An ice cloud is a colloid of ice particles dispersed in air. The term has been used to refer to clouds of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice on Mars. [1] Such clouds can be sufficiently large and dense to cast shadows on the Martian surface. [1] Cirrus and noctilucent clouds on Earth contain ice particles. [2]

Ice clouds, also called cirrus clouds, are made up of ice crystals and start to form at altitudes of 5.5 km in temperate regions and of 6.5 km in tropical regions, making them the highest clouds in the troposphere. A small seed particle, or INP, is needed for heterogeneous ice nucleation.

Mar 28, 2023 · Composed of ice crystals, cirro-form clouds are whitish and hair-like. There are the high, wispy clouds to first appear in advance of a low-pressure area such as a mid-latitude storm system or a tropical system such as a hurricane.

May 1, 2025 · All clouds are made up of basically the same thing: water droplets or ice crystals that float in the sky. But all clouds look a little bit different from one another, and sometimes these differences can help us predict a change in the weather. Here’s a list of some of the most common cloud types you might spot in the sky:

May 16, 2018 · An experimental small satellite has filled this void and captured the first global picture of the small frozen particles inside clouds, normally called ice clouds. Deployed from the space station in May 2017, IceCube is testing instruments for their ability to make space-based measurements of the small, frozen crystals that make up ice clouds.

Clouds are made of water droplets or ice crystals that are so small and light they are able to stay up in the air. But how does the water and ice that makes up clouds get into the sky? And why do different types of clouds form?

Ice clouds are crucial to the Earth's radiation balance. They cool the Earth-atmosphere system by reflecting solar radiation back to space and warm it by blocking outgoing thermal radiation. However, there is a lack of an observation-based climatology of ice cloud properties and their radiative effects.