Climate and Weather—Sample Online Research Project

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! Well, actually, it's a cumulus cloud in the shape of a swan.

As you now know, clouds come in many sizes and shapes. The major types, like cumulus, cirrus and stratus, are easy to identify. It's those combination clouds that are a little bit harder to recognize. You may recall some from the video lesson—those with prefixes based on altitude—the alto- and cirro- clouds. Remember them? Or how about the nimbo- variety?

A cloud catalog may help you in your effort to identify clouds. What is a cloud catalog, you may wonder? Well, quite simply, it's kind of like any mail-order catalog you've seen. This one, though, consists of photos and brief descriptions of clouds instead of products.

You are hereby challenged to research cloud varieties online. As you come across each new cloud type, save a picture of it on your hard disk and write a descriptive caption for the photo. Below is a sample to get you started.

Altocumulus clouds exist in the middle altitudes of the troposphere (5-10 km). These clouds typically are a few kilometers thick and often are opaque enough to dim the sun considerably. Altocumulus clouds in the morning may warn of late day thunderstorms.

When you've competed your research, put all the images and captions together in a small booklet organized in a logical manner of your choosing.

Here are some keywords and links to help you on your quest. Be sure to put keyword phrases in quotes.

Keywords
Cloud catalog; cloud types; cumulus cloud; cirrus cloud; stratus cloud; stratocumulus; cirrocumulus; cirrostratus; altocumulus; altostratus; nimbostratus; cumulonimbus

Links
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/clouds.html
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/home.rxml
http://www.ccrc.sr.unh.edu/~stm/AS/Weather_Toolbox/Cloud_Classification.html

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