Do we often think about the nature of clouds when looking at the sky? But this phenomenon of nature is very interesting, despite its familiarity and routine. However, the times when people saw outlandish castles and dragons in the clouds are long gone, and modern science has thoroughly studied them, put them on the shelves and answered all the questions that have tormented curious people for centuries.
Interesting facts about clouds
- At temperatures below -15 degrees, they crystallize. Such clouds no longer consist of water droplets, but of ice crystals.
- It is the clouds that help our planet smooth out daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations.
- The highest clouds on Earth are noctilucent. They are formed already outside the dense layers of the atmosphere, at an altitude of up to 85 kilometers above sea level. At the same time, space officially begins at an altitude of 100 kilometers.
- There are clouds not only on Earth, but also on other celestial bodies with an atmosphere, such as Venus, Jupiter, Saturn or Titan, the satellite of the latter. Moreover, on Titan, these clouds regularly rain (interesting facts about Titan).
- The lowest clouds are stratus. Sometimes they can be seen at a height of only a hundred meters.
- In the mountains, strange clouds are sometimes observed that hang motionless in one place and do not move anywhere. This is caused by a rare coincidence of winds that blow from different directions and eventually keep the cloud in one place.
- At the poles of the planet Saturn, satellites managed to photograph strange clouds of a regular hexagonal shape. Nobody knows what it is.
- An average cloud weighs 8-10 tons, but a thundercloud weighs much, much more.
- Powerful thunderclouds can pass at altitudes up to 10 kilometers.
- Moisture cannot begin to condense around the void. A cloud is formed when it begins to condense around dust or smoke raised into the air (interesting facts about air).
- Sometimes clouds exist for a long time, but if the humidity level is very low, the cloud will live only 15-25 minutes.
- On planets in other solar systems, according to scientists, there may be clouds with a temperature of a thousand or two degrees in them. Why not?
- On Venus, the clouds are made up of sulfuric acid vapor, well, mostly sulfuric acid. True, sulfuric acid rains do not reach the surface, evaporating even in flight due to the monstrous heat of more than 400 degrees.
- In 2004, the International Society of Cloud Lovers was founded. Its members take pictures of this natural phenomenon, discuss and dream of seeing the rarest clouds. It includes thousands of people from over 120 countries.