James Lunde

September 14, 1999

Natural Patterns

Patterns in Clouds

For my project I chose to do patterns in clouds. This topic interested me because as a kid I would love to lie in the grass and stare up at the clouds. My sister and I would try and see what shapes we could see in the clouds. While doing this, we noticed that there are many patterns in the clouds that went by. I have pondered this fact for a long time. That is why I took this class, to discover why things are the way they are.

The first website that I found was

http://ea.bemidji.msus.edu/truedson/metro/clouds.htm. It is titled "What Kind of Cloud is That?" It had many pictures of different clouds and descriptions of each kind. It is an interesting web site where one can go if he or she wants to find out more information about a certain type of cloud. Cirrocumulus clouds have distinct rows and are in a pattern. They form wave like patterns in the sky. Cirrostratuses clouds look similar but have larger stripes that are more spread apart. Cirrus clouds are much more thin and higher up. They are more compact and closer together. Altocumulus clouds are much more puffy and the lines are rounded, but still form a distinct pattern.

The second website I visited was

http://gordonr.simplenet.com/sunrise2.htm. This site has beautiful pictures of sunrises, in which you can see prime examples of how the clouds form patterns. The pictures show sunrises on rippled cirrus clouds. They are very small ripples that are hard to see unless you look closely at them. It also has a link to a page on just clouds. There are several good pictures of cirrus clouds. The cloud’s shape forms a short pattern that is spread apart and somewhat small in the sky. They form parallel rows across the sky, but not the entire sky, only part of it.

The third website that I found was

http://www.astronomynow.com/breaking/980616marspix/clouds.html.

This website contrasted the clouds of the earth and those of mars. It was very interesting to find out that mars has very similar clouds that earth has. This page explains how cloud patterns sometimes depend on the height of the clouds. The reason for this is because the higher the clouds the more ice crystals are in the cloud.

The fourth website was

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/home.rxml.

This web page is a link from the University of Illinois website. It actually defined what clouds are and what they are made of. It explains how the height of the cloud determines the makeup of the cloud. The higher the cloud the more ice crystals are in it. There are three different classifications of cloud height: high-level, mid-level, and low-level. The three different levels of clouds have different patterns in them. The highest-level clouds are thin lines, which are typically white in color. The mid-level clouds are typically more puffy and made of water droplets. The low-level clouds are usually made of water droplets and are much larger and more spread out.

The fifth website that I found was

http://aurora.elsip.hokudai.ac.jp/yanagita/job/cloud/html/souken.html.

This website was very interesting because it talked about how cloud patterns form. It explained how cloud patterns form. What the website actually is there for is to show a simulation of clouds forming. It is amazing how real the video of the cloud simulation was. The site explained how the ground temperature is what changes the cloud patterns.

All of the websites that I visited were extremely interesting. Clouds are amazing to look at and it is astounding to think about all of the different patterns that clouds can make. It was very hard for me to find five websites that fit into your description of a good website. I did the best that I could do.