cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus. A detailed
description of these three genera of high clouds follows.
Cirrus consists of “detached clouds in the form of white,
delicate filaments or white or mostly white patches or
narrow bands. These clouds have a fibrous (hair-like)
appearance, or a silky sheen, or both.”
Cirrostratus is a “transparent, whitish cloud veil of fibrous
(hair-like) or smooth appearance, totally or partly covering the
sky, and generally producing halo13 phenomena.”
Cirrocumulus is a “thin white patch, sheet or layer of
cloud without shading, composed of very small elements
in the form of grains, ripples, etc., merged or separate,
and more or less regularly arranged; most of the elements
have an apparent width of less than one degree.”
In addition to these three traditional high cloud types is a
category referred to as subvisible cirrus, which can be
detected by particle sampling instruments on high flying
aircraft and by certain radars but contain such low concen-
trations of ice particles that they cannot be seen with the
naked eye.14
Examples of these three types of high cloud are shown in
Figure 1.15. The panels of the figure are arranged in order of
stage of life cycle of the cirriform cloud. The layer of cloud
in Figure 1.15a is cirrocumulus stratiformis. Individual
cloud elements in the layer have the form of both grains
and ripples similar to the forms of altocumulus stratiformis
illustrated in Figure 1.14a and b. These cloud elements have
a relatively solid, non-fibrous appearance compared to the
forms of cirrus shown in Figure 1.15b–d. The solid
appearance of these cirrus elements characterizes an early
13. The “halo” is a bright circle of angular radius 8 , 22 , or 46 sur-
rounding the sun. It is produced by the refraction of sunlight in hexagonal
prisms of ice. The 22 halo is the most common. For an explanation of the
phenomenon, see Wallace and Hobbs (2006, figures 4.17 and 4.18).
14. Researchers became aware of subvisible cirrus in the 1990s and since
then it has been discussed extensively in the literature. Some basic refer-
ences are Jensen et al. (1996), Gierens et al. (2000), and Kübbeler et al.
(2011).
(c)
stage of cloud development. Upward air currents in these
elements are in the process of producing the ice particles
or, very briefly, water droplets. As the cloud elements
age, they takes on a progressively more diffuse and fibrous
appearance.
Cirriform clouds consist almost entirely of ice particles.
Many of the individual particles become sufficiently
large, and the saturation vapor pressure of ice is sufficiently
low, that the particles composing the clouds evaporate
slowly. The strong winds at high levels can therefore advect
the particles great distances, giving cirrus clouds a charac-
teristically stringy or hair-like appearance that becomes
more exaggerated as the clouds age. Figure 1.15b–d illus-
trates this aging process. The clouds in Figure 1.15b are
cirrus floccus. Similar in appearance to the altocumulus
floccus seen in Figure 1.14c, they represent a slightly more
advanced stage of cirrus development, in which solid,
crisply formed elements, such as those seen in the cirrocu-
mulus in Figure 1.15a, have weakened and started to
become diffuse and fibrous. Although vestiges of their
earlier clumpy structure remain evident, slowly evaporating
ice particles are beginning to be swept away from the dis-
sipating clumps. The long strands of cirrus with a hook at
their upwind ends seen in Figure 1.15c are called cirrus
uncinus (which is the word for hooked in Latin). They
represent a more advanced stage of development than that
of the cirrus floccus seen in Figure 1.15b. In this example,
the cell or clump producing the ice crystals has degenerated
to a relatively weak feature, while the streamer of ice par-
ticles falling away from the cell has become quite long.
This type of cirrus is sometimes called “mares’ tails” or
fallstreaks. Strands of cirrus with no hook at the end
(Figure 1.15d) are called cirrus fibratus and are the most
advanced stage of cirrus development. At this stage, all evi-
dence of the source of the ice particles, which are being
swept into the long streaks by the wind, has disappeared.
The example in Figure 1.15d is a special case: cirrus
fibratus vertebratus, referring to the element’s arrangement
into a form suggesting a fish skeleton.
Another form of cirrus is shown in Figure 1.16 and is
called cirrus spissatus (past participle of the Latin verb
meaning to condense or make thick). It consists of dense

(a)
(c)
FIGURE 1.15 (a) Cirrocumulus stratiformis in the form of both undulatus and cells. Seattle, Washington. (b) Cirrus floccus. Durango, Colorado.
(c) Cirrus uncinus. Durango, Colorado. (d) Cirrus fibratus vertebratus. Durango, Colorado. Photos by Arthur L. Rangno.
FIGURE 1.16 Cirrus spissatus with virga (i.e., precipitation falling out of
the cloud but not reaching the ground). Seattle, Washington. Photo by
Steven Businger.
ice cloud, which may or may not have fallstreaks of precip-
itation falling from it. In Figure 1.16, the cirrus spissatus has
the form of a robust cirrus uncinus cloud, with a dense gen-
erating cell and thick fallstreaks shaped into a hook-like
pattern by the shearing winds at high altitudes. Cirrus
uncinus is an important cloud form and will be discussed
in detail in Section 5.4.4. Cirrus spissatus need not be of
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 13
(b)
(d)
the uncinus form; for example, it may be generated from
the ice-cloud outflow or remains of a cirriform anvil of
cumulonimbus (Figure 1.5). Much of the cirrus in the atmo-
sphere, especially in the tropics, arises in this manner.
When cirriform cloud occurs in a layer exhibiting no
discrete grainy or undular substructure, it is called cirro-
stratus. It may be produced in various ways. Sometimes cir-
rostratus is produced as outflow from cumulonimbus (as in
Figure 1.5, but over a wider area). However, it may also be
the upper-level leading or trailing canopy of a nimbostratus
cloud. A common form of cirrostratus is the leading canopy
of a frontal cloud system (as can be seen in satellite pictures
such as those shown below in Section 1.3.3). A common
feature of cirrostratus is the halo produced as the sun shines
through the layer of ice particles (Figure 1.17).
1.2.5 Orographic Clouds
Air moving over or around hilly or mountainous terrain
often influences cloud formation. Many of the basic cloud
genera and species already described can be forced, trig-
gered, or enhanced orographically. For example, mountain
ranges are typically preferred locations for fog, stratus, stra-
tocumulus, cumulus, and cumulonimbus, and they affect
14 PART I Fundamentals

FIGURE 1.18 Cap cloud over Mount Rainier, Washington. Photo by Ken
Vensel.

FIGURE 1.17 Cirrostratus with halo. Photo by Reid Wolcott.

the structure and precipitation of nimbostratus clouds asso- FIGURE 1.19 Horseshoe shaped cloud (Turusi) in lee of Mt. Fuji, Japan.
Photo taken in 1930 by Masanao Abe; see Abe (1932) for details.
ciated with weather systems such as fronts. Valleys between
mountains often favor fog occurrence. In addition to the
modification of the cloud types that may occur anywhere,
there are cloud forms that are uniquely associated with
topography. As mentioned above, the lenticularis species
describes some of these cloud forms. Lenticular clouds
form when air flows over a mountain. Chapter 12 is devoted
to the dynamics of these truly orographic clouds. If the
mountain is in the form of an isolated peak, a cap cloud
may form directly on the top of the mountain
(Figure 1.18). Lenticular clouds may also form downwind
of the peak. An example of this phenomenon is shown in
Figure 1.19, where the lenticular cloud downwind of the
peak has the shape of a horseshoe. Sometimes the oro-
graphic clouds downwind of the peak take the form of
stacks of lenticular clouds (Figure 1.20).15 FIGURE 1.20 Stacks of lenticular clouds in the lee of Mt. Rainier, in
Washington State. Such clouds have sometimes been reported as UFOs.
Photo by Ian Bond.

15. These disk shaped clouds over the tops of mountains appear to account For reasons to be discussed in Chapter 12, the lenticular
for many reports of “flying saucers.” The first modern report of a flying clouds in Figures 1.18–1.20 are a type of wave cloud.
saucer (1947) was made over Mt. Rainier, Washington, where spectacular If wave clouds are associated with a long quasi-two
displays of lenticular clouds over the summit are sometimes seen. dimensional mountain ridge rather than an isolated peak,

FIGURE 1.21 Looking upwind at a lenticular wave-cloud band (foreground) forming in the lee of the Continental Divide, which is far beyond the foot-
hills seen in the foreground. Boulder, Colorado. Photo by Dale R. Durran.
FIGURE 1.22 Looking downwind at a series of lenticular wave clouds in the lee of the Continental Divide. Boulder, Colorado. Photo by Dale R.
Durran.
they may form long cloud bands, with the wave cloud
having the appearance of a smooth bar (Figure 1.21). Often
a series of lenticular clouds forms in waves to the lee of a
ridge or a peak. Such a series is seen looking eastward over
the plain downwind of the Colorado Continental Divide in
Figure 1.22.
Sometimes violent downslope winds occur in the lee of
a mountain ridge. Associated with these winds is the rotor
cloud, which is a line of cloud that occurs immediately
downwind of the ridge. The name rotor implies that the
air in the cloud may overturn vertically in a roll whose
axis is parallel to the upwind mountain range (see
Section 12.2.5). The primary characteristic of the cloud
is that air rises abruptly in them, with the result that the
air motions can be extremely turbulent. Examples
of rotor clouds viewed from aircraft are shown in
Figures 1.23 and 1.24. In both examples, clearing is seen
over the valley immediately downwind of the mountain
range, where the strong downslope winds have suppressed
all cloud formation. The blowing dust in Figure 1.23
dramatically marks the sudden rise of the air up into the
rotor cloud.
In both Figures 1.23 and 1.24, low cloud can be seen
hanging directly over the mountain ridge. This cloud,
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 15
called the Föhn16 wall, is especially clear in Figure 1.24,
where the forward edge of the cloud can been seen hanging
over the edge of the mountain ridge and thins where the
downslope winds begin to drop into the plain. From the
plain, the Föhn wall can have the ominous appearance
shown in Figure 1.25.
Another cloud type that sometimes occurs in the lee of
an isolated sharp peak is the banner cloud (Figure 1.26).
This phenomenon is also called the smoking mountain
because the cloud emanates from the top of the mountain
in a manner resembling smoke coming from a chimney.
16. Föhn is the German word for a dry downslope wind. It is used
throughout Austria, Switzerland, and Germany to describe the dry winds
coming over the Alps from southerly directions. The origin of the word
is obscure. It is sometimes associated with ancient Phoenicia (de
Rudder, 1929). According to the Greek and Roman 12 part windrose,
whose system of directional indications was used on German maps until
the nineteenth century, a wind coming from the direction of the Phoeni-
cians would correspond to the common direction of the Alpine Föhn. It
is more generally accepted, however, that the word comes from the Latin
word favonius, meaning a zephyr.
16 PART I Fundamentals
FIGURE 1.23 Turbulent rotor cloud downwind (left-hand side of the
photo) of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Owens Valley near
Bishop. California. Downslope winds gather dust on the valley floor and
serve as a tracer of the air rising suddenly up into the cloud. Over the moun-
tains themselves (upper right of photo), a portion of the Föhn wall cloud is
seen. Photo courtesy of Morton G. Wurtele.
FIGURE 1.24 Föhn wall cloud (right-hand side of photo) over the Dinaric Alps and turbulent rotor cloud (left-hand side of photo) downwind of the
mountains. Photo taken from an aircraft at about 6 km by Andreas Walker.
FIGURE 1.25 Föhn wall cloud. Boulder, Colorado. Photo by Dale R. Durran.
1.2.6 Noctilucent Clouds
One type of cloud does not occur in the troposphere but
rather in the mesosphere (Figure 1.2), at altitudes of
75–85 km. These clouds are so tenuous that they cannot
be seen in daylight but, because of their high altitude, can
sometimes be seen at night, and are thus called noctilucent
clouds. They are sometimes also called polar mesospheric
clouds, because they occur only at very high latitudes.
Figure 1.27 shows how sunlight reflected off these
extremely high clouds is seen by observers on Earth when
the sun is below their horizon. Figure 1.28 shows the thin
polar mesospheric cloud layer from the vantage point of
the International Space Station. Figure 1.29 contains a
nighttime photograph by a ground observer at a high lat-
itude in the Northern Hemisphere.
1.3 PRECIPITATING CLOUD SYSTEMS
The foregoing discussion is confined to how cloud types in
the atmosphere can be identified by a human observer on

FIGURE 1.26 Banner cloud on the Matterhorn, Switzerland. Photo by Roger Colbeck.
FIGURE 1.27 Geometry of noctilucent cloud illuminated by the sun
below the horizon.
the ground, in an aircraft, or in a low orbiting spacecraft.
However, what one can see from these vantage points is
limited to the observer’s field of view and by the physiology
of the human eye itself. It is impossible to visually observe
the full extent and structure of many clouds. Meteorological
satellites provide a viewpoint from which the broader
shapes and forms of clouds can be observed with a wider
field of view and with wavelengths and sensitivities
extending beyond the bounds of human vision. Especially
important is the fact that the cloud forms that are most
responsible for most of Earth’s precipitation are much too
expansive to be seen by eye. These cloud forms tend to
be mesoscale to synoptic-scale in extent, and we often call
them cloud systems because they are often composed of a
mix of cloud types, which work together to comprise a pre-
cipitating complex. The dynamics of the three major types
of precipitating cloud systems will be considered in detail in
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 17
Chapters 9–11. The following three subsections describe
their appearance in satellite imagery.
1.3.1 Mesoscale Convective Systems
Convective clouds sometimes occur in organized structures
containing both cumulonimbus (convective) and nimbo-
stratus (stratiform) components. The tops of these cloud
systems form a mesoscale cirriform cloud shield, which
is readily identified in satellite pictures. This type of cloud
structure is referred to as a mesoscale convective system
(MCS). Chapter 9 is devoted to describing and interpreting
this important phenomenon. An example of a mesoscale
convective system over the United States is shown in
infrared satellite imagery in Figure 1.30. The infrared data
indicate the low temperature of the cloud top, confirming
that the cloud shield must be cirriform and near the tropo-
pause. The cloud shield in this case is much larger than the
anvil of an individual thunderstorm (Figures 1.4–1.6).
Mesoscale convective systems are especially prevalent in
the tropics, where they account for most of the rainfall.
They also produce a large proportion of midlatitude warm
season rainfall over the continents.
1.3.2 Tropical Cyclones
Some mesoscale convective systems in the tropics evolve
into intense tropical cyclones.17 These storms are recog-
nized readily in satellite pictures by the quasi-circular form
17. Tropical cyclone is the generic name for storms of this type, known
regionally as “hurricanes” in the Western Hemisphere, “typhoons” in the
western Pacific region, and “cyclones” in the South Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
18 PART I Fundamentals

FIGURE 1.28 NASA Photo taken from the International Space Station. A thin layer of noctilucent cloud is seen in the mesosphere, which is well above
where the sun below the horizon is shining through the troposphere from below the horizon. NASA photo.

FIGURE 1.29 Noctilucent cloud seen from the ground. Photo by Martin Koitmäe.

taken by the upper-level cloud shield, which typically

surrounds a cloud free eye in the center of the cyclone
(Figure 1.31). In time-lapse photography, the upper-level
clouds are seen to be diverging anticyclonically outward
from the center of the storm, while low-level cumulus and
stratocumulus-cloud elements are spiraling cyclonically
inward toward the storm center. Chapter 10 investigates
the dynamics of clouds associated with tropical cyclones.
1.3.3 Extratropical Cyclones
The most significant producers of precipitation in midlati-
tudes are the extratropical cyclones that populate the midlat-
itude westerlies. They are always forming, moving, and dying
in association with synoptic-scale waves in the westerlies. The
largest and most prevalent of extratropical cyclones are
frontal cyclones, which are often, especially over water,

FIGURE 1.30 Infrared satellite view of a mesoscale convective system over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. Gray shades and colors are proportional
to infrared radiative temperature at cloud top, with coldest values indicated by purple in the interior of the cloud system. The scale of this cloud system can
be compared with the size of the smaller, individual thunderstorm anvils seen over Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in Figure 1.6. (Bar
300 km.)
FIGURE 1.31 Visible wavelength satellite view of Hurricane Katrina
(2005), one of the most infamous tropical cyclones to affect North America.
characterized by a systematic cloud pattern aligned along
fronts, which mark the warm edges of concentrated horizontal
temperature gradients. Over land, the cloud arrangements
around cyclones can be more complex.
An example of a large frontal cyclonic cloud pattern is
shown in Figure 1.32. It is marked by a long curving cloud
band beginning far to the south and eventually curling in
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 19
toward the center of the cyclone. This long band to the south
is associated with the cold front. Extending eastward
from the curled up end of the cold frontal cloud band is a
wider, stubbier region of cloud associated with the warm
front.
West of the cold frontal cloud band in Figure 1.32, a
smaller comma cloud system is seen. It has the shape of
its punctuational namesake and is associated with an
upper-level low-pressure system (or short wave) that forms
in the cold air behind the main frontal system. This short-
wave cloud system is an example of a class of extratropical
disturbances referred to as polar lows. Generally, polar lows
occur in cold air streams over oceans and exhibit a con-
tinuum of sizes and cloud configurations.18 Most exhibit
either comma or spiral shaped cloud structure in satellite
pictures. The term comma cloud is usually applied to the
type of polar low that forms close to a large frontal cyclone,
as in Figure 1.32, even though most polar lows and even the
larger frontal cyclone itself all have comma shaped cloud
patterns. Some polar lows occur in cold air masses much
farther away from frontal systems than the comma cloud
in Figure 1.32. These polar lows tend to be smaller in scale
and sometimes develop a spiral shape and an eye remi-
niscent of the tropical cyclone. An example of this type
of storm is shown in Figure 1.33. In Chapter 11, we will
explore the dynamics of clouds associated with frontal
cyclones and polar lows.
18. See the review paper of Businger and Reed (1989) for a general dis-
cussion of the types of polar lows that occur.
20 PART I Fundamentals
1.4 SATELLITE CLOUD CLIMATOLOGY
Because of their continuous day to day observations, satel-
lites are able to gather statistics on cloud forms that allow
us to see what portions of Earth are affected by the different
cloud forms that we have discussed in this chapter. Satel-
lites with infrared radiometers sensing the upwelling radi-
ation from Earth can determine both the cloud-top
temperature and the optical depth19 of cloud layers lying
19. Optical depth is a measure of transparency to electromagnetic radiation,
in this case light. More specifically, the optical depth of a layer of cloud is
defined as the negative natural logarithm of the fraction of radiation that is
not scattered or absorbed along a path through the cloud layer.
FIGURE 1.32 Satellite view (visible channel) of a
westerly moving frontal cloud system (large cloud
band) over the North Pacific and a comma cloud
(smaller cloud system trailing the larger one). Surface
frontal positions are superimposed. The west coast of
the United States and Mexico is faintly visible on the
right-hand side of the picture. An approximate scale is
indicated to help judge the sizes of the cloud areas.
(Bar
500 km.) From Businger and Reed (1989).
Republished with permission of the American Meteo-
rological Society.
FIGURE 1.33 Infrared satellite view of a polar low off
the north coast of Norway on 27 February 1987. (Bar

200 km.)
below the satellite. Knowing the base and top heights makes
it possible to relate the satellite measurements to the tradi-
tional cloud types used in weather observations and listed
in Table 1.1. Figure 1.34 presents a scheme that has been
developed to relate satellite infrared data to the traditional
cloud types as a function of cloud-top height (where the
cloud-top temperature observed by satellite has been con-
verted to an approximate atmospheric pressure and height
at cloud top) and optical thickness, which together with
the cloud-top height estimates the height of the cloud base.
Since the 2000s, more specialized instruments have
been mounted on satellites to determine the global distri-
bution of the basic cloud types over Earth. These instru-
ments include radar and lidar. These remote sensing
 Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 21

50 (a) Bases <3 km, thickness <3 km

180
Cloud top pressure (mb)

Deep
Cirrus Cirrostratus High
310 convection

440

560 Altocumulus Altostratus Nimbostratus Middle

680

800 Cumulus Stratocumulus Stratus Low

1000
0 1.3 3.6 9.4 23 60 379
Cloud optical thickness
FIGURE 1.34 Cloud-type definitions based on infrared satellite observa- (b) Bases <3 km, thickness 3–6 km
tions. From Rossow and Schiffer (1999). Republished with permission of
the American Meteorological Society.

instruments will be described in Chapter 4. They are

“active” sensors, meaning that they send out electromag-
netic signals that bounce off targets at their specific altitude
below the satellite and can therefore determine precisely the
layers in which clouds are located.
Figure 1.35 shows the global distribution of clouds with
low bases determined from satellite radar and lidar measure-
ments.20 Figure 1.35a shows the global distribution of clouds
with low bases and low tops. These are the stratus and stra-
tocumulus. Note how they are prevalent over the eastern sub- (c) Bases <3 km, thickness >6 km
tropical oceans. These layers of shallow low cloud reflect
great amounts of sunlight back to space and thus constitute
an important control over Earth’s global temperature.
Figure 1.35b shows where clouds with low bases and mod-
erate depths are located over Earth. These clouds include
cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds of moderate depth and
frontal clouds associated with extratropical cyclones. These
clouds are most prominent in the middle to high latitudes
where frontal clouds dominate. Figure 1.35c shows the fre-
quency of occurrence of deep clouds with low bases. These
clouds include frontal clouds, deep cumulonimbus and meso-
FIGURE 1.35 Coverage by clouds with low bases, as seen by CloudSat
scale convective systems. These deep clouds are prominent and CALIPSO satellites. (a) Stratus and stratocumulus frequency is indi-
in both midlatitudes and the tropics—the latitudes where cated by fraction of low clouds observed at each grid point that have bases
most of Earth’s precipitation falls. The greatest frequency less than 3 km altitude and layer thicknesses less than 3 km. (b) Frequency
of such clouds is in the equatorial belt, where deep con- of moderately deep clouds (most likely moderately deep convective or
frontal clouds) seen at each grid point that have bases less than 3 km
vective clouds are constantly releasing latent heat into
and layer thicknesses between 3 and 6 km. (c) Frequency of deep clouds
Earth’s atmosphere. The equatorial atmosphere with its solar (most likely deep convective or frontal clouds) seen at each grid point that
heating and warm oceans favors convective clouds and the have bases less than 3 km and layer thicknesses greater than 6 km. The
tropopause is highest in this part of the atmosphere, which original versions of these figures appeared in Mace et al., 2009. They
allows the convective clouds to be especially deep. are republished here with permission of the American Geophysical Union.
However, they have been updated with a larger, 4-year dataset and have
Figure 1.36 shows the global pattern of occurrence of all
been analyzed courtesy of Gerald Mace and Qiuqing Zhang at 5 km res-
clouds with bases higher than 6 km. These include all forms olution instead of 80 km resolution.

20. In the early to mid 2000s, several satellites were put into the same
polar orbit, called the A-Train (Stephens et al., 2002), in order to obtain nearly
simultaneous measurements with a variety of spaceborne sensors. Two of
these satellites were CloudSat, which featured a 94 GHz (32 mm wavelength)
radar to detect clouds, and CALIPSO, which had a lidar on board to measure
atmospheric aerosol and very thin clouds (Winker et al., 2002, 2007).
of alto- and cirriform clouds. Such clouds may form inde-
pendently. However, the patterns in this figure are rather
similar to the distributions of moderately deep and very
deep low based clouds seen in Figure 1.35b and c, and
22 PART I Fundamentals

Bases 3–6 km one must concluded that these cloud layers are often
extruded from or left behind by frontal and convective
clouds. One detail is related to Earth’s topography. The
maximum over the Himalayan region is a result of the fact
that the ground is several kilometers above sea level, and
many of these clouds would be considered to be low-based
clouds by a ground based observer.
Figure 1.37 presents the satellite observed patterns
of high cirriform clouds. The three panels show the
frequency of occurrence of clouds with increasingly
high bases. Those with bases between 6 and 10 km
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 (Figure 1.37a) are concentrated in a global pattern
FIGURE 1.36 Coverage by clouds with bases greater than 6 km as seen
similar to the patterns of low based moderate and deep
by CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites. The original version of this figure clouds (Figure 1.35b and c) and middle based clouds
appeared in Mace et al., 2009. It is republished here with permission of (Figure 1.36), suggesting that they, too, are associated
the American Geophysical Union. However, the figure has been updated with frontal and convective clouds in midlatitudes and
with a larger, 4-year, dataset and provided courtesy of Gerald Mace deep convective clouds in equatorial latitudes. When
and Qiuqing Zhang. The new analysis is at 5 km resolution instead of
80 km resolution.
the bases are higher (Figure 1.37b), the clouds are

(a) Bases 6–10 km (b) Bases 10–14 km

(c) Bases >14 km

FIGURE 1.37 Coverage by clouds with bases between (a) 6–10 km, (b) 10–14 km, and (c) >14 km as seen by CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites. The
original version of this figure appeared in Mace et al., 2009. It is republished here with permission of the American Geophysical Union. However, the
figure has been updated with a larger, 4-year dataset and provided courtesy of Gerald Mace and Qiuqing Zhang. The new analysis is at 5-km resolution
instead of 80-km resolution.

concentrated in equatorial regions, where the anvil clouds
of deep convection account for about half or more of the
ice cloud. The highest based cirriform clouds occur in
equatorial regions (Figure 1.37c). There is evidence that
much of the very high altitude cirriform cloud in the
tropics is produced by large scale air motions associated
with equatorial waves in the transition layer between the
Types of Clouds in Earth’s Atmosphere Chapter 1 23
upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, which is
highest and coldest in the tropics.21 These very high cir-
riform clouds are sometimes so thin that they are not
visible to the naked eye, although they are detectable
by remote sensing instruments. These subvisible cirrus
and other high-altitude cirriform clouds of the tropics will
be discussed in more detail in Section 5.4.
21. Jensen et al. (1996) suggested that large scale lifting could produce the
high altitude clouds. Luo and Rossow (2004) and Reverdy et al. (2012)
have used trajectory analysis to indicate that about half the cirriform cloud
in equatorial regions derives directly from deep convection, while the other
half forms in situ from larger scale dynamics. Boehm and Verlinde (2000),
Immler et al. (2008), Virts and Wallace (2010), Virts et al. (2010), and Dinh
et al. (2012) have related the high-level cirrus cloud occurrence in equa-
torial regions specifically to equatorial Kelvin waves, which are described
in Kiladis et al.’s (2009) review of equatorial waves.