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Cumulus, convective clouds - cumulus, cumulonimbus and their varieties. They are formed due to the rapid ascending air currents in areas of developed turbulence in the frontal zones, or during a strong warming of the earth's surface.
Layered clouds - frontal cloudiness, which is formed on the ascending streams of air. Here, several types of clouds are formed depending on the height at which condensation takes place, or due to turbulent nonadiabatic processes (for example, cloud cooling). Layered clouds can stretch for hundreds and thousands of kilometers. This type includes the peristome-
layered, high-layered and layered rain clouds.
Wavy clouds. These include cirrus-cumulus, stratocumulus and high-cumulus clouds.
The formation of a droplet suspended in air is closely related to the presence of an aerosol in the atmosphere. Most scientists agree that cloudless formation and precipitation would be difficult or completely absent without the smallest aerosol particles. Aerosols in the atmosphere act as condensation nuclei.
The presence of these particles contributes to the formation of embryonic droplets in the atmosphere, even at a relative humidity of 75%, while the supersaturation moisture is 100%. Hygroscopic condensation nuclei pass into the droplets of solutions, which can occur at sufficiently low values ​​of moisture due to the Raoult effect. On a surface
wetted particles a thin water film is formed and a germinal drop is also formed, which also can grow under conditions that are far from 100% saturation of the atmosphere. Hygroscopic condensation nuclei coalesce with increasing humidity, the average radius of the cloud drop is 10-15 μm. Mixed nuclei are a conglomerate of dissimilar substances. They are formed and grow by the mechanism of a hygroscopic nucleus.
In the atmosphere, in addition to liquid droplets, ice particles are also present, apparently formed by the freezing of supercooled water droplets. It is important to have crystallization nuclei in the atmosphere, the nature of which is not quite clear at the present time. It is known that supercooled water droplets can be in a liquid state up to -35 ° C. This is possible in the absence or very low content of nuclei of crystallization in the atmosphere. Freezing begins with a solid, insoluble nucleus of crystallization and directly depends on the intervention of the liquid phase, without which the process is impossible. The decisive role in it is played by the nature of the interaction of water molecules and the substance of the nucleus, as well as the similarity of crystal lattices of matter and ice.
Saline hygroscopic aerosols enter the atmosphere from the ocean surface through the emission of marine aerosol from this surface. Also, the source of the aerosol is soil, plants, volcanic activity, etc. Hygroscopic soot particles, products of combustion and biological decomposition act as condensation nuclei. The lifetime of the clouds is different. For example, a separate cumulus cloud exists from 15 to 30 minutes, after which it evaporates.