Consider the following statements about clouds : 1. Two major forms of clouds are stratiform and cumuliform. 2. According to the altitude, clouds are classified as high clouds, middle clouds and low clouds. 3. Stratus, nimbostratus and stratocumulus are types of high clouds. 4. Clouds having nimbo attached to their name produce precipitation. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1, 2 and 4
- (c)2 and 4 only
- (d)1, 3 and 4
Correct — B, 1, 2 and 4. Statement 3 is the only failure, and it fails on height. Stratus, nimbostratus and stratocumulus are low clouds, forming from the surface up to roughly two kilometres; the high clouds are the cirrus family — cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus — which live above about six kilometres and are made of ice crystals. Everything else in the set is sound. Clouds do come in two great forms, the layered or stratiform sheet and the heaped or cumuliform mass, and every named cloud is some combination of those two shapes with a height prefix. Clouds are indeed grouped by altitude into high, middle and low families, which is the standard classification. And the syllable nimbus does mark rain: nimbostratus is the grey sheet that gives steady rain or snow, and cumulonimbus is the towering storm cloud, so a cloud carrying nimbo in its name is a precipitating cloud.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Correctly rejects statement 3 but also drops statement 4, which is true — nimbostratus and cumulonimbus are exactly the clouds that precipitate, and that is what the nimbo prefix signals.
- (c)2 and 4 only — Throws out statement 1, which is accurate. Stratiform and cumuliform are the two basic forms from which all the named cloud types are built.
- (d)1, 3 and 4 — Keeps statement 3, the one clear error. Stratus, nimbostratus and stratocumulus all belong to the low family, not the high one; the alto prefix marks the middle family and the cirro prefix the high.
Cloud classification works on two axes at once. The first is form — a flat layered sheet is stratiform, a heaped cauliflower mass is cumuliform. The second is height, giving a high family above about six kilometres, a middle family roughly between two and six, and a low family below two. The names combine the two, with cirro for high, alto for middle and no prefix for low, and nimbus added where the cloud rains. Cumulonimbus is the exception that spans all three levels, growing from a low base to the top of the troposphere.
Three of the four statements here are definitional and safe; the marks are in statement 3, which is a straight test of whether you know which family the stratus group belongs to. The prefix system is the shortcut, and it is worth learning as a rule rather than as a list: cirro means high, alto means middle, a bare name means low, and nimbo or nimbus means rain. Run that rule over statement 3 and stratus, nimbostratus and stratocumulus have no high-level prefix at all, which places them at the bottom. The same rule immediately confirms statement 4.
- The two basic cloud forms are stratiform, meaning layered, and cumuliform, meaning heaped.
- By altitude, clouds fall into high, middle and low families.
- High clouds are cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus, made largely of ice crystals; middle clouds carry the alto prefix; stratus, stratocumulus and nimbostratus are low.
- Nimbostratus gives continuous rain or snow and cumulonimbus gives showers, hail and thunderstorms — the nimbo syllable marks precipitation.
- Cumulonimbus grows from a low base right up to the tropopause, which is why it is not confined to a single family.
- Reading the word stratus as if it implied height. It describes a layered form and, on its own, marks a low cloud.
- Placing nimbostratus among the high clouds because it looks like a vast sheet — it is low and grows downward as it rains.
- Assuming every rain-bearing cloud has nimbo in its name; the reverse is what the statement claims, and that direction holds.
As a statements item on classification, as an identify-the-cloud question built from characteristics, or as a matching list of cloud names against heights or characteristics.
Consider the following statements: 1. High clouds primarily reflect solar radiation and cool the surface of the Earth. 2. Low clouds have a high absorption of infrared radiation emanating from the Earth's surface and thus cause warming effect. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Takes the same high and low families and asks what each does to the radiation balance — high thin cloud warms by trapping outgoing heat, low thick cloud cools by reflecting sunlight. Knowing which names sit in which family is the shared prerequisite.
Identify the type of cloud on the basis of the given characteristics : 1. High, thin, puffy white clouds of ice crystals that look like ripples 2. They appear between 20000 feet and 40000 feet above the Earth's surface 3. One of its types is called a 'mackerel sky' because the clouds resemble large fish scales, especially when they are coloured pink at sunset Select the correct answer.
- (a) Altostratus
- (b) Cirrostratus
- (c) Altocumulus
- (d) Cirrocumulus
Answer(d) Cirrocumulus
The high family in close-up, two sessions later, complete with the height band in feet. It is the direct counterweight to the false statement here, which tries to move the stratus group up to that level.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following sets contains only high clouds?
- (a)Stratus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus
- (b)Altostratus, altocumulus, nimbostratus
- (c)Cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus
- (d)Cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus
Answer(c) Cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus — the cirro prefix marks the high family, which is made largely of ice crystals.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Continuous, steady rain or snow over many hours is most characteristically produced by which cloud?
- (a)Cirrostratus
- (b)Nimbostratus
- (c)Altocumulus
- (d)Cirrocumulus
Answer(b) Nimbostratus — the low, thick, grey sheet whose name carries the nimbo prefix for precipitation.