Clouds

Question 1

What is the collection of small water droplets or ice crystals in the air called?

Answer 1

Clouds

Question 2

Under what conditions do clouds form?

Answer 2

When air is cooled and condensation occurs.

Question 3

What are the suspended particles that provide the surfaces necessary for water vapor to condense?

Answer 3

Condensation Nuclei

Question 4

What is the process by which the temperature of an air mass decreases as the air mass rises and expands?

Answer 4

Adiabatic Cooling

Question 5

What do you call it when air moves over a surface that is colder than the air is, causing the temperature to decrease to form clouds?

Answer 5

Advective Cooling

Question 6

What type of clouds are gray, flat, and usually form at very low altitudes; they mean “sheet-like” or “layered”?

Answer 6

Stratus Clouds

Question 7

What type of clouds are low-level, billowy that commonly have cotton-shaped tops; they mean “piled” or “heaped”?

Answer 7

Cumulus Clouds

Question 8

What type of clouds are feathery-like, composed of ice crystals, and have the highest altitude; they mean “curly”?

Answer 8

Cirrus Clouds