cloud

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Images & Videos

View a time-lapse video of cloud formations rolling across the sky followed by a thunderstorm

How do clouds float?

Learn about the four main types of clouds formed at different altitudes

What is cloud seeding and can it be used to fight climate change?

cloud: cumulonimbus

lightning: cloud-to-ground

Middle clouds(Top to bottom) Altocumulus undulatus, a layer of shaded, regularly arranged rolls; altocumulus perlucidus, a white and gray layer in which there are spaces between the elements; altostratus translucidus, showing the Sun as if seen through ground glass; altocumulus radiatus, a layer with laminae arranged in parallel bands.

false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot

For Students

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Hot-air balloon against a sky (clouds, hot air ballooning, recreation)

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Lightning over the outskirts of Oradea, Rom., during the thunderstorm of August 17, 2005.

16 Questions About Earth’s Atmsophere and Weather Answered

Discover

Planet Earth and lunar moon from space

Where Did the Moon Come From?

cloning. First cloned cat. First cloned companion animal. CC (copy cat) female domestic shorthair cat (b. Dec. 22, 2001) photo Jan. 18, 2002. Cloned at Texas A&M Univ. College of Vet. Med. & Biomedical Sciences. Reproductive cloning genetics DNA cc cat

CC, The First Cloned Cat

Washington, D.C. locator map.

What State Is Washington, D.C. In?

Prince. musician Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson). Prince WELCOME 2 AMERICA tour. Exclusive North American Performances, 2010-11

7 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Inventors

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. August 28th 1963

Was Martin Luther King, Jr., a Republican or a Democrat?

Andrew Jackson delivering a speech while on his way to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration in 1829. From Harper's Weekly, 1881.

5 Remarkably Close U.S. Presidential Elections

President Barack Obama signs the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans Executive Order in the Oval Office, July 26, 2012

What Is an Executive Order?

cloud: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

cloud: cumulonimbus

lightning: cloud-to-ground

Middle clouds(Top to bottom) Altocumulus undulatus, a layer of shaded, regularly arranged rolls; altocumulus perlucidus, a white and gray layer in which there are spaces between the elements; altostratus translucidus, showing the Sun as if seen through ground glass; altocumulus radiatus, a layer with laminae arranged in parallel bands.

false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot

computer-generated visualization of Jupiter's equatorial cloud layers

Clouds on Mars. The rippled clouds (top) are high in Mars's atmosphere and consist mainly of water crystals with lesser amounts of frozen carbon dioxide. Fog is faintly visible in the lower half of the picture. This false-colour picture is a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft on June 4, 1998.

clouds on Neptune

An enhanced photograph of Venus, obtained in February 1979 in ultraviolet light by the Pioneer Venus 1 spacecraft, shows the distinctive V-shaped cloud markings of the planet.

View a time-lapse video of cloud formations rolling across the sky followed by a thunderstorm

How do clouds float?

Learn about the four main types of clouds formed at different altitudes

What is cloud seeding and can it be used to fight climate change?

Learn how the Sun warms moist air near the ground and causes it to rise and condense on dust particles

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

nonprecipitating cloud polar stratospheric cloud noctilucent cloud contrail orographic cloud cumuliform cloud cyclonic cloud system layer cloud stratiform cloud wave cloud frost dew precipitation drought mist haze hydrometeor weather forecasting weather modification air mass

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

C.T.R. Wilson, 1927

C.T.R. Wilson

British physicist

Tor Harold Percival Bergeron

Scandinavian meteorologist

Quiz

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Winter Weather Words Quiz

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Weather Words Vocabulary Quiz

Lightning over a farm field. Weather electricity thunderstorm light energy tree

Facts You Should Know: Weather Quiz

Thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds above Montana. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology

Clouds and Cloud Types

rain. Child in the rain, wearing a rain coat, under a yellow umbrella. April Showers weather climate rain storm water drops

April Showers to March’s Lions and Lambs

ten types of clouds and their elevation: cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus

Earth’s Atmosphere and Clouds

Thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds above Montana. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology

Clouds and Cloud Types

Model of a molecule. Atom, Biology, Molecular Structure, Science, Science and Technology. Homepage 2010 arts and entertainment, history and society

Science Quiz

List

Lightning over the outskirts of Oradea, Rom., during the thunderstorm of August 17, 2005.

16 Questions About Earth’s Atmsophere and Weather Answered

Demystified

Hot-air balloon against a sky (clouds, hot air ballooning, recreation)

Why Is the Sky Blue?