These are cumulus clouds — when you're outside on a bright, sunny day, you might

這些都是積雲--當你在陽光明媚的日子裡在外面時，你可能會發現

see hundreds of them. Like all clouds, they're formed when water vapor in our atmosphere

能看到上百朵雲像所有的雲一樣，它們是由大氣中的水蒸氣形成的。

sticks to tiny particles of dust and salt and pollution floating around in the sky — called

粘附在天空中漂浮的塵埃、鹽分和汙染的微小顆粒上--被稱為 "塵埃"。

aerosols. When the vapor hits an aerosol, it transforms into water droplets or ice crystals.

氣溶膠。當蒸汽碰到氣溶膠時，它會變成水滴或冰晶。

And when enough of those come together, they form clouds. Every cloud is packed with

當足夠多的雲聚集在一起的時候，就會形成雲。每一朵雲都裝滿了

information — and knowing a bit about them can help you tell the difference

資訊--對它們有所瞭解，可以幫助你區分

between a cloud that'll disappear in a few minutes...and one that could ruin your picnic.

在一朵幾分鐘就會消失的雲和一朵可能毀掉你野餐的雲之間。

To really know what's going on in a cloud, you have to go right inside it.

要想真正瞭解雲中的情況，你必須直接進入雲中。

That's what atmospheric scientists do!

這就是大氣科學家的工作!

I use satellite data, aircraft data, and even sometimes weather balloon data to understand

我使用衛星數據，飛機數據，甚至有時使用氣象氣球數據來了解。

these processes associated with clouds and precipitations.

這些與雲和降水有關的過程；

That's Dr. Mayra Oyola, she's an atmospheric scientist who works at NASA's jet propulsion

那是Mayra Oyola博士，她是一位大氣科學家，在美國宇航局的噴氣推進部門工作。

lab. She's also very good at identifying clouds — like those cumulus ones.

實驗室。她也很擅長識別雲彩--比如那些積雲。

Cumulus means “heap” in Latin, and you can kind of see why — they look like big heaps of

Cumulus在拉丁語中的意思是 "堆"，你可以看到為什麼--它們看起來就像一大堆。

cotton. I saw a bunch when I was on a bike ride in August.

棉花。8月份騎車的時候，我看到了一堆。

These clouds are normally present when we have fair weather or good weather. So it's

這些雲彩一般在我們天氣晴朗或天氣好的時候才會出現。所以它是

a good day to go outside and play. Cumulus are one of the 10 most common cloud types,

是一個適合外出遊玩的好日子。積雲是10種最常見的雲類型之一。

which scientists started defining all the way back in 1802: There's also Stratus,

科學家們早在1802年就開始對其進行定義。還有斯特拉圖斯

which means “layer.” They cover the sky like a blanket.

意思是 "層"。它們像毯子一樣覆蓋著天空。

They vary in color. So you can see some that are whiter but they can be grayish – they

它們的顏色各不相同。所以，你可以看到一些是白色的，但他們可以是灰白色的，他們

are normally associated with what we call fair weather. Our friend Anna in Michigan

通常與我們所說的好天氣有關。我們在密歇根的朋友安娜

saw some of those: “The weather today is nice and warm.” Cirrus, which means

看到了其中的一些。"今天的天氣很好，很溫暖"Cirrus，是指

curl, look like wisps of hair high in the sky. My coworker Agnes found these above Lake

捲曲，看起來像高空中的縷縷髮絲。我的同事艾格尼絲在湖上面發現了這些。

Michigan in Chicago.

芝加哥的密歇根州。

Cirrus clouds, because they're so high, they're very cold. They're mostly ice, very tiny particles

漩渦雲，因為它們太高了，所以非常冷。它們大多是冰，非常微小的顆粒

of ice, and they're short-lived. And there's Nimbus, which means rain.

冰的，而且它們是短暫的。還有Nimbus，就是下雨的意思。

They're normally seen during a thunderstorm, along thunder and lightning.

它們通常在雷雨時出現，伴隨著雷聲和閃電。

These four basic cloud shapes — combined with how high they are in the sky — create

這四種基本的雲的形狀--結合它們在天空中的高度--創造了 "雲"。

the most common clouds. Like this cirrostratus clouds — which exist

最常見的雲。像這樣的捲雲--它存在於

above 7,000 meters.

7000米以上。

They're kind of like thin sheets that spread across the sky. These clouds are interesting

它們有點像薄薄的片子，鋪滿天空。這些雲很有趣

because they tend to be useful to do weather forecasting in the sense that they can tell

因為它們往往對做天氣預報很有用，因為它們可以告訴你，你是如何做到的。

you if there's precipitation or snow storm coming within 12 to 24 hours.

如果在12到24小時內有降水或暴風雪來襲，你。

Altostratus and altocumulus clouds hover a bit lower, between 2,000 and 7,000 meters.

阿爾託斯特拉圖斯雲和阿爾託庫倫雲在2000至7000米之間徘徊，比較低。

They often form a sheet — like these fluffy altocumulus ones Vox producer Laura saw in

它們通常會形成薄片--就像Vox的製作人Laura在這裡看到的這些蓬鬆的角質層一樣。

Maine. If you see them in the morning, this is a tip for weather forecasting. What it

緬因州。如果你在早上看到它們，這是一個天氣預報的提示。它是什麼？

means is that you need to be prepared because they're normally produce ahead of thunderstorms.

意味著你需要做好準備，因為他們通常會在雷雨前產生。

Altostratus are less puffy, and more like one big blanket.

阿爾託斯特拉圖斯不那麼蓬鬆，更像一張大毯子。

They normally thicken into being more type of rain bearing clouds like nimbostratus.

它們通常會變厚，成為更多類型的雨雲，如nimbostratus。

If you see a low, dark gray blanket of clouds, you're probably looking at nimbostratus

如果你看到一個低矮的，深灰色的雲毯，你可能在看nimbostratus。

— and it's probably already raining, like it was in my backyard the other day.

- 而且可能已經在下雨了，就像前幾天在我的後院一樣。

Really coming down out here.

真的下來了，在這裡。

Rain often comes from cumulonimbus clouds, too — they tower from close to the ground

雨水也常常來自積雨雲--它們從離地面很近的地方高高聳起

to really high in the sky.

到真正的高空。

They're not gonna be your classical white puffy clouds. They're probably gonna be darker

它們不會是經典的白色浮雲它們可能會是深色的

and grayish. So they're very distinct and very easy to identify.

和灰色的。所以它們的區別很大，非常容易辨認。

When you look at this chart, it seems pretty simple to tell the difference between these clouds.

當你看到這張圖時，似乎很簡單就能分辨出這些雲彩的區別。

But in reality, it can get a little tricky. For example — look at this photo my friend

但在現實中，可能會有點棘手。例如--看看這張照片，我的朋友

Jess took while canoeing.

傑西在劃獨木舟的時候，拿。

These are definitely cumulus and cirrus clouds. We know that cumulus are associated with fair

這些絕對是積雲和捲雲。我們知道，積雲是與公平

weather – However, in this particular case, I can probably tell that there was a storm

然而，在這個特殊的情況下，我可能會告訴你，有一個風暴。

before the picture was taken.

照片拍攝前。

For the most part, storms tend to expand all over the atmosphere. So you have impacts of

在大多數情況下，風暴往往會在大氣層中擴張。所以，你有影響的

the storm really high up in cirrus clouds, tend to be really high up in the atmosphere.

風暴中真正高高在上的捲雲，往往是真正高高在上的大氣。

During sunrise or sunset, it's pretty common to see a colorful mix of clouds in the sky.

在日出或日落的時候，看到天空中五顏六色的雲彩混合在一起是很常見的。

It's very specific in the sunset because you obviously have a very sharp change in temperature

夕陽下的天氣非常特殊，因為很明顯溫度變化非常大

going on at the time.

當時正在進行。

Those 10 clouds we just talked about make up nearly all the clouds in the world.

我們剛才說的那10朵雲幾乎佔了世界上所有的雲。

But what about the ones that don't fit on this chart?

但是，那些不適合這個圖的呢？

Like here, on top of Mount Fuji in Japan.

就像這裡，在日本的富士山頂上。

Mountain ranges and other high obstructions disrupt the normal flow of air.

山脈和其他高大的障礙物破壞了空氣的正常流動。

As air moves over the mountains, sinking air warms and rising air cools — which creates

當空氣在山間移動時，下沉的空氣會變暖，上升的空氣會變冷--這就形成了一個新的現象。

these lenticular clouds. They look like fluffy UFOs.

這些透鏡雲。他們看起來像蓬鬆的UFO。

Extreme weather can bring unusual clouds all over the world. Imagine you're sitting outside

極端天氣會給全世界帶來不尋常的雲彩。想象一下，你坐在外面

and you start to see these bumpy, baggy clouds roll in: They're called mammatus clouds

然後你開始看到這些凹凸不平的雲層滾滾而來。它們被稱為乳突雲

— and they usually come along with thunder, lightning, and rain.

- 而且它們通常會伴隨著雷電、閃電和雨水。

They're mostly composed of ice. And so basically the ice falls, and you have this pouches extending

它們主要由冰塊組成基本上冰塊落下後，就會有一個個小袋延伸出來。

sometimes hundreds of miles in any direction

縱橫馳騁

Ice crystals help create these weird clouds too — called Fallstreak holes. Scientists

冰晶也有助於創造這些奇怪的雲--被稱為Fallstreak洞。科學家們

think they're created when ice crystals in a cloud form really quickly, and either

認為它們是在雲中的冰晶迅速形成時產生的，並且要麼是

evaporate or sink to the ground.

蒸發或沉入地下。

So they leave this big hole around the center of the cloud.

所以他們在雲的中心留下這個大洞。

Some clouds don't even come from nature:

有些雲甚至不是來自於自然界。

These are called contrails — which just means “condensation trails.”

這些被稱為 "尾跡"--也就是 "凝結尾跡 "的意思。

They're made of water vapor from a plane's exhaust, and mimic nature's wispy cirrus

它們是由飛機尾氣中的水蒸氣製成的 模仿自然界中飄逸的捲雲

clouds — meaning they are high up, and disappear really quickly.

雲--意味著它們在高處，而且消失得很快。

Because clouds are above us we tend not to give them a second thought, but they are super

因為雲在我們頭上，我們往往不給他們第二個想法，但他們是超級的

important because they not only regulate temperature on the planet, but they're also the primary

因為它們不僅能調節地球上的溫度，而且還是主要的

drivers of rain and precipitation, which we need to live.

雨水和降水的驅動力，我們需要生活。

For us cloud observers on the ground — it takes practice to identify clouds.

對於我們這些地面上的雲霧觀察者來說--識別雲霧需要練習。

A good tip is to have a cloud chart. With a cloud chart it's very easy to at least distinguish

一個很好的建議是要有一張雲圖。有了雲圖，至少可以很容易地分辨出

the clouds are at the bottom. And the clouds that you normally tend to see at the top of

雲是在底部。而你通常看到的雲層往往是在頂部的。

the clouds are on the middle layers are probably the most tricky ones

雲是在中間層可能是最棘手的問題

There are lots of communities out there for cloud watchers — like the Cloud Appreciation

有很多針對雲觀察者的社區--比如 "雲賞"。

Society, which accepts submissions of clouds from all over the world and adds them to photo

社，接受世界各地的雲朵投稿，並將其添加到照片中。

galleries online. If you're ever stumped by a cloud, it might help to

畫廊在線。如果你曾經被一片雲彩絆住了腳步，也許會對你有所幫助。

look at it from above: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a near-real-time

從上面看。美國國家海洋和大氣管理局有一個近乎於實時的

satellite view of clouds that you can access online. When you combine all these tools together, you can start making

你可以在線訪問的雲的衛星視圖。當你把所有這些工具結合在一起時，你就可以開始製作。

predictions about your day, just based on the clouds above you.

預測你的一天，只是根據你頭上的雲層。

I think those clouds mean that it will be nice for the next couple of hours. Those big,

我想這些雲層意味著未來幾個小時的天氣會很好。那些大。

white, wispy clouds up there mean that it is going to be nice.

白色的雲朵在上面，意味著它將是美好的。

The cloud chart we made for this video was super helpful when I was first learning to identify

我們這個視頻所做的雲圖，在我第一次學習識別的時候，對我的幫助超級大。

clouds, especially when it came to telling the difference between the basic ones, like

雲，尤其是在區分基本的，如。

cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. To download and print out your own cloud chart, like the

捲雲、層雲和積雲。下載並打印你自己的雲圖，如

one we showed in this video, get permission from your guardian or parent to go to the

我們在這個視頻中展示了一個，得到你的監護人或父母的許可，去到

link below – or have them do it for you. Happy cloud hunting!

下面的鏈接--或者讓他們幫你做。祝您獵雲快樂