Cloud types Airline world

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Cloud types
Published July 9, 2008 aviation , fun 7 Comments
Tags: cloud shapes, cloud types

14 Votes
It is always fun to watch the variations of cloud shapes when looking out of the planes window. The following article helps you to understand them and
be able to look at them from a scientific point of view.
First lets take a look at a very useful drawing on pacificislandtravel.com:

Cloud shapes and types

As you can see clouds can be found even 10 kms above the ground. Lets go through the very typical ones you will necessarily meet during your flights.
Cumulus and cumulonimbus
The most common cloud shape. Normally it is not a harmful cloud type, but it can easily develop into cumulonimbus and result stormy weather. If you see
these kind of clouds in the sky, it is the best time for gliding.
The following pictures show cumulus clouds from below and above.

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Cumulus

Cumulus

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Cumulus
Stratus
Stratus clouds are thin, soft clouds. The thinner ones never bring any rain, but they can evolve into nimbostratuses that shower us with that so called
light rain. Stratus clouds may appear on lower and higher levels of the athmoshphere.
Here are some pictures of stratus clouds.

Stratus clouds

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Upper and lower level stratus

Stratus clouds over Moscow

Cirrus
Cirrus clouds can always be found on higher levels. They are those curtain-like soft clouds that sometimes appear to be nothing else but the gas coming
out of airoplanes. But they are clouds.
The following pictures present cirrus clouds.

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Cirrus clouds

Cirrus clouds + plane gas

Variations
Normally these cloud types dont appear only by themselves. The sky is often painted by a variations of different clouds. Here are some examples.

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Stratus with a cumulonimbus

Stratus and cumulus clouds

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Cumulus and stratus clouds

I hope you will enjoy cloud watching even more the next time youll fly.
By Szafi

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7 Responses to Cloud types

1 Rachel
7

July 10, 2008 at 8:07 pm

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*Note* This is a private message for Blint, Zsuzsa and the creators of Airline World.
Hi Blint and Zsuzsa!

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I couldnt find any contact information for you so I thought I would just leave a comment. I came across your website recently and it is great! Your
commitment to helping people get the best travel information possible is really impressive.
I wanted to let you know as a part of your commitment to helping people, there is an interesting new website called http://www.viewpoints.com that
has a philosophy similar yours: a website for consumers, by consumers focused on product & service reviews. Anyway, it is dedicated to unbiased
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The site has more than 150k reviews right now and because it is serving the same purpose that you are committed to, I thought it only natural to
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Hope you have a minute or two to check it out!
Heres to consumer advocacy!! And, thanks for all your effort working on behalf of people.
Rachel
Reply

2 Lori Lamb
3

July 11, 2008 at 1:04 pm

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I know Im WAY off topic, but I just dont know where to post this comment, and Im hoping you can help;
Have you had any reports of BED BUGS at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel?
My husband is a 777 FO Continental Airlines traveling frequently to TLV. In fact, as Im writing this, hes boarding his commute flight in Newark
headed home to Phoenix and hes sporting dozens of very itchy little red bites which we strongly suspect are Bed Bug bites.
When he mentioned the bites to the front desk at checkout yesterday, he was pretty much poo-pood, but I take the matter very seriously. As a
former corporate travel manager, I had many occasions to deal with travelers returning from hotel stays (some in 5-star hotels) with Bed Bug bites.
Many who brought the little biters home to their families in suitcases unknowingly.
Id be very interested to know if you or any of your readers have had recent problems at the David. Any information you can share will be
appreciated.
Lori (skyblupink04@aol.com)
Peoria, AZ

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3 E-Monk
1

July 12, 2008 at 8:48 pm

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See? My fascination with clouds was not so far fetched after all
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4 SwapinaikeVap
2

August 3, 2008 at 5:58 am

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Very nice!!
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5 101pop baba
2

August 31, 2009 at 11:11 pm

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so cool! i love clouds! theyre awesome

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6 Frances
5

September 1, 2009 at 11:33 pm

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what you refer to as plane gas looks exactly like persistent contrails or chemtrails
is it still plane gas when it extends from horizon to horizon, forming parallel lines and sometimes criss-crossing lines?
and why do the plane gas lines merge and cause the entire sky to become overcast with a light grey color? i recently counted 12 plane gas trails
within the space of an hour and then, within another hour the entire blue sky was blotted out by the plane gas
Reply

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7 Ariel Winns
0

August 20, 2011 at 9:04 pm

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Hey guys how is it goin? I loved those pictures of you. Now, let me tell ya, that the second pic of the group Cirrus Clouds is not depicting plain
gas since planes dont fly that vertically. In my opinion, Those chemtrails are suggesting flying divases of a diferent nature, u know what I mean
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