Science · 6 pages · 12 min
How clouds stay aloft
Cloud droplets fall, but they are so small that drag and updrafts keep them up.
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From the opening
A cloud stays overhead because its droplets are tiny enough that air drag makes them fall very slowly. Upward air in the cloud, and new condensation replacing what does fall, keeps the visible mass from emptying onto the ground at once. The opening covers why tiny drops fall so slowly, what an updraft is holding up, and when the drops become rain.
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Inside
- Why tiny drops fall so slowly
- What an updraft is holding up
- When the drops become rain
- Why a cloud is a process
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Drag and the slow fall of tiny cloud droplets
- Updrafts that offset that fall inside a cloud