Why don't the clouds melt in the sky with the sun rays?

Question

And if they are really a mass of water vapor particles why is it that we see them as a mass?

Answer 1

There are two basic types of clouds

1.warm clouds, in which temperatures remain mostly above 0 deg C (32 deg F),
2.cold clouds, in which a significant part of the cloud depth is at or below 0 deg C.

Precipitation forms in warm clouds in different ways than it does in cold clouds. Clouds themselves form when air containing water vapor (an invisible gas mixed in with the air) is forced to cool. The cooling is usually associated with air (containing water vapor) being lifted by some process ... as the air ascends, it cools by expansion [This cooling by expansion should be familiar to most people; for example, spray cans cool as their contents are expelled from the can, expanding into the air.] because rising air moves into reduced pressure (pressure decreases as one goes up in the atmosphere). As the vapor-containing air ascends, its relative humidity increases as a result of this cooling, until the water vapor can condense. [This condensation associated with cooling should also be familiar; for example, the water that condenses from the air on the outside of a glass of ice water.]

Answer 2

(edited on 11:23 PM on 15/12/07 to make the text clearer)

Heat needs a medium to propagate - and there is none between the sun and the earth. Therefore, we do not get any heat from the sun. (Sounds funny doesn't it?)

What we experience as heat is actually the light of the sun getting converted to heat at the Earth's surface - and due to thermal convection in the Earth. Therefore, the heating effect takes place from the earth-surface upwards. That is why it gets colder as we climb up mountains.

Where the clouds are - the temperature is generally sub-zero. And above that (where aeroplanes fly), the temperature is well below -40 deg C.

Thus the clouds do not melt due to the sun's heat. However, as clouds come down due to low pressure near the earth's surface, they condense and give rain.

BTW - The sun is not a burning ball of fire. there is no fuel to get burned ... and where is the air required for Burning fire? The Sun is under nuclear fusion - and that is the cause of the heat and the light.

Answer 3

It is other way round dear...
Clouds turn into water because of low temperature due to higher altitude, irrespective of the sun rays...
The higher you go towards the sky the lower will be the temperature...
Temperature due to sunrays is at the highest on the earth's surface... as the earth absorbs and conserves the heat received from the sun... this does not happen up above in the sky…

Additional note: You might be aware that jet airliners fly at 10 - 11km altitude... where the temperature is (-) 70 deg C...

Answer 4

Because the sun does not heat the atmosphere directly and it is the reflected radiation from the surface that heats the atmosphere.That is why as you go up the temperature decreases(in the troposphere).So the sun does not heat the cloud directly and the cloud itself is at a lower temperature than that of the earth's surface.

Answer 5

morning fog burns after a few hours of sunlight because it evaporates. Clouds too evaporate, but are often being created at the same time due to the movement of humid air.

Finely divided things always look like fuzzy white objects because of the way they scatter light. Be it water droplets or talcum power.

Answer 6

The temperature cools as you increase altitude. That's why clouds don't evaporate. The cool air causes the water particles to condense, causing rain, snow, or ice.

Answer 7

you mean, like snow?

I guess the best answer is... they do. Clouds disperse. of course they sometimes form again faster than they disperse, but there will come a time when you are lying on your back watching the thin whispy clouds and one melts away and you will jump up and yell "I was right!"

Answer 8

at the hieght of the clouds the pressure is very low the pressure is inversly propotional to temprature so the temprature at their is very low. that's why the clouds don't melt in the sky with the sun rays

Answer 9

Well since clouds are made of water, maybe they have tendency to stick together like water molecules.

Answer 10

it's so hot its beyond melting so it goes to the next stage which is that cloudy stuff. the heat is what keeps it in the air