cloud layers?

S

switch07

Member
Hey John,

I travel for my company alot and am always flying somwhere. I saw this again today flying from Detroit to Green Bay. Two complete layers of clouds. We were at about 28000 feet today and there were very dark clouds below us and on top of us with a cloudless layer in between. I have often wondered what causes this. There was no turbulance at all, smooth flying. Any ideas? Thanks....
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
The atmosphere is many times composed of layers with different properties like humidity and temperature. So at times, there will be situations where a layer has properties that are good for the formation of clouds and other layers that are not good. You were flying in a layer with bad properties for cloud formation, but above and beneath you were layers good for cloud production. The cause of this is just how air is being transported in the atmosphere and where that air came from. The difference in color was due to how the light was interacting with each layer. The lowest layer was darkest because it had a dark background (the ground) behind it.

-John
 
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