This series of posts is about finding the beautiful and positive in every day things around us.   OK, it was gloriously sunny (and I did manage to get outside for a lunch break on one day), I got 3 uninterrupted nights sleep and I enjoyed possibly the nicest dinner I’ve ever eaten.  The best thing – coming home.

I had a window seat and my camera.  It was the most gorgeous clear day and I could see the ground from take off to landing – winding rivers through Germany, the French coastline and London at her finest coming into Heathrow.  Blue skies and fluffy clouds

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So that’s my beautiful thing for the week – and I’ve learnt something trying to find out the names of the clouds (I hope I’ve got it right – you can find some info on the Met Office Website).  What’s yours?

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I recently discovered French beatmaker Evil Needle and was really enchanted by his latest album entitled Cirrostratus. As I’m always curious to know more about artists and their creative process, I decided to ask him a few questions, which he kindly took the time to answer. In case you are not familiar with him or if you also want to get to know him even better, here is Evil Needle, in his own words…

First of all, could you introduce yourself? When did you start making music and why Evil Needle?

Hi, my name is Evil Needle and I’m a Beat-o-holic *hi Evil Needle*
I’m from Alsace and I’m 26 years-old.
Most people have great stories to tell regarding the origin of their artist name, but mine is very banal. I heard this phrase on one of my vinyls, liked it and decided to adopt it.
I started as a DJ in 2000. I was not that good to be honest and I must have been a pain for my mates with my crap “mixtapes”. Following this unsuccessful experience, I thought maybe beatmaking could be cool. So, as every self-respecting aspiring beatmaker, I got my cracked Fruity Loops copy and started experimenting. (I quickly switched to Reason, which I still use today).

You already released several projects, including Soul Dimension and Big Brother EPs and the latest Cirrostratus LP. Could you tell us a bit about them? What was the inspiration behind those different albums?

Sound Dimension (released in 2008) was my first project. At this time, I was really into sampling and I wanted to do an album a la Madlib, full of weird samples. Big Brother (released in 2010) was initially a beat battle, but I was so motivated that I ended up making it an EP. Finally, Cirrostratus (released in 2011) is a collection of beats I created over several years.

You are part of a group called D-Fenderz. How different (or not) is it for you to work in this context? Do you have current or upcoming projects?

Honestly, it doesn’t change much to work on my own or with rappers. I always make my beats and they simply choose the ones they like. Concerning our projects, several mixtures are coming after summer break and we are booked for some gigs in the area. We are currently hosting a radio show called “Fréquence D”, which is available online (www.radioeponyme.com).

Let’s talk about Cirrostratus more thoroughly. You described the project as “15 smooth ambient instrumentals” in varied genres. Is it important for you to offer a wide range of sounds and to explore different genres?

Exploring new genres is quite important to me, as it enables me to always add something fresh to my sound. I never focus on a specific genre, I make the kind of music I listen to and what inspires me at the moment. It has been like this since I started, so it makes me quite versatile after all those years.

Your music is mainly original, even if you use samples sometimes. Why this choice? Do you play one or several instruments?

I worked mostly with samples, but I reached a point where it’s almost impossible for me not to add my own composition on a beat. I don’t play any instrument but I recently started with urban-gospel-soul-etc. piano.

Many of your tracks are very chilled and soulful, is it also the kind of music you like listening to? Actually, what are you usually listening to?

Right now, yes, I listen to a lot of soul/neo-soul and R&B, so you can obviously feel that in my beats! Otherwise, in terms of music I appreciate, I’m quite open. But I mainly listen to some “future” hip-hop (people will hate me for using this term) and everything from Detroit and the UK.

Are you working on projects or collaborations you would like to talk about ?

I’m currently putting the finishing touches to two new EPs. One will be released in collaboration with Soulelection and will be made of sample-based hip-hop instrumentals. The other one will be released in collaboration with PrismSound label as a vinyl EP and will be more uptempo-orientated. I also plan on releasing an R&B/neo-soul album as soon as I find an appropriate singer.

Anything else you would like to add?

“When I need to find something new, I don’t have to update my shit; I just have to update my brain.”  Flylo

Thanks for this interview. Peace

Now that you are acquainted with Evil Needle, it’s time to discover his latest project, the very interesting Cirrostratus. It is available on his Bandcamp page and you can also stream/buy by clicking on the link below. Support is suggested. Enjoy and pass it on!

Find out more about Evil Needle on Facebook, Twitter & Soundcloud

Întrucât aerul la înălțimile la care se formează norii superiori este foarte rece și uscat, aceștia sunt compuși în întregime din cristale de gheață, grosimea stratului de nori fiind destul de mică.

Aspectul lor este albicios, excepție făcând la apusul și răsăritul soarelui, când capătă nuanțe galben – roșiatice datorită reflectării luminii solare în partea lor inferioară.

Cei mai întâlniți sunt norii Cirrus, subțiri, sub formă de șuvițe. În mod uzual, norii Cirrus se deplasează de la Vest către Est, fiind un bun indiciu al vântului predominant la acele niveluri.

 Nori Cirrus

Norii Cirrocumulus se prezintă ca mici ghemotoace albe, cu contururi rotunjite, care pot fi întâlnite individual sau în șiruri lungi. Când se prezintă sub formă de șiruri, norii Cirrocumulus au aparența unor stropi de apă albicioși care îi deosebește de aspectul mătăsos al norilor Cirrus sau de cel văluros al norilor Cirrostratus. Gradul de acoperire cu nori Cirrocumulus este de obicei foarte mic. Forma specifică a acestora îi fac să fie printre cei mai frumoși nori la apusul Soarelui.

  Nori Cirrocumulus

Stratul subţire de nori, cu aspect văluros, care acoperă, în cele mai multe cazuri, întreaga boltă cerească îl constituie norii Cirrostratus. Aceștia sunt atât de subțiri încât Soarele şi Luna pot fi observate cu ușurință prin ei. Deși există situații în care nu pot fi observați cu ochiul liber, datorită cristalelor de gheață din care sunt compuși, ei produc deseori efectul de halou, care le semnalează prezența.

Straturile mai groase de nori Cirrostratus dau cerului un aspect alb-strălucitor şi sunt adesea un bun indiciu al unei furtuni care avansează, în special dacă sunt urmați de nori din familia norilor mijlocii. Sunt, așadar, un bun indiciu al prevestirii ploii sau ninsorii într-un termen de 12 la 24 de ore.

 Nori Cirrostratus

Influența norilor din familia Cirrus asupra zborului este nesemnificativă, ei negenerând nici turbulență, nici givraj. Vizibilitatea în interiorul lor este, de asemenea, bună.

Citește și Norii – generalități

Hey there, my name is Evil Needle, I am a French beat maker/musician since 2001. During this time I have released two EP’s “Sound Dimension” and “Big Brother EP” plus work on French rapper “Specta” (ex Saian Supa Crew) latest EP where I produced 3 tracks. I’m in a group called ‘D-Fenderz’ , you can check them out here. My latest work “Cirrostratus”, is an LP consisting of 15 smooth ambient instrumentals made all throughout 2010. In this project I have tried for a variety of styles from evolving compositions to smooth neo soul loops. Most of the music is original but I’ve incorporated some sampling.
Thanks for taking the time out to listen, I hope you enjoy it.
Peace !

Download!

Pattern Set for SegPlay® PC released (see more details here)

Clouds are visible masses of water droplets which are suspended over in the Earth’s atmosphere. Clouds are classified in various groups depending on their altitude, structural appearance, and coloration. Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Altostratus, Stratocumulus, Stratus, Cumulus, Nimbostratus, Cumulonimbus, and Cumulus are the most common names given. Their coloration gives clues onto what they contain due to light scattering effects of water drops and ice crystals and the direction of the light hitting the clouds. Our set of cloud patterns will put you on Cloud Nine. We have many representations of clouds of various types photographed against cactuses, birds, bridges, shades, water, and grass fields. Several of the patterns are based on clouds images which have been artistically enhanced to give them a different yet, fun, and colorful appearance.

This set contains 23 paintable patterns.

On Cloud Nine

Have fun and relax with beautiful online painting art. So fun and easy to use with no mess but just a mouse!

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with On Cloud Nine from Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

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Condition: Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Ex-library with usual marks, numerals to the spine, pocket to the pastedown, slip to the ffep, stamp to the reverse of the title page. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. Previous owners’ inscription to the first blank which has the top corner clipped. Text complete, clean and tight.

See this book on my web site?

First British Edition. [First Published: Viking, 1960] From the cover: The thunderstorm is natures most powerful and complex manifestation. Even its dimensions are outsize, writes Thelma Harrington Bell. The storm cloud may tower above the earth to a height of from six to ten miles, making the tallest mountain look small by comparison. As it moves over the land, a single thunderstorm can cover sixty square miles with its dark canopy.

Here is the complete story of this exciting exhibition of weather, from the early superstitions, when it was believed that gods rode the storm and held the dreaded flaming bolt of white fire under their control, to modern times, when large manufacturers of electrical equipment are creating man-made lightning in high-voltage laboratories to study lightnings habits.

There is a detailed description of the building of a thunderhead one of the round, swelling masses of cumulus clouds which appear above the horizon when conditions are right for thunderstorms, and frequently develop into thunderclouds with easily understood diagrams so that the reader can see what is going on. There are fascinating accounts of men who have flown inside the churning cloud-shafts of a thunder-head and lived to tell the story, which has added to our knowledge of these clouds.

Lightning conductors; fulgurites; how to avoid the damages of lightning; and good, bad, and curious characteristics of thunderstorms are some of the other subjects considered in this comprehensive book.

So, here is a visual record of what I saw. The date was November 19th of 2009.  Late in the afternoon,  I had made may way up a fire trail to one of the tallest hills that look down the length of Strawberry Canyon.   If you know some of the secrets of the Canyon, this is the hill with the beautiful and mysterious rock patterns at the top.  (More on this at a later post!)

[Note:  you can click on any of the images below to see and download full-sized 1600 x 1200 images!]

The Mysterious Stone Spirals of Strawberry Canyon

The view, as  always, was spectacular!

Looking across the Bay at the low bank cirrus and cirrostratus clouds, I had a pretty good idea I was in for something special.  The clouds weren’t too dense, and the location of the clouds was perfect.  The sunset quickly went from this:

to this:

to this:

With each passing minute, the intensity of the reds and oranges kept increasing, and the Sun became a fiery ball above just to the north of downtown San Francisco:

The Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge looked so beautiful in the deepening reds and oranges:

As the colors continued to intensify, I took shot after shot, wishing I had a camera that could better handle the amazing hues and contrasts.  Soon, the disc of the Sun began to dip below the horizon:

In these next two images, notice how atmospheric refraction has caused the top of the sun’s image to separate.  For a brief instant, the top of the Sun’s image was completely separated, but I didn’t click the shutter in time to catch it:

Just before separation:

Smaller…

…and smaller still…

…and finally…just a fiery dot of light….which in blink was gone!

The final vestige of the Sun slipped below the horizon.  Actually, as we all learned in school, the Sun had physically set well before its image dropped below the horizon.  This is due to refraction, the bending of the Sun’s image by the Earth’s atmosphere.  The Sun’s disc is actually about one diameter below the horizon when we see its image disappear.

It’s interesting to realize that not one of us—indeed, no human being in Earth’s history—has ever actually seen a sunset, just the image of one!  Sunset (and sunrise) are actually a kind of optical illusion. The first humans to see sunsets and sunrises in “real time” were the cosmonauts and astronauts in space.

It was then that I noticed a beautiful new crescent moon in the sky—as if the sunset itself wasn’t amazing enough! When you click on the next image to see it full-sized, notice the lovely crescent in the upper left hand corner:

In this image, I turned south toward Oakland, because the southern sky was such an incredible blue and the thin cirrus clouds made such a beautiful contrast.  Notice, again, the crescent moon is just above the clouds on the right two-thirds of the image:

As the dusk deepened, the western sky then went into a very dramatic and rapid intensification of the reds and golds:

In this next image you can see the crescent moon again in the left top third of the image.  The crescent is even more dramatic because of the darkening sky:

Here’s a wider angle view, looking more north:

Every time I thought the display of brilliant colors would surely start to diminish, it seemed`like the whole sky would suddenly intensify in color and take on new hues:

After a final burst of gold, the sunset went into its final, darker red phase:

I loved the appearance of a brilliant gold jet contrail streak that suddenly began to stand out as the lower clouds deepened into darker reds:

Here’s another peak at the crescent moon on the left part of the sky:

And there’s that contrail streak again:

As it got darker, and the lower clouds got redder, the jet contrail got even brighter:

At this point, twilight was ending and it was starting to get really dark in the Canyon, but it was so hard to leave the hill top with so much beauty left to see.

With regret, I started down the small trail from the mysterious rocks hilltop to the main fire trail below.  Before leaving, though, I took one last picture of the Bay:

As one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen continue to fade in the west,  I realized how fortunate I was to have been at the top of that hill in Strawberry Canyon when this particular sunset began.   Heading home on the fire trail in the thickening dusk, I once again felt so blessed to live in such an amazingly beautiful area!

As I neared the end of the upper fire trail near access to Panorama Way, I looked out to see the lights of my beloved Berkeley below and the final reds of a sunset I’ll never forget.

I hope you got to see something of this magnificent display last November.  We’ve certainly had many beautiful sunsets since.  I urge you to make plans to take a trek up with family or friends into the Berkeley Hills in the late afternoon when the clouds and western sky look promising.  Many a twilight, you will be rewarded with a sunset you will never forget!

♥♥♥

Some kind of Cirrus Undulatus. ~10am

Interesting close-up of the above. ~10am

What?? Cirrus? Cirrostratus? Part of the moon? ~10:20am

Hasn’t rained for a few days, so this might mean rain on the horizon…/

Cirrus ~5pm

Cirrostratus and Moon ~5pm

Cumulus Fractus and Cirrus. The sky is getting a big messy now. ~1pm

Cumulus Fractus and Cirrus/Cirrostratus. The sky is getting a big messy now. ~1pm

Still working on my epic blog post. Lot of research going into it today, I think I ought to expect a whole lot of traffic (hopefully). Though, being all headachy and sick makes the going slow…

I think rain is on the way. Maybe late tonight?

Cirrostratus. ~10am

Cirrostratus with a touch of Fractus below it. ~10am

That’s a lot of Cirrus, but I’m yet to be convinced it means rain at the moment.

Still ill, but hoping that today is my last home-bound day. Hoping to write an epic post on my other blog psycasm.wordpress.com just to keep my mind active.

A crazy bullet of Cirrus. ~4pm

Another, plus the Moon. ~4pm

Another, about 5 mins after the first. It's moving and changing quickly. ~4:05pm

Cirrostratus. ~4:30pm

It only took about 15 mins for the whole sky to be washed pale with Cirrostratus after the Cirrus bullets.

The Beauty of the Berkeley Hills-Part 1

As I said in Rethinking Berkeley, Naturally! I’m going to try to post more often and have less of a “hard science” aspect to these posts, unlike my Extreme Science blog.

In this second part, I’ve included some of the animals you can run into in the Hills—some you see all the time, and others, like the gray fox, are quite illusive. There are also some amazing skies in this series of photos. As a self-confessed weather nut, I never get tired to seeing the play of clouds over the San Francisco Bay and the Hills.

And so, let’s kick off Part 2 with some images of magnificent Bay Area clouds!

If you click on any of the images below, you can see a higher resoltuion 1600 x 1200 image.

♥♥♥

These clouds, of course, are cirrus, which in this area so often are the heralds of distance storms marching in from the North Pacific for Gulf of Alaska. Cirrus clouds typically form above 23,000 feet (about 7,000m), in the cold region of the troposphere and are typically composed of ice crystals.  In the view looking at the North Bay, you can see both the sweeping cirrus unicus and the denser cirrus fibratus.

This sunset was really dramatic and foreboding. I was in the Hills directly above the UCB Campus, looking across the Bay, past the Campanile (lower right) and toward the Golden Gate Bridge.  A big Pacific storm was approaching, as the rapidly lowering sky foretold.  The clouds in this picture are mostly altostratus and altocumulus, which are medium-level clouds.

This is perhaps my all-time favorite summer picture that I’ve taken in Strawberry Canyon.  To me, it captures just about everything I love about the Berkeley Hills—the Eucalyptus and Oak trees, the beautiful golden hills, and a sky with gorgeous, puffy cumulus.  It was hot, it was summer, and I was on my way up Centennial Drive to my beloved fire trails!

The color of the lichen on the trees in Strawberry Canyon are especially deep and brilliant after a rainstorm.  I love how this yellow species contrasts with the moss.

I’m always amazed at the different moods of the Bay throughout the day.  This grey sunset marked the end of yet another heavy late spring rain storm.

California poppies!  Just seeing them makes me smile.  Did you know Native Americans used  poppy leaves medicinally?  They also ate their seeds.  Extract from the California poppy acts as a mild sedative when smoked, although apparently the effect is much milder than that of opium, which contains a much more powerful class of alkaloids.

If you live in the Bay Area, you’ve probably seen one of these little critters. The Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus nigris) is actually a non-native species, probably introduced to California around the beginning of the 20th century.   You can see them throughout the Berkeley Hills, and there’s quite a population of them on the Berkeley campus.  I’ve yet to see a native Western Gray Squirrel on my hikes, but I keep looking for them.

Eastern Fox Squirrel (left) vs. Western Gray Squirrel (right)

I met this young female Fox Squirrel on the North Campus near the Life Science Building.  If you stop and make a “tchi tchi” noise, you can almost always make a Fox Squirrel stop and see if you have some goodie for them.  Having raised a squirrel from the age of a blind pup, I know lots of squirrel communication sounds, and she seemed amazed at my vocabulary!

This fat and muscular male lives in Strawberry Canyon.  He too was intrigued by my squirrel talk, and stopped to observe me, although the squirrels in the Canyon are much more wary of humans than the ones on campus.

A gray fox!  I wrote about this encounter at this post:

Gray Fox in Strawberry Canyon and a Mother Fox’s Wisdom

I made a lot of noise to get the fox to turn lift its sleepy head and turn toward me.  No doubt he wondered what the crazy human was doing! But I was so excited to see a gray fox  that I didn’t want my picture to be nothing but a gray lump on that fallen tree.  I wish I had had a telephoto lens to see more of this magnificent creature, which apparently, is one of the few foxes that can climbs trees.  This one was sleeping at least 20 feet off the ground. (Be sure to click image for close-up!)

Here is a small cluster of ladybugs I saw this spring.  In October of 2009, after our record rainstorm,  I came upon an astonishing gathering of what had to have been hundreds of thousands of ladybugs along the fire trail off Centennial Drive.  I wrote about this amazing ladybug gathering here:

They are the Lady(bugs) of the Canyon

Here is an amazing insect you are apt to run across in the Berkeley Hills, especially after a rain, the aptly named banana slug.  This one was nearly 10 inches long and as big around as a small banana.  Many people find them “gross,” and I know it can be what we humans call a “pest,” but I think it’s a beautiful animal.  I watched this one for about 10 minutes as it gracefully moved about 3 feet from the pavement into some vegetation.

Down on its level, laying on my stomach to watch how its muscles propelled it along on a layer of mucous, I was reminded of a majestic (albeit, miniature) ocean liner as it glided along the pavement.

I came across this small (maybe 10 inch) snake walking down from the North Gate of the UCB campus.  I’m not sure what species it might be, but my best guess is some species of Sharp-tailed Snake (Contia tenuis)—maybe a Forest Sharp-tailed snake.  If some herpetologist wants to weight in, that would be great! It was moving very fast to try to take cover, and I barely caught it on camera before it disappeared into the foliage.

Here’s another view of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge near sunset.  A Pacific storm was heading our way, and the high cirrus and cirrostratus clouds that appeared in the West at the beginning of the day were beginning to give way to lower level altocumulus and stratocumulus.

The height of some of the redwoods in Strawberry Canyon is astounding.  I estimated that most of the trees in this grove were well over 110-120 feet tall.  Now that I live in Northern California, I hope some day soon to see the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), the tallest trees on earth, at Redwood National and State Parks.

I loved how these California poppies found a way to grow out of near solid rock along the upper fire trail at Strawberry Canyon.

When spring arrives in the Berkeley Hills, you really should climb up into them and see for yourself  how deep, rich, and varied the greens are.  After being brown all summer and through much of the winter, the hills are transformed by the winter and spring rains into an emerald wonderland.

One of the delights of walking up the streets that head up into the Berkeley Hills above the City of Berkeley are the little paths and well-kept lanes and walks that connect the lower and higher levels of the hills.  Here’s one of my favorite paths (for privacy, I won’t say where.) If you don’t have a copy, I highly recommend getting the Map of Berkeley Pathways which is put out by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association.

More spring green near the top of Claremont Canyon.

I’ll end this post with a photo of a glorious sunset taken from the hills right above the UCB campus.  (You can see the Campanile behind  one of the Eucalyptus.)  I hope this two-part series, “The Beauty of the Berkeley Hills” will inspire you to explore the Hills yourself and with loved ones and to always be alert for ways to preserve and protect this amazing natural treasure right at our doorsteps.

May we meet as friends, some day, in the Hills of Great Beauty!

♥♥♥

ist auch einer ihrer LieblingsPlätze geworden,am Greifswalder Bodden zwischen Ludwigsburg (jajaja, sowas gibts im PommerLand auch) und Hafen Vierow. Das ist übrigens auch ein beliebtes Re4 zum Windsurfen, da es hier so flach ist, daß auch ein Flug vom SurfBoard selbst für Nichtschwimmer ungefährlich ist.

Wir jedenfalls haben den SonnabendNachmittag bei milden, windstillen ca 10° dort genossen und dem Gesang der Singschwäne gelauscht, die dort zu hunderten das Flachwassergebiet bevölkerten.

Auf der Landseite sorgte ein klassischer Warmfrontaufzug für diese mystischen Bilder:

dichter werdende Cirrostratus (cs) schickten sich an, die Sonne zu verschlucken, was ihnen später auch gelang.

Dünya’da yoğunlaşan madde su buharıdır. Bu da, küçük su damlacıklarını, genellikle 0.01 mm buz kristallerini Bulutlar Nasıl Oluşur. Milyarlarca damlacık ve kristallerin beraber durmasıyla bulut olarak görünürler. Bulutlar tüm görünür dalga boyutlarını yansıtır ve genellikle beyazdır fakat gri veya siyah olarak görünebilirler. Siyah görünmelerinin sebebi, çok kalın veya yoğun olması ile güneş ışığının geçmesine izin vermemesindendir.

Bulut Cinsleri

Cirrus (Ci): İnce beyaz iplikler ya da beyaz parçalar ya da dar şeritler biçiminde birbirinden ayrı bulutlardır. Bu bulutların ipliksi bir görünümü ya da ipeksi bir parlaklığı vardır; Kimi zaman her ikisi bir arada bulunur.

Cirrocumulus (Cc): Gölgesiz ince beyaz parça, örtü ya da katman biçiminde bulut. Birbirine karışmış ya da ayrı ayrı ve oldukça düzgün dizilmiş taneler, dalgacıklar biçiminde çok küçük öğelerden oluşur. Bu öğelerin görünür genişlikleri 1 dereceden azdır.

Cirrostratus (Cs): Genellikle ışık halkası oluşturan ipliksi ya da düzgün görünümlü, saydam ve gökyüzünü tümüyle ya da kısmen örten beyazımsı bulut türü.

Ara Bulutlar

Altocumulus (Ac): Beyaz ya da gri, ya da beyaz gri renklerde parça, örtü ya da katman biçiminde bulut. Genellikle gölgeli yerleri olur; katmanlardan, yuvarlak kütlelerden ve tomarlardan oluşur. Kısmen ipliksidir ya da dağılıp yayılmış durumdadır; karışıp birleşmiş olabilir ya da olmayabilir. Düzenli dizilmiş küçük öğelerinin 1 ile 5 derece arasında belirgin bir genişliği vardır.

Altostratus (As): Grimsi ya da mavimsi renklerde bulut örtüleri ya da çizgili ipliksi ya da birörnek görünümlü katmanlar. Gökyüzünü tümüyle ya da kısmen örter; güneşi, bir buzlu camın arkasından görünüyormuş gibi bulanık bir biçimde gösterecek kadar ince bölümleri vardır.

Nimbostratus (Ns): gri renkli bulut katmanı. Genellikle koyu renklidir. Oldukça sürekli yağan ve çoğu kez yere kadar ulaşan yağmur ya da kar yüzünden görünümü yayılmış gibidir. Güneşi tümüyle örtecek kadar kalındır. Çoğu kez bu katmanın altında, parçalı bulutlar bulunur; nimbostratus bulutları bunlarla birleşmiş ya da birleşmemiş durumda olabilir.

Alçak Bulutlar

Stratocumulus (Sc): Gri ya da beyazımsı, ya da gri ve beyazımsı renklerde parça, örtü ya da katman biçiminde, hemen her zaman koyu parçaları olan bulut. Mozaik gibi, yuvarlak kütlelerden, tomarlardan oluşur.Yere ulaşmadan buharlaşan yağış durumu dışında ipliksi değildir. Birleşmiş ya da birleşmemiş durumda olabilir. Düzgün dizilmiş küçük öğelerin çoğunun genişliği görünürde 5 dereceden çoktur.

Stratus (St) : Genellikle birörnek bir zemini olan gri bulut katmanı. Çisenti, buz prizmaları ve kar taneleri verebilir. Güneş, bulutun arkasından göründüğünde çevresi açıkça ayırt edilebilir. Stratus ayla oluşturmaz; ayla olayı çok düşük sıcaklıklarda ortaya çıkabilir.Stratus, kimi zaman parçalar halinde de görülebilir.

Cumulus (Cu) : Birbirinden ayrı bulutlar. Genellikle yoğun olurlar ve dış çizgileri keskindir. Kabarık duran üst bölümü, karnabahara benzeyen, yükselen tepeler, kubbeler ya da kuleler biçiminde düşey olarak oluşur. Güneşin aydınlattığı bölümleri çoğu zaman parlak beyaz renk alır. Bu bulutların zemini görece koyu ve yataydır. Kimi zaman parçalı görünümde olurlar. ali ayan Cumulonimbus (Cb) : Dağ ya da çok büyük kuleler biçiminde, düşey doğrultuda büyük yer kaplayan , ağır ve yoğun bulut. Üst bölümünün bir kısmı genellikle düzgün, ipliksi ya da çizgilidir ve hemen her zaman yassıdır. Bu bölüm, örs ya da çok büyük bir sorguç biçimi alana kadar yayılır. Çoğu kez koyu renkte olan bulutun zemininin altında, sık sık onunla birleşmiş ya da birleşmemiş durumda parçalı bulutlar vardır. Burada çoğu kez yağış olur; bu yağış kimi zaman yere ulaşamadan buharlaşan türden olabilir.