How to make the difference

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• • July 30, 2017 at 9:23 pm #223453
    Corinne Reti

    Participant

    Hello,

    Could anyone tell me how I can mzkr the difference between an altocumulus stratoformis and a stratocumulus ? Thank you !

    Corinne

  • July 31, 2017 at 8:07 pm #223572
    Hans Stocker

    Participant

    These names are indeed confusing Corinne. Their appearances are not. Stratocumulus is a low level (main type) cloud and has large clumps covering large parts of the sky. Altocumulus is a mid level (main type) cloud so there is a larger distance from which you can see them. That is the reason why they seem to be a lot smaller. Their appearances are mostly cloudlets but also sometimes lenses or rolls. The addition stratiformis to altocumulus is the name of one of the many species of stratocumulus used when the cloudlets extend over a large area in rows.

    Do you know about the cloudspotter app? I can recommand it, for it has a library of all kind of clouds and optical phenomena with clear descriptions and above all beautiful pictures of examples.

    Happy cloudspotting!

  • August 4, 2017 at 11:42 am #224085
    Corinne Reti

    Participant

    Thank you Han for your answer.

    Yes, I definitely need the app. But I saw it only works on IPhones unfortunately. So until it works with Android  (why not??), I’ll purchase one of the books I saw on the online shop.

    Thanks again,

    Corinne

  • August 4, 2017 at 11:11 pm #224177
    Howard Brown

    Participant

    Corinne, welcome along; while waiting for the book (I like books) you could try the new on-line Cloud Atlas

    https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/home.html

    It takes some getting used to (I’m not there yet) but if you search ‘Ac str’ at the top right it will take you to a list with Ac str at the top which you can click on.

    Good Luck

  • August 12, 2017 at 10:40 pm #225382
    George Preoteasa

    Participant

    I was lucky earlier today to capture both clouds in one shot. The darker clouds that cover most of the sky, but especially at the lower and right side of the picture are stratocumulus. In the upper middle and left, they have some holes that allow you to see the higher layer of altocumulus stratiformis, the white clouds.

    Now, stratocumulus are not always so dark, so that is not the best indicator, but the size of their elements is clearly larger.

    Hope this helps a bit.

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