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Cirrus cloud

April 27, 2023

Cirrus (cloud classification symbol: Ci) is a genus of high cloud made of ice crystals. Cirrus clouds typically appear delicate and wispy with white strands. Cirrus are usually formed when warm, dry air rises, causing water vapor deposition onto rocky or metallic dust particles at high altitudes. Globally, they form anywhere between 4,000 and 20,000 meters (13,000 and 66,000 feet) above sea level, with the higher elevations usually in the tropics and the lower elevations in more polar regions.

Cirrus
"Cirrus castellanus"
AbbreviationCi.
Symbol
GenusCirrus (hairy)
Species
VarietyNone
Altitude4000-20000 m
(13,000-66,000 ft)
ClassificationFamily A (High-level)
AppearanceHairy-like clouds
PrecipitationVery common in thunderstorms and tropical cyclones.

Sky containing different types of cirrus clouds

Cirrus clouds can form from the tops of thunderstorms and tropical cyclones and sometimes predict the arrival of rain or storms. Although they are a sign that rain and maybe storms are on the way, cirrus themselves drop no more than falling streaks of ice crystals. These crystals dissipate, melt, and evaporate as they fall through warmer and drier air and never reach ground. Cirrus clouds warm the earth, potentially contributing to climate change. A warming earth will likely produce more cirrus clouds, potentially resulting in a self-reinforcing loop.

Optical phenomena, such as sun dogs and halos, can be produced by light interacting with ice crystals in cirrus clouds. There are two other high-level cirrus-like clouds called cirrostratus and cirrocumulus. Cirrostratus looks like a sheet of cloud, whereas cirrocumulus looks like a pattern of small cloud tufts. Unlike cirrus and cirrostratus, cirrocumulus clouds contain droplets of supercooled (below freezing point) water.

Cirrus clouds form in the atmospheres of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; and on Titan, one of Saturn's larger moons. Some of these extraterrestrial cirrus clouds are made of ammonia or methane ice, much like water ice in cirrus on Earth. Some interstellar clouds, made of grains of dust smaller than a thousandth of a millimeter, are also called cirrus.

Description

Species of cirrus clouds
 
Cirrus castellanus
 
Cirrus fibratus
 
Cirrus floccus
 
Cirrus spissatus
 
Cirrus uncinus, commonly called mare's tails
 
Fall streaks in a cirrus cloud

Cirrus are wispy clouds made of long strands of ice crystals that are described as feathery,[1] hair-like, or layered in appearance.[2] First defined scientifically by Luke Howard in an 1803 paper,[3] their name is derived from the Latin word cirrus, meaning 'curl' or 'fringe'.[4] They are transparent, meaning that the Sun can be seen through them. Ice crystals in the clouds cause them to usually appear white, but the rising or setting Sun can color them various shades of yellow or red.[2][5] At dusk, they can appear gray.[5]

Cirrus comes in five visually-distinct species: castellanus, fibratus, floccus, spissatus, and uncinus:[2]

  • Cirrus castellanus has cumuliform tops caused by high-altitude convection rising up from the main cloud body;[2][6]
  • Cirrus fibratus looks striated and is the most common cirrus species;[2][6]
  • Cirrus floccus species looks like a series of tufts;[7]
  • Cirrus spissatus is a particularly dense form of cirrus that often forms from thunderstorms.[8]
  • Cirrus uncinus clouds are hooked and are the form that is usually called mare's tails.[6][9]

Each species is divided into up to four varieties: intortus, vertebratus, radiatus, and duplicatus:[10]

  • Intortus variety has an extremely contorted shape, with Kelvin–Helmholtz waves being a form of cirrus intortus that has been twisted into loops by layers of wind blowing at different speeds, called wind shear;[6]
  • Radiatus variety has large, radial bands of cirrus clouds that stretch across the sky;[6]
  • Vertebratus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged side-by-side like ribs;[11]
  • Duplicatus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged above one another in layers.[12]

Cirrus clouds often produce hair-like filaments called fall streaks, made of heavier ice crystals that fall from the cloud. These are similar to the virga produced in liquid–water clouds. The sizes and shapes of fall streaks are determined by the wind shear.[13]

Cirrus cloud cover varies diurnally. During the day, cirrus cloud cover drops, and during the night, it increases.[14] Based on CALIPSO satellite data, cirrus covers an average of 31% to 32% of the Earth's surface.[15] Cirrus cloud cover varies wildly by location, with some parts of the tropics reaching up to 70% cirrus cloud cover. Polar regions, on the other hand, have significantly less cirrus cloud cover, with some areas having a yearly average of only around 10% coverage.[14] These percentages treat clear days and nights, as well as days and nights with other cloud types, as lack of cirrus cloud cover.[16]

Formation

Cirrus clouds are usually formed as warm, dry air rises,[2] causing water vapor to undergo deposition onto rocky or metallic dust particles[17] at high altitudes. The average cirrus cloud altitude increases as latitude decreases, but the altitude is always capped by the tropopause.[18] These conditions commonly occur at the leading edge of a warm front.[19] Because absolute humidity is low at such high altitudes, this genus tends to be fairly transparent.[20] Cirrus clouds can also form inside fallstreak holes (also called "cavum").[21]

At latitudes of 65° N or S, close to polar regions, cirrus clouds form, on average, only 7,000 m (23,000 ft) above sea level. In temperate regions, at roughly 45° N or S, their average altitude increases to 9,500 m (31,200 ft) above sea level. In tropical regions, at roughly 5° N or S, cirrus clouds form 13,500 m (44,300 ft) above sea level on average. Across the globe, cirrus clouds can form anywhere from 4,000 to 20,000 m (13,000 to 66,000 ft) above sea level.[18] Cirrus clouds form with a vast range of thicknesses. They can be as little as 100 m (330 ft) from top to bottom to as thick as 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Cirrus cloud thickness is usually somewhere between those two extremes, with an average thickness of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).[22]

The jet stream, a high-level wind band, can stretch cirrus clouds long enough to cross continents.[23] Jet streaks, bands of faster-moving air in the jet stream, can create arcs of cirrus cloud hundreds of kilometers long.[24]

Cirrus cloud formation may be effected by organic aerosols (particles produced by plants) acting as additional nucleation points for ice crystal formation.[25][26] However, research suggests that cirrus clouds more commonly form on rocky or metallic particles rather than on organic ones.[17]

Tropical cyclones

 
A vast shield of cirrus clouds accompanying the west side of Hurricane Isabel

Sheets of cirrus clouds commonly fan out from the eye walls of tropical cyclones.[27] (The eye wall is the ring of storm clouds surrounding the eye of a tropical cyclone.[28]) A large shield of cirrus and cirrostratus typically accompanies the high altitude outflowing winds of tropical cyclones,[27] and these can make the underlying bands of rain—and sometimes even the eye—difficult to detect in satellite photographs.[29]

Thunderstorms

 
White cirrus in an anvil cloud

Thunderstorms can form dense cirrus at their tops. As the cumulonimbus cloud in a thunderstorm grows vertically, the liquid water droplets freeze when the air temperature reaches the freezing point.[30] The anvil cloud takes its shape because the temperature inversion at the tropopause prevents the warm, moist air forming the thunderstorm from rising any higher, thus creating the flat top.[31] In the tropics, these thunderstorms occasionally produce copious amounts of cirrus from their anvils.[32] High-altitude winds commonly push this dense mat out into an anvil shape that stretches downwind as much as several kilometers.[31]

Individual cirrus cloud formations can be the remnants of anvil clouds formed by thunderstorms. In the dissipating stage of a cumulonimbus cloud, when the normal column rising up to the anvil has evaporated or dissipated, the mat of cirrus in the anvil is all that is left.[33]

Contrails

Contrails are an artificial type of cirrus cloud formed when water vapor from the exhaust of a jet engine condenses on particles, which come from either the surrounding air or the exhaust itself, and freezes, leaving behind a visible trail. The exhaust can trigger the formation of cirrus by providing ice nuclei when there is an insufficient naturally-occurring supply in the atmosphere.[34] One of the environmental impacts of aviation is that persistent contrails can form into large mats of cirrus,[35] and increased air traffic has been implicated as one possible cause of the increasing frequency and amount of cirrus in Earth's atmosphere.[35][36]

Use in forecasting

See also: Weather forecasting and Tropical cyclone track forecasting
 
High cloud weather map symbols

Random, isolated cirrus do not have any particular significance.[19] A large number of cirrus clouds can be a sign of an approaching frontal system or upper air disturbance. The appearance of cirrus signals a change in weather—usually more stormy—in the near future.[37] If the cloud is a cirrus castellanus, there might be instability at the high altitude level.[19] When the clouds deepen and spread, especially when they are of the cirrus radiatus variety or cirrus fibratus species, this usually indicates an approaching weather front. If it is a warm front, the cirrus clouds spread out into cirrostratus, which then thicken and lower into altocumulus and altostratus. The next set of clouds are the rain-bearing nimbostratus clouds.[1][19][38] When cirrus clouds precede a cold front, squall line or multicellular thunderstorm, it is because they are blown off the anvil, and the next to arrive are the cumulonimbus clouds.[38] Kelvin-Helmholtz waves indicate extreme wind shear at high levels.[19] When a jet streak creates a large arc of cirrus, weather conditions may be right for the development of winter storms.[24]

Within the tropics, 36 hours prior to the center passage of a tropical cyclone, a veil of white cirrus clouds approaches from the direction of the cyclone.[39] In the mid- to late-19th century, forecasters used these cirrus veils to predict the arrival of hurricanes. In the early 1870s the president of Belén College in Havana, Father Benito Viñes, developed the first hurricane forecasting system; he mainly used the motion of these clouds in formulating his predictions.[40] He would observe the clouds hourly from 4:00 am to 10:00 pm. After accumulating enough information, Viñes began accurately predicting the paths of hurricanes; he summarized his observations in his book Apuntes Relativos a los Huracanes de las Antilles, published in English as Practical Hints in Regard to West Indian Hurricanes.[41]

Effects on climate

Cirrus clouds cover up to 25% of the Earth (up to 70% in the tropics at night[42]) and have a net heating effect.[43] When they are thin and translucent, the clouds efficiently absorb outgoing infrared radiation while only marginally reflecting the incoming sunlight.[44] When cirrus clouds are 100 m (330 ft) thick, they reflect only around 9% of the incoming sunlight, but they prevent almost 50% of the outgoing infrared radiation from escaping, thus raising the temperature of the atmosphere beneath the clouds by an average of 10 °C (18 °F)[45]—a process known as the greenhouse effect.[46] Averaged worldwide, cloud formation results in a temperature loss of 5 °C (9 °F) at the earth's surface, mainly the result of stratocumulus clouds.[47]

Cirrus clouds are likely becoming more common due to climate change. As their greenhouse effect is stronger than their reflection of sunlight, this would act as a self-reinforcing feedback.[48] Metallic particles from human sources act as additional nucleation seeds, potentially increasing cirrus cloud cover and thus contributing further to climate change.[17] Aircraft in the upper troposphere can create contrail cirrus clouds if local weather conditions are right. These contrails contribute to climate change.[49]

Cirrus cloud thinning has been proposed as a possible geoengineering approach to reduce climate damage due to carbon dioxide. Cirrus cloud thinning would involve injecting particles into the upper troposphere to reduce the amount of cirrus clouds. The 2021 IPCC Assessment Report expressed low confidence in the cooling effect of cirrus cloud thinning, due to limited understanding.[50]

Cloud properties

 
Cirrus clouds merging to cirrocumulus clouds

Scientists have studied the properties of cirrus using several different methods. Lidar (laser-based radar) gives highly accurate information on the cloud's altitude, length, and width. Balloon-carried hygrometers[a] measure the humidity of the cirrus cloud but are not accurate enough to measure the depth of the cloud. Radar units give information on the altitudes and thicknesses of cirrus clouds.[51] Another data source is satellite measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment program. These satellites measure where infrared radiation is absorbed in the atmosphere, and if it is absorbed at cirrus altitudes, then it is assumed that there are cirrus clouds in that location.[52] NASA's Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer gives information on the cirrus cloud cover by measuring reflected infrared radiation of various specific frequencies during the day. During the night, it determines cirrus cover by detecting the Earth's infrared emissions. The cloud reflects this radiation back to the ground, thus enabling satellites to see the "shadow" it casts into space.[27] Visual observations from aircraft or the ground provide additional information about cirrus clouds.[52] Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS)[b] is used to identify the type of nucleation seeds that spawned the ice crystals in a cirrus cloud.[17]

Cirrus clouds have an average ice crystal concentration of 300,000 ice crystals per 10 cubic meters (270,000 ice crystals per 10 cubic yards). The concentration ranges from as low as 1 ice crystal per 10 cubic meters to as high as 100 million ice crystals per 10 cubic meters (just under 1 ice crystal per 10 cubic yards to 77 million ice crystals per 10 cubic yards), a difference of eight orders of magnitude. The size of each ice crystal is typically 0.25 millimeters,[22] but they range from as short as 0.01 millimeters up to several millimeters.[55] The ice crystals in contrails can be much smaller than those in naturally-occurring cirrus cloud, being around 0.001 millimeters to 0.1 millimeters in length.[34]

In addition to forming in different sizes, the ice crystals in cirrus clouds can crystallize in different shapes: solid columns, hollow columns, plates, rosettes, and conglomerations of the various other types. The shape of the ice crystals is determined by the air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and ice supersaturation (the amount by which the relative humidity exceeds 100%). Cirrus in temperate regions typically have the various ice crystal shapes separated by type. The columns and plates concentrate near the top of the cloud, whereas the rosettes and conglomerations concentrate near the base. In the northern Arctic region, cirrus clouds tend to be composed of only the columns, plates, and conglomerations, and these crystals tend to be at least four times larger than the minimum size. In Antarctica, cirrus are usually composed of only columns which are much longer than normal.[55]

Cirrus clouds are usually colder than −20 °C (−4 °F).[55] At temperatures above −68 °C (−90 °F), most cirrus clouds have relative humidities of roughly 100% (that is they are saturated).[56] Cirrus can supersaturate, with relative humidities over ice that can exceed 200%.[57][56] Below −68 °C (−90 °F) there are more of both undersaturated and supersaturated cirrus clouds.[58] The more supersaturated clouds are probably young cirrus.[56]

Optical phenomena

 
Circumhorizontal arc

Cirrus clouds can produce several optical effects like halos around the Sun and Moon. Halos are caused by interaction of the light with hexagonal ice crystals present in the clouds which, depending on their shape and orientation, can result in a wide variety of white and colored rings, arcs and spots in the sky, including sun dogs,[55] the 46° halo,[59] the 22° halo,[59] and circumhorizontal arcs.[60][61] Circumhorizontal arcs are only visible when the Sun rises higher than 58° above the horizon, preventing observers at higher latitudes from ever being able to see them.[62]

More rarely, cirrus clouds are capable of producing glories, more commonly associated with liquid water-based clouds such as stratus. A glory is a set of concentric, faintly-colored glowing rings that appear around the shadow of the observer, and are best observed from a high viewpoint or from a plane.[63] Cirrus clouds only form glories when the constituent ice crystals are aspherical; researchers suggest that the ice crystals must be between 0.009 millimeters and 0.015 millimeters in length for a glory to appear.[64]

Relation to other clouds

See also: List of cloud types
 
Heights of various cloud genera including high-, mid-, and low-level clouds

Cirrus clouds are one of three different genera of high-level clouds, all of which are given the prefix "cirro-". The other two genera are cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. High-level clouds usually form above 6,100 m (20,000 ft).[1][65][66] Cirrocumulus and cirrostratus are sometimes informally referred to as cirriform clouds because of their frequent association with cirrus.[67]

In the intermediate range, from 2,000 to 6,100 m (6,500 to 20,000 ft),[1][65] are the mid-level clouds, which are given the prefix "alto-". They comprise two genera, altostratus and altocumulus. These clouds are formed from ice crystals, supercooled water droplets, or liquid water droplets.[1]

Low-level clouds usually form below 2,000 m (6,500 ft) and do not have a prefix.[1][65] The two genera that are strictly low-level are stratus, and stratocumulus. These clouds are composed of water droplets, except during winter when they are formed of supercooled water droplets or ice crystals if the temperature at cloud level is below freezing. Three additional genera usually form in the low-altitude range, but may be based at higher levels under conditions of very low humidity. They are the genera cumulus, and cumulonimbus, and nimbostratus. These are sometimes classified separately as clouds of vertical development, especially when their tops are high enough to be composed of supercooled water droplets or ice crystals.[68][1]

Cirrocumulus

Main article: Cirrocumulus cloud
 
Large field of cirrocumulus clouds

Cirrocumulus clouds form in sheets or patches[69] and do not cast shadows. They commonly appear in regular, rippling patterns[66] or in rows of clouds with clear areas between.[1] Cirrocumulus are, like other members of the cumuliform category, formed via convective processes.[70] Significant growth of these patches indicates high-altitude instability and can signal the approach of poorer weather.[71][72] The ice crystals in the bottoms of cirrocumulus clouds tend to be in the form of hexagonal cylinders. They are not solid, but instead tend to have stepped funnels coming in from the ends. Towards the top of the cloud, these crystals have a tendency to clump together.[73] These clouds do not last long, and they tend to change into cirrus because as the water vapor continues to deposit on the ice crystals, they eventually begin to fall, destroying the upward convection. The cloud then dissipates into cirrus.[74] Cirrocumulus clouds come in four species: stratiformis, lenticularis, castellanus, and floccus.[71] They are iridescent when the constituent supercooled water droplets are all about the same size.[72]

Cirrostratus

Main article: Cirrostratus cloud
 
Cirrostratus cloud

Cirrostratus clouds can appear as a milky sheen in the sky[71] or as a striated sheet.[66] They are sometimes similar to altostratus and are distinguishable from the latter because the Sun or Moon is always clearly visible through transparent cirrostratus, in contrast to altostratus which tends to be opaque or translucent.[75] Cirrostratus come in two species, fibratus and nebulosus.[71] The ice crystals in these clouds vary depending upon the height in the cloud. Towards the bottom, at temperatures of around −35 to −45 °C (−31 to −49 °F), the crystals tend to be long, solid, hexagonal columns. Towards the top of the cloud, at temperatures of around −47 to −52 °C (−53 to −62 °F), the predominant crystal types are thick, hexagonal plates and short, solid, hexagonal columns.[74][76] These clouds commonly produce halos, and sometimes the halo is the only indication that such clouds are present.[77] They are formed by warm, moist air being lifted slowly to a very high altitude.[78] When a warm front approaches, cirrostratus clouds become thicker and descend forming altostratus clouds,[1] and rain usually begins 12 to 24 hours later.[77]

Other planets

 
Cirrus clouds on Neptune, captured during Voyager 2's flyby

Cirrus clouds have been observed on several other planets. In 2008, the Martian Lander Phoenix took a time-lapse photograph of a group of cirrus clouds moving across the Martian sky using lidar.[79] Near the end of its mission, the Phoenix Lander detected more thin clouds close to the north pole of Mars. Over the course of several days, they thickened, lowered, and eventually began snowing. The total precipitation was only a few thousandths of a millimeter. James Whiteway from York University concluded that "precipitation is a component of the [Martian] hydrologic cycle".[80] These clouds formed during the Martian night in two layers, one around 4,000 m (13,000 ft) above ground and the other at surface level. They lasted through early morning before being burned away by the Sun. The crystals in these clouds were formed at a temperature of −65 °C (−85 °F), and they were shaped roughly like ellipsoids 0.127 millimeters long and 0.042 millimeters wide.[81]

On Jupiter, cirrus clouds are composed of ammonia. When Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt disappeared, one hypothesis put forward by Glenn Orten was that a large quantity of ammonia cirrus clouds had formed above it, hiding it from view.[82] NASA's Cassini probe detected these clouds on Saturn[83] and thin water-ice cirrus on Saturn's moon Titan.[84] Cirrus clouds composed of methane ice exist on Uranus.[85] On Neptune, thin wispy clouds which could possibly be cirrus have been detected over the Great Dark Spot. As on Uranus, these are probably methane crystals.[86]

Interstellar cirrus clouds are composed of tiny dust grains smaller than a micrometer and are therefore not true cirrus clouds, which are composed of frozen crystals.[87] They range from a few light years to dozens of light years across. While they are not technically cirrus clouds, the dust clouds are referred to as "cirrus" because of their similarity to the clouds on Earth. They emit infrared radiation, similar to the way cirrus clouds on Earth reflect heat being radiated out into space.[88]

Notes

  1. ^ A hygrometer is a device used to measure humidity.
  2. ^ The PALMS instrument utilizes an ultraviolet laser to vaporize aerosol particles[53] in a vacuum. The ionized particles are analyzed with a mass spectrometer to determine mass and composition.[54]

References

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April 27, 2023
cirrus, cloud, cirrus, cloud, classification, symbol, genus, high, cloud, made, crystals, typically, appear, delicate, wispy, with, white, strands, cirrus, usually, formed, when, warm, rises, causing, water, vapor, deposition, onto, rocky, metallic, dust, part. Cirrus cloud classification symbol Ci is a genus of high cloud made of ice crystals Cirrus clouds typically appear delicate and wispy with white strands Cirrus are usually formed when warm dry air rises causing water vapor deposition onto rocky or metallic dust particles at high altitudes Globally they form anywhere between 4 000 and 20 000 meters 13 000 and 66 000 feet above sea level with the higher elevations usually in the tropics and the lower elevations in more polar regions Cirrus Cirrus castellanus AbbreviationCi SymbolGenusCirrus hairy SpeciesCirrus castellanus Cirrus fibratus Cirrus floccus Cirrus spissatus Cirrus uncinusVarietyNoneAltitude4000 20000 m 13 000 66 000 ft ClassificationFamily A High level AppearanceHairy like cloudsPrecipitationVery common in thunderstorms and tropical cyclones Sky containing different types of cirrus clouds Cirrus clouds can form from the tops of thunderstorms and tropical cyclones and sometimes predict the arrival of rain or storms Although they are a sign that rain and maybe storms are on the way cirrus themselves drop no more than falling streaks of ice crystals These crystals dissipate melt and evaporate as they fall through warmer and drier air and never reach ground Cirrus clouds warm the earth potentially contributing to climate change A warming earth will likely produce more cirrus clouds potentially resulting in a self reinforcing loop Optical phenomena such as sun dogs and halos can be produced by light interacting with ice crystals in cirrus clouds There are two other high level cirrus like clouds called cirrostratus and cirrocumulus Cirrostratus looks like a sheet of cloud whereas cirrocumulus looks like a pattern of small cloud tufts Unlike cirrus and cirrostratus cirrocumulus clouds contain droplets of supercooled below freezing point water Cirrus clouds form in the atmospheres of Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune and on Titan one of Saturn s larger moons Some of these extraterrestrial cirrus clouds are made of ammonia or methane ice much like water ice in cirrus on Earth Some interstellar clouds made of grains of dust smaller than a thousandth of a millimeter are also called cirrus Contents 1 Description 2 Formation 2 1 Tropical cyclones 2 2 Thunderstorms 2 3 Contrails 3 Use in forecasting 4 Effects on climate 5 Cloud properties 6 Optical phenomena 7 Relation to other clouds 7 1 Cirrocumulus 7 2 Cirrostratus 8 Other planets 9 Notes 10 ReferencesDescription EditSpecies of cirrus clouds Cirrus castellanus Cirrus fibratus Cirrus floccus Cirrus spissatus Cirrus uncinus commonly called mare s tails Fall streaks in a cirrus cloud Cirrus are wispy clouds made of long strands of ice crystals that are described as feathery 1 hair like or layered in appearance 2 First defined scientifically by Luke Howard in an 1803 paper 3 their name is derived from the Latin word cirrus meaning curl or fringe 4 They are transparent meaning that the Sun can be seen through them Ice crystals in the clouds cause them to usually appear white but the rising or setting Sun can color them various shades of yellow or red 2 5 At dusk they can appear gray 5 Cirrus comes in five visually distinct species castellanus fibratus floccus spissatus and uncinus 2 Cirrus castellanus has cumuliform tops caused by high altitude convection rising up from the main cloud body 2 6 Cirrus fibratus looks striated and is the most common cirrus species 2 6 Cirrus floccus species looks like a series of tufts 7 Cirrus spissatus is a particularly dense form of cirrus that often forms from thunderstorms 8 Cirrus uncinus clouds are hooked and are the form that is usually called mare s tails 6 9 Each species is divided into up to four varieties intortus vertebratus radiatus and duplicatus 10 Intortus variety has an extremely contorted shape with Kelvin Helmholtz waves being a form of cirrus intortus that has been twisted into loops by layers of wind blowing at different speeds called wind shear 6 Radiatus variety has large radial bands of cirrus clouds that stretch across the sky 6 Vertebratus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged side by side like ribs 11 Duplicatus variety occurs when cirrus clouds are arranged above one another in layers 12 Cirrus clouds often produce hair like filaments called fall streaks made of heavier ice crystals that fall from the cloud These are similar to the virga produced in liquid water clouds The sizes and shapes of fall streaks are determined by the wind shear 13 Cirrus cloud cover varies diurnally During the day cirrus cloud cover drops and during the night it increases 14 Based on CALIPSO satellite data cirrus covers an average of 31 to 32 of the Earth s surface 15 Cirrus cloud cover varies wildly by location with some parts of the tropics reaching up to 70 cirrus cloud cover Polar regions on the other hand have significantly less cirrus cloud cover with some areas having a yearly average of only around 10 coverage 14 These percentages treat clear days and nights as well as days and nights with other cloud types as lack of cirrus cloud cover 16 Formation EditCirrus clouds are usually formed as warm dry air rises 2 causing water vapor to undergo deposition onto rocky or metallic dust particles 17 at high altitudes The average cirrus cloud altitude increases as latitude decreases but the altitude is always capped by the tropopause 18 These conditions commonly occur at the leading edge of a warm front 19 Because absolute humidity is low at such high altitudes this genus tends to be fairly transparent 20 Cirrus clouds can also form inside fallstreak holes also called cavum 21 At latitudes of 65 N or S close to polar regions cirrus clouds form on average only 7 000 m 23 000 ft above sea level In temperate regions at roughly 45 N or S their average altitude increases to 9 500 m 31 200 ft above sea level In tropical regions at roughly 5 N or S cirrus clouds form 13 500 m 44 300 ft above sea level on average Across the globe cirrus clouds can form anywhere from 4 000 to 20 000 m 13 000 to 66 000 ft above sea level 18 Cirrus clouds form with a vast range of thicknesses They can be as little as 100 m 330 ft from top to bottom to as thick as 8 000 m 26 000 ft Cirrus cloud thickness is usually somewhere between those two extremes with an average thickness of 1 500 m 4 900 ft 22 The jet stream a high level wind band can stretch cirrus clouds long enough to cross continents 23 Jet streaks bands of faster moving air in the jet stream can create arcs of cirrus cloud hundreds of kilometers long 24 Cirrus cloud formation may be effected by organic aerosols particles produced by plants acting as additional nucleation points for ice crystal formation 25 26 However research suggests that cirrus clouds more commonly form on rocky or metallic particles rather than on organic ones 17 Tropical cyclones Edit A vast shield of cirrus clouds accompanying the west side of Hurricane IsabelSheets of cirrus clouds commonly fan out from the eye walls of tropical cyclones 27 The eye wall is the ring of storm clouds surrounding the eye of a tropical cyclone 28 A large shield of cirrus and cirrostratus typically accompanies the high altitude outflowing winds of tropical cyclones 27 and these can make the underlying bands of rain and sometimes even the eye difficult to detect in satellite photographs 29 Thunderstorms Edit White cirrus in an anvil cloud Thunderstorms can form dense cirrus at their tops As the cumulonimbus cloud in a thunderstorm grows vertically the liquid water droplets freeze when the air temperature reaches the freezing point 30 The anvil cloud takes its shape because the temperature inversion at the tropopause prevents the warm moist air forming the thunderstorm from rising any higher thus creating the flat top 31 In the tropics these thunderstorms occasionally produce copious amounts of cirrus from their anvils 32 High altitude winds commonly push this dense mat out into an anvil shape that stretches downwind as much as several kilometers 31 Individual cirrus cloud formations can be the remnants of anvil clouds formed by thunderstorms In the dissipating stage of a cumulonimbus cloud when the normal column rising up to the anvil has evaporated or dissipated the mat of cirrus in the anvil is all that is left 33 Contrails Edit Contrails are an artificial type of cirrus cloud formed when water vapor from the exhaust of a jet engine condenses on particles which come from either the surrounding air or the exhaust itself and freezes leaving behind a visible trail The exhaust can trigger the formation of cirrus by providing ice nuclei when there is an insufficient naturally occurring supply in the atmosphere 34 One of the environmental impacts of aviation is that persistent contrails can form into large mats of cirrus 35 and increased air traffic has been implicated as one possible cause of the increasing frequency and amount of cirrus in Earth s atmosphere 35 36 Use in forecasting EditSee also Weather forecasting and Tropical cyclone track forecasting High cloud weather map symbols Random isolated cirrus do not have any particular significance 19 A large number of cirrus clouds can be a sign of an approaching frontal system or upper air disturbance The appearance of cirrus signals a change in weather usually more stormy in the near future 37 If the cloud is a cirrus castellanus there might be instability at the high altitude level 19 When the clouds deepen and spread especially when they are of the cirrus radiatus variety or cirrus fibratus species this usually indicates an approaching weather front If it is a warm front the cirrus clouds spread out into cirrostratus which then thicken and lower into altocumulus and altostratus The next set of clouds are the rain bearing nimbostratus clouds 1 19 38 When cirrus clouds precede a cold front squall line or multicellular thunderstorm it is because they are blown off the anvil and the next to arrive are the cumulonimbus clouds 38 Kelvin Helmholtz waves indicate extreme wind shear at high levels 19 When a jet streak creates a large arc of cirrus weather conditions may be right for the development of winter storms 24 Within the tropics 36 hours prior to the center passage of a tropical cyclone a veil of white cirrus clouds approaches from the direction of the cyclone 39 In the mid to late 19th century forecasters used these cirrus veils to predict the arrival of hurricanes In the early 1870s the president of Belen College in Havana Father Benito Vines developed the first hurricane forecasting system he mainly used the motion of these clouds in formulating his predictions 40 He would observe the clouds hourly from 4 00 am to 10 00 pm After accumulating enough information Vines began accurately predicting the paths of hurricanes he summarized his observations in his book Apuntes Relativos a los Huracanes de las Antilles published in English as Practical Hints in Regard to West Indian Hurricanes 41 Effects on climate EditCirrus clouds cover up to 25 of the Earth up to 70 in the tropics at night 42 and have a net heating effect 43 When they are thin and translucent the clouds efficiently absorb outgoing infrared radiation while only marginally reflecting the incoming sunlight 44 When cirrus clouds are 100 m 330 ft thick they reflect only around 9 of the incoming sunlight but they prevent almost 50 of the outgoing infrared radiation from escaping thus raising the temperature of the atmosphere beneath the clouds by an average of 10 C 18 F 45 a process known as the greenhouse effect 46 Averaged worldwide cloud formation results in a temperature loss of 5 C 9 F at the earth s surface mainly the result of stratocumulus clouds 47 Cirrus clouds are likely becoming more common due to climate change As their greenhouse effect is stronger than their reflection of sunlight this would act as a self reinforcing feedback 48 Metallic particles from human sources act as additional nucleation seeds potentially increasing cirrus cloud cover and thus contributing further to climate change 17 Aircraft in the upper troposphere can create contrail cirrus clouds if local weather conditions are right These contrails contribute to climate change 49 Cirrus cloud thinning has been proposed as a possible geoengineering approach to reduce climate damage due to carbon dioxide Cirrus cloud thinning would involve injecting particles into the upper troposphere to reduce the amount of cirrus clouds The 2021 IPCC Assessment Report expressed low confidence in the cooling effect of cirrus cloud thinning due to limited understanding 50 Cloud properties Edit Cirrus clouds merging to cirrocumulus clouds Scientists have studied the properties of cirrus using several different methods Lidar laser based radar gives highly accurate information on the cloud s altitude length and width Balloon carried hygrometers a measure the humidity of the cirrus cloud but are not accurate enough to measure the depth of the cloud Radar units give information on the altitudes and thicknesses of cirrus clouds 51 Another data source is satellite measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment program These satellites measure where infrared radiation is absorbed in the atmosphere and if it is absorbed at cirrus altitudes then it is assumed that there are cirrus clouds in that location 52 NASA s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer gives information on the cirrus cloud cover by measuring reflected infrared radiation of various specific frequencies during the day During the night it determines cirrus cover by detecting the Earth s infrared emissions The cloud reflects this radiation back to the ground thus enabling satellites to see the shadow it casts into space 27 Visual observations from aircraft or the ground provide additional information about cirrus clouds 52 Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry PALMS b is used to identify the type of nucleation seeds that spawned the ice crystals in a cirrus cloud 17 Cirrus clouds have an average ice crystal concentration of 300 000 ice crystals per 10 cubic meters 270 000 ice crystals per 10 cubic yards The concentration ranges from as low as 1 ice crystal per 10 cubic meters to as high as 100 million ice crystals per 10 cubic meters just under 1 ice crystal per 10 cubic yards to 77 million ice crystals per 10 cubic yards a difference of eight orders of magnitude The size of each ice crystal is typically 0 25 millimeters 22 but they range from as short as 0 01 millimeters up to several millimeters 55 The ice crystals in contrails can be much smaller than those in naturally occurring cirrus cloud being around 0 001 millimeters to 0 1 millimeters in length 34 In addition to forming in different sizes the ice crystals in cirrus clouds can crystallize in different shapes solid columns hollow columns plates rosettes and conglomerations of the various other types The shape of the ice crystals is determined by the air temperature atmospheric pressure and ice supersaturation the amount by which the relative humidity exceeds 100 Cirrus in temperate regions typically have the various ice crystal shapes separated by type The columns and plates concentrate near the top of the cloud whereas the rosettes and conglomerations concentrate near the base In the northern Arctic region cirrus clouds tend to be composed of only the columns plates and conglomerations and these crystals tend to be at least four times larger than the minimum size In Antarctica cirrus are usually composed of only columns which are much longer than normal 55 Cirrus clouds are usually colder than 20 C 4 F 55 At temperatures above 68 C 90 F most cirrus clouds have relative humidities of roughly 100 that is they are saturated 56 Cirrus can supersaturate with relative humidities over ice that can exceed 200 57 56 Below 68 C 90 F there are more of both undersaturated and supersaturated cirrus clouds 58 The more supersaturated clouds are probably young cirrus 56 Optical phenomena Edit Circumhorizontal arc Cirrus clouds can produce several optical effects like halos around the Sun and Moon Halos are caused by interaction of the light with hexagonal ice crystals present in the clouds which depending on their shape and orientation can result in a wide variety of white and colored rings arcs and spots in the sky including sun dogs 55 the 46 halo 59 the 22 halo 59 and circumhorizontal arcs 60 61 Circumhorizontal arcs are only visible when the Sun rises higher than 58 above the horizon preventing observers at higher latitudes from ever being able to see them 62 More rarely cirrus clouds are capable of producing glories more commonly associated with liquid water based clouds such as stratus A glory is a set of concentric faintly colored glowing rings that appear around the shadow of the observer and are best observed from a high viewpoint or from a plane 63 Cirrus clouds only form glories when the constituent ice crystals are aspherical researchers suggest that the ice crystals must be between 0 009 millimeters and 0 015 millimeters in length for a glory to appear 64 Relation to other clouds EditSee also List of cloud types Heights of various cloud genera including high mid and low level clouds Cirrus clouds are one of three different genera of high level clouds all of which are given the prefix cirro The other two genera are cirrocumulus and cirrostratus High level clouds usually form above 6 100 m 20 000 ft 1 65 66 Cirrocumulus and cirrostratus are sometimes informally referred to as cirriform clouds because of their frequent association with cirrus 67 In the intermediate range from 2 000 to 6 100 m 6 500 to 20 000 ft 1 65 are the mid level clouds which are given the prefix alto They comprise two genera altostratus and altocumulus These clouds are formed from ice crystals supercooled water droplets or liquid water droplets 1 Low level clouds usually form below 2 000 m 6 500 ft and do not have a prefix 1 65 The two genera that are strictly low level are stratus and stratocumulus These clouds are composed of water droplets except during winter when they are formed of supercooled water droplets or ice crystals if the temperature at cloud level is below freezing Three additional genera usually form in the low altitude range but may be based at higher levels under conditions of very low humidity They are the genera cumulus and cumulonimbus and nimbostratus These are sometimes classified separately as clouds of vertical development especially when their tops are high enough to be composed of supercooled water droplets or ice crystals 68 1 Cirrocumulus Edit Main article Cirrocumulus cloud Large field of cirrocumulus clouds Cirrocumulus clouds form in sheets or patches 69 and do not cast shadows They commonly appear in regular rippling patterns 66 or in rows of clouds with clear areas between 1 Cirrocumulus are like other members of the cumuliform category formed via convective processes 70 Significant growth of these patches indicates high altitude instability and can signal the approach of poorer weather 71 72 The ice crystals in the bottoms of cirrocumulus clouds tend to be in the form of hexagonal cylinders They are not solid but instead tend to have stepped funnels coming in from the ends Towards the top of the cloud these crystals have a tendency to clump together 73 These clouds do not last long and they tend to change into cirrus because as the water vapor continues to deposit on the ice crystals they eventually begin to fall destroying the upward convection The cloud then dissipates into cirrus 74 Cirrocumulus clouds come in four species stratiformis lenticularis castellanus and floccus 71 They are iridescent when the constituent supercooled water droplets are all about the same size 72 Cirrostratus Edit Main article Cirrostratus cloud Cirrostratus cloud Cirrostratus clouds can appear as a milky sheen in the sky 71 or as a striated sheet 66 They are sometimes similar to altostratus and are distinguishable from the latter because the Sun or Moon is always clearly visible through transparent cirrostratus in contrast to altostratus which tends to be opaque or translucent 75 Cirrostratus come in two species fibratus and nebulosus 71 The ice crystals in these clouds vary depending upon the height in the cloud Towards the bottom at temperatures of around 35 to 45 C 31 to 49 F the crystals tend to be long solid hexagonal columns Towards the top of the cloud at temperatures of around 47 to 52 C 53 to 62 F the predominant crystal types are thick hexagonal plates and short solid hexagonal columns 74 76 These clouds commonly produce halos and sometimes the halo is the only indication that such clouds are present 77 They are formed by warm moist air being lifted slowly to a very high altitude 78 When a warm front approaches cirrostratus clouds become thicker and descend forming altostratus clouds 1 and rain usually begins 12 to 24 hours later 77 Other planets Edit Cirrus clouds on Neptune captured during Voyager 2 s flyby Cirrus clouds have been observed on several other planets In 2008 the Martian Lander Phoenix took a time lapse photograph of a group of cirrus clouds moving across the Martian sky using lidar 79 Near the end of its mission the Phoenix Lander detected more thin clouds close to the north pole of Mars Over the course of several days they thickened lowered and eventually began snowing The total precipitation was only a few thousandths of a millimeter James Whiteway from York University concluded that precipitation is a component of the Martian hydrologic cycle 80 These clouds formed during the Martian night in two layers one around 4 000 m 13 000 ft above ground and the other at surface level They lasted through early morning before being burned away by the Sun The crystals in these clouds were formed at a temperature of 65 C 85 F and they were shaped roughly like ellipsoids 0 127 millimeters long and 0 042 millimeters wide 81 On Jupiter cirrus clouds are composed of ammonia When Jupiter s South Equatorial Belt disappeared one hypothesis put forward by Glenn Orten was that a large quantity of ammonia cirrus clouds had formed above it hiding it from view 82 NASA s Cassini probe detected these clouds on Saturn 83 and thin water ice cirrus on Saturn s moon Titan 84 Cirrus clouds composed of methane ice exist on Uranus 85 On Neptune thin wispy clouds which could possibly be cirrus have been detected over the Great Dark Spot As on Uranus these are probably methane crystals 86 Interstellar cirrus clouds are composed of tiny dust grains smaller than a micrometer and are therefore not true cirrus clouds which are composed of frozen crystals 87 They range from a few light years to dozens of light years across While they are not technically cirrus clouds the dust clouds are referred to as cirrus because of their similarity to the clouds on Earth They emit infrared radiation similar to the way cirrus clouds on Earth reflect heat being radiated out into space 88 Notes Edit A hygrometer is a device used to measure humidity The PALMS instrument utilizes an ultraviolet laser to vaporize aerosol particles 53 in a vacuum The ionized particles are analyzed with a mass spectrometer to determine mass and composition 54 References EditFootnotes a b c d e f g h i Funk Ted Cloud Classifications and Characteristics PDF The Science Corner NOAA p 1 Archived from the original PDF on 27 November 2014 Retrieved 23 February 2022 a b c d e f Cirrus clouds Meteorological Office of the UK Archived from the original on 23 February 2022 Retrieved 23 February 2022 Howard Luke 1865 1803 On the modifications of clouds 3rd ed London John Churchill amp Sons Askesian Society p 3 Cirrus Oxford English Dictionary 1st ed Oxford University Press 1933 a b Ten Basic Clouds National Weather Service Jetstream National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Archived from the original on 21 May 2022 Retrieved 17 March 2022 a b c d 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