What are the conditions needed for clouds to form?
Clouds form when the invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. For this to happen, the parcel of air must be saturated, i.e. unable to hold all the water it contains in vapor form, so it starts to condense into a liquid or solid form.
What is the condition of cloud?
The air high above the air is colder than air at the surface. The vapor rises until it reaches a low enough temperature and pressure to condense water vapor into water droplets and form a cloud. When vapor condenses into liquid or solid particles, it loses some of its energy to the air.
What are the conditions for the formation of a cloud?
First the water must be heated to 100 deg C (4.18 J/g-deg), then it must be converted to water vapor. This requires 2260 J/g. The wind carries the air and its water vapor across the land. When air moves up and over a mountain or ridge (orographic lifting), it cools as it rises.
What are the three ingredients of a cloud?
The skills of critical thinking, synthesis of ideas, observation, questioning, and writing are developed. Concepts: 1. Students will discover that three main ingredients are needed for clouds to form: moisture, condensation, and temperature. 2. Evaporation and condensation are part of how a cloud forms.
What happens when ice crystals form in a cloud?
When they get too heavy to stay suspended in the cloud, even with updrafts within the cloud, they fall to Earth as rain. If the air in the cloud is below the freezing point (32 °F or 0 °C), ice crystals form; if the air all the way down to the ground is also freezing or below, you get snow.
How is the vertical extent of a cloud determined?
the vertical extent of the cloud is largely determined by the stability of the environment… Cumulus clouds form as hot, invisible air bubbles detach themselves from the surface, then rise and cool to the condensation level. Below and within the cumulus clouds, the air is rising. Around the cloud, the air is sinking.