Editing Cloud (section)

== History of cloud science ==
{{Main|Timeline of meteorology}}Ancient cloud studies were not made in isolation, but were observed in combination with other [[weather]] elements and even other natural sciences. Around 340 BC, Greek philosopher [[Aristotle]] wrote ''[[Meteorologica]]'', a work which represented the sum of knowledge of the time about natural science, including weather and climate. For the first time, precipitation and the clouds from which precipitation fell were called meteors, which originate from the Greek word ''meteoros'', meaning 'high in the sky'. From that word came the modern term [[meteorology]], the study of clouds and weather. ''Meteorologica'' was based on intuition and simple observation, but not on what is now considered the scientific method. Nevertheless, it was the first known work that attempted to treat a broad range of meteorological topics in a systematic way, especially the [[hydrological cycle]].<ref name="Meteorologica">{{Cite journal |last=Frisinger |first=H. Howard |year=1972 |title=Aristotle and his ''Meteorologica'' |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |volume=53 |pages=634 |doi=10.1175/1520-0477(1972)053<0634:AAH>2.0.CO;2 |issn=1520-0477 |doi-access=free}}</ref>[[File:Cloud_types_en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Tropospheric cloud classification by altitude of occurrence. Multi-level and vertical genus-types are not limited to a single altitude level; these include nimbostratus, cumulonimbus, and some of the larger cumulus species.|alt=g]]
After centuries of speculative theories about the formation and behavior of clouds, the first truly scientific studies were undertaken by [[Luke Howard]] in England and [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]] in France. Howard was a methodical observer with a strong grounding in the Latin language, and used his background to formally classify the various tropospheric cloud types during 1802. He believed that scientific observations of the changing cloud forms in the sky could unlock the key to weather forecasting.

Lamarck had worked independently on cloud classification the same year and had come up with a different naming scheme that failed to make an impression even in his home country of [[France]] because it used unusually descriptive and informal French names and phrases for cloud types. His system of nomenclature included 12 categories of clouds, with such names as (translated from French) hazy clouds, dappled clouds, and broom-like clouds. By contrast, Howard used universally accepted Latin, which caught on quickly after it was published in 1803.<ref name="Preface">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/manualonobservat00worl/page/ |title=International Cloud Atlas, preface to the 1939 edition |year=1975 |isbn=978-92-63-10407-6 |editor-last=World Meteorological Organization |volume=I |pages=[https://archive.org/details/manualonobservat00worl/page/ IX–XIII] |publisher=Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization |access-date=6 December 2014}}</ref> As a sign of the popularity of the naming scheme, German dramatist and poet [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] composed four poems about clouds, dedicating them to Howard.

An elaboration of Howard's system was eventually formally adopted by the International Meteorological Conference in 1891.<ref name="Preface" /> This system covered only the tropospheric cloud types.  However, the discovery of clouds above the troposphere during the late 19th century eventually led to the creation of separate classification schemes that reverted to the use of descriptive common names and phrases that somewhat recalled Lamarck's methods of classification.  These very high clouds, although classified by these different methods, are nevertheless broadly similar to some cloud forms identified in the troposphere with Latin names.<ref name="Polar-stratospheric" />