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The Environment / Flat Cloud Bottoms - Temperature or Air Pressure?
« on: 07/01/2007 01:22:46 »
I've just discovered the general consensus says that the flat bottoms of clouds are governed by the air's temperature.
Now, the trouble is I've seen eagles soaring on warm thermals even on overcast days. Days overcast with flat-bottomed clouds. Having observed this, I suspect that temperatures are not constant enough over large areas and that they are in fact, quite variable. Temperature fluctuations like these would make for lumpy and boiling looking cloud bottoms.
The only constant with respect to the flat bottom seems to be the altitude. (More curious since the "flattnessness" always appears level too.)
Now I've never read this anywhere, but it seems to me the drop in pressure with increasing altitude (not air temperature) is why clouds have flat bottoms. The air pressure at the cloud's base marks the level where water vapor finally saturates and condenses back to it's liquid state. A visible cloud with a well defined lower boundary at a uniform altitude.
Is this right or have I had it backwards all these years?
Mike
Now, the trouble is I've seen eagles soaring on warm thermals even on overcast days. Days overcast with flat-bottomed clouds. Having observed this, I suspect that temperatures are not constant enough over large areas and that they are in fact, quite variable. Temperature fluctuations like these would make for lumpy and boiling looking cloud bottoms.
The only constant with respect to the flat bottom seems to be the altitude. (More curious since the "flattnessness" always appears level too.)
Now I've never read this anywhere, but it seems to me the drop in pressure with increasing altitude (not air temperature) is why clouds have flat bottoms. The air pressure at the cloud's base marks the level where water vapor finally saturates and condenses back to it's liquid state. A visible cloud with a well defined lower boundary at a uniform altitude.
Is this right or have I had it backwards all these years?
Mike