Cirrocumulus Castellanus
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Cirrocumulus castellanus or Cirrocumulus castellatus is a type of
cirrocumulus cloud Cirrocumulus is one of the three main genus types of high-altitude tropospheric clouds, the other two being cirrus and cirrostratus. They usually occur at an altitude of , however they can occur as low as in the arctic and weather reporting sta ...
. '' Castellanus'' is from the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
meaning "of a castle". These clouds appear as round turrets that are rising from either a lowered line or sheet of clouds. Cirrocumulus castellanus is an indicator of
atmospheric instability Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth's atmosphere is considered to be unstable and as a result local weather is highly variable through distance and time. Atmospheric instability encourages vertical motion, which is directly cor ...
at the level of the cloud. The clouds form when condensation occurs in the base cloud, causing
latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process—usually a first-order phase transition, like melting or condensation. ...
ing to occur. This causes air to rise from the base cloud, and if the air ascends into conditionally unstable air, cirrocumulus castellanus will form.


See also

*
List of cloud types The list of cloud types groups all genera as ''high'' (cirro-, cirrus), ''middle'' (alto-), ''multi-level'' (nimbo-, cumulo-, cumulus), and ''low'' (strato-, stratus). These groupings are determined by the altitude level or levels in the troposphe ...


References


External links


International Cloud Atlas – Cirrocumulus castellanus
Cirrus Cumulus {{Cloud-stub