Have you ever gazed up at the sky and wondered why clouds look so incredibly different from one another? One moment, you spot ...

Then, you multiply that volume by the water content of the cloud based on its type, which turns out to be about 22 tons for cirrus clouds, 330 tons for stratus clouds, and 550 tons for cumulus clouds.

There are 10 primary types of clouds on Earth. Here you can learn about what they're made of, how they form and how they are classified.

Cirrus clouds exist at much higher altitudes (usually above 18,000 feet or so) and much colder temperatures. They are typically composed of tiny ice crystals instead of water droplets and often ...

It usually happens in altocumulus, cirrocumulus, lenticular and cirrus clouds. Iridescent clouds happen because of diffraction – a phenomenon that occurs when small water droplets or small ice ...

The word cirrus comes from the Latin word “cirro,” which means curl of hair or fringe. Cirrus clouds are found high in the atmosphere where most jet planes fly, between 20,000 and 40,000 feet.

Higher, thinner clouds reflect less incoming solar radiation and even tend to absorb outgoing infrared radiation constantly emitted by Earth itself. Cirrus clouds — wispy, icy clouds that sit high in ...

A small fraction of overall flights, between 2% and 10%, ... like the fact that cirrus clouds can also reduce warming by reflecting away short-wave radiation from the sun.