Editing Cloud (section)

== Extraterrestrial ==
{{See also|Extraterrestrial atmospheres}}
[[File:Neptune_clouds.jpg|alt=A composite black-and-white photograph showing cirrus clouds over the surface of Mars|thumb|Cirrus clouds on Neptune, captured during ''[[Voyager 2]]''<nowiki/>'s flyby]]
Cloud cover has been seen on most other planets in the [[Solar System]]. [[Venus]]'s thick clouds are composed of [[sulfur dioxide]] (due to volcanic activity) and appear to be almost entirely stratiform.<ref name="Bougher-127-129">{{Cite book |last1=Bougher |first1=Stephen Wesley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b93lEgkPquoC&pg=PA128 |title=Venus II: Geology, Geophysics, Atmosphere, and Solar Wind Environment |last2=Phillips |first2=Roger |date=1997 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-1830-2 |pages=127–129}}</ref> They are arranged in three main layers at altitudes of 45 to 65&nbsp;km that obscure the [[planet]]'s surface and can produce [[virga]]. No embedded cumuliform types have been identified, but broken stratocumuliform wave formations are sometimes seen in the top layer that reveal more continuous layer clouds underneath.<ref name="Mysterious waves">{{Cite magazine |last=Shiga, David |year=2006 |title=Mysterious waves seen in Venus's clouds |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10497-mysterious-waves-seen-in-venuss-clouds.html#.UnjSlRAxKQx |magazine=New Scientist |access-date=5 November 2013}}</ref> On [[Mars]], noctilucent, cirrus, cirrocumulus and stratocumulus composed of water-ice have been detected mostly near the poles.<ref>{{Cite web |last=SPACE.com staff |date=28 August 2006 |title=Mars Clouds Higher Than Any on Earth |url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060828_mars_clouds.html |publisher=SPACE.com}}</ref><ref name="NASA-photo">{{Cite web |date=19 September 2008 |title=Clouds Move Across Mars Horizon |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/16145-animated.html |access-date=15 April 2011 |website=Phoenix Photographs |publisher=[[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] |archive-date=2 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602213811/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/16145-animated.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Water-ice fogs have also been detected on Mars.<ref name="Mars-clouds">{{Cite web |title=NASA SP-441: Viking Orbiter Views of Mars |date=January 1980 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-441/ch12.htm |access-date=26 January 2013 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |last1=Carr |first1=M. H. |last2=Baum |first2=W. A. |last3=Blasius |first3=K. R. |last4=Briggs |first4=G. A. |last5=Cutts |first5=J. A. |last6=Duxbury |first6=T. C. |last7=Greeley |first7=R. |last8=Guest |first8=J. |last9=Masursky |first9=H. |last10=Smith |first10=B. A. }}</ref>

Both [[Jupiter]] and [[Saturn]] have an outer cirriform cloud deck composed of ammonia,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phillips |first=Tony |date=20 May 2010 |title=Big Mystery: Jupiter Loses a Stripe |url=https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/20may_loststripe/ |access-date=15 April 2011 |website=Nasa Headline News – 2010 |publisher=[[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] |archive-date=20 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420012725/http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/20may_loststripe/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dougherty |first1=Michele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M56CHHxVMP4C&pg=PA118 |title=Saturn from Cassini-Huygens |last2=Esposito |first2=Larry |date=November 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-9216-9 |edition=1 |page=118 |oclc=527635272}}</ref> an intermediate stratiform haze-cloud layer made of [[ammonium hydrosulfide]], and an inner deck of cumulus water clouds.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Ingersoll, A.P. |last2=Dowling, T.E. |last3=Gierasch, P.J. |last4=Orton, G.S. |last5=Read, P.L. |last6=Sanchez-Lavega, A. |last7=Showman, A.P. |last8=Simon-Miller, A.A. |last9=Vasavada, A.R. |title=Dynamics of Jupiter's Atmosphere |url=http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~showman/publications/ingersolletal-2004.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418104027/http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~showman/publications/ingersolletal-2004.pdf |archive-date=18 April 2007 |url-status=live |access-date=1 February 2007 |publisher=Lunar & Planetary Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Monterrey Institute for Research in Astronomy |date=11 August 2006 |title=Saturn |url=http://www.mira.org/fts0/planets/100/text/txt002x.htm |access-date=31 January 2011}}</ref> Embedded cumulonimbus are known to exist near the [[Great Red Spot]] on [[Jupiter]].<ref name="Jupiter-clouds">{{Cite web |title=Thunderheads on Jupiter |url=http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia00506 |access-date=26 January 2013 |website=Jet Propulsion Laboratory |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration}}</ref><ref name="Saturn-clouds">{{Cite news |last=Minard |first=Anne |date=14 October 2008 |title=Mysterious Cyclones Seen at Both of Saturn's Poles |work=National Geographic News |publisher=National Geographic |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081014-saturn-cyclones.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016145724/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081014-saturn-cyclones.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 October 2008 |access-date=26 January 2013}}</ref> The same category-types can be found covering [[Uranus]] and [[Neptune]], but are all composed of [[methane]].<ref name="Neptune's Atmosphere">{{Cite news |last=Taylor Redd, Nola |year=2012 |title=Neptune's Atmosphere: Composition, Climate, & Weather |work=Space.com |url=http://www.space.com/18922-neptune-atmosphere.html |access-date=5 November 2013}}</ref><ref name="Uranus-clouds">{{Cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Rebecca |date=18 October 2012 |title=Check Out The Most Richly Detailed Image Ever Taken of Uranus |url=http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/most-richly-detailed-image-ever-taken-icy-distant-uranus |magazine=Popular Science}}</ref><ref name="Irwin-115">{{Cite book |last=Irwin |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p8wCsJweUb0C&pg=PA115 |title=Giant Planets of Our Solar System: Atmospheres, Composition, and Structure |date=July 2003 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-00681-7 |edition=1 |page=115}}</ref><ref name="elkins-tanton">{{Cite book |last=Elkins-Tanton, Linda T. |url=https://archive.org/details/uranusneptuneplu00elki/page/79 |title=Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Outer Solar System |publisher=Chelsea House |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8160-5197-7 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/uranusneptuneplu00elki/page/79 79–83]}}</ref> Saturn's moon [[Titan (moon)|Titan]] has cirrus clouds believed to be composed largely of methane.<ref name="Coustenis155">{{Cite book |last1=Athéna Coustenis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3O47dxrDAQC |title=Titan: Exploring an Earthlike World |last2=F.W. Taylor |publisher=World Scientific |year=2008 |isbn=978-981-270-501-3 |pages=154–155}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=3 February 2011 |title=Surprise Hidden in Titan's Smog: Cirrus-Like Clouds |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/titan-clouds_prt.htm |access-date=16 April 2011 |website=Mission News |publisher=[[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] |archive-date=16 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110416182620/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/titan-clouds_prt.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The ''[[Cassini–Huygens]]'' Saturn mission uncovered evidence of polar stratospheric clouds<ref name="Clouds on titan">{{Cite web |last=Elizabeth Zubritsky |year=2016 |title=NASA Scientists find impossible cloud on titan |url=http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-scientists-find-impossible-cloud-on-titan-again |access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref> and a methane cycle on Titan, including lakes near the poles and fluvial channels on the surface of the moon.<ref name="methane-cycle">{{Cite web |year=2008 |editor-last=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |title=NASA Confirms Liquid Lake on Saturn Moon, Cassini Mission News |url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20080730.html |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=9 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109125729/https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20080730.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some planets outside the Solar System are known to have atmospheric clouds. In October 2013, the detection of high altitude optically thick clouds in the [[atmosphere]] of [[exoplanet]] [[Kepler-7b]] was announced,<ref name="MIT-20131002">{{Cite web |last=Chu |first=Jennifer |date=2 October 2013 |title=Scientists generate first map of clouds on an exoplanet |url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/scientists-generate-first-map-of-clouds-on-kepler-7b-1003.html |access-date=2 January 2014 |website=[[MIT]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Demory |first1=B. O. |last2=De Wit |first2=J. |last3=Lewis |first3=N. |last4=Fortney |first4=J. |last5=Zsom |first5=A. |last6=Seager |first6=S. |last7=Knutson |first7=H. |last8=Heng |first8=K. |last9=Madhusudhan |first9=N. |last10=Gillon |first10=M. |last11=Barclay |first11=T. |year=2013 |title=Inference of Inhomogeneous Clouds in an Exoplanet Atmosphere |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=776 |issue=2 |pages=L25 |arxiv=1309.7894 |bibcode=2013ApJ...776L..25D |doi=10.1088/2041-8205/776/2/L25 |last12=Desert |first12=J. M. |last13=Parmentier |first13=V. |last14=Cowan |first14=N. B. |s2cid=701011}}</ref> and, in December 2013, in the atmospheres of [[GJ 436 b]] and [[GJ 1214 b]].<ref name="NASA-20131231">{{Cite web |last1=Harrington |first1=J.D. |last2=Weaver |first2=Donna |last3=Villard |first3=Ray |date=31 December 2013 |title=Release 13-383 – NASA's Hubble Sees Cloudy Super-Worlds With Chance for More Clouds |url=http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/december/nasas-hubble-sees-cloudy-super-worlds-with-chance-for-more-clouds/ |access-date=1 January 2014 |website=[[NASA]]}}</ref><ref name="NAT-20140101a">{{Cite journal |last=Moses |first=J. |year=2014 |title=Extrasolar planets: Cloudy with a chance of dustballs |journal=Nature |volume=505 |issue=7481 |pages=31–32 |bibcode=2014Natur.505...31M |doi=10.1038/505031a |pmid=24380949 |s2cid=4408861}}</ref><ref name="NAT-20140101b">{{Cite journal |last1=Knutson |first1=H. A. |last2=Benneke |first2=B. R. |last3=Deming |first3=D. |last4=Homeier |first4=D. |year=2014 |title=A featureless transmission spectrum for the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b |journal=Nature |volume=505 |issue=7481 |pages=66–68 |arxiv=1401.3350 |bibcode=2014Natur.505...66K |doi=10.1038/nature12887 |pmid=24380953 |s2cid=4454617}}</ref><ref name="NAT-20140101c">{{Cite journal |last1=Kreidberg |first1=L. |last2=Bean |first2=J. L. |last3=Désert |first3=J. M. |last4=Benneke |first4=B. R. |last5=Deming |first5=D. |last6=Stevenson |first6=K. B. |last7=Seager |first7=S. |last8=Berta-Thompson |first8=Z. |last9=Seifahrt |first9=A. |last10=Homeier |first10=D. |year=2014 |title=Clouds in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b |journal=Nature |volume=505 |issue=7481 |pages=69–72 |arxiv=1401.0022 |bibcode=2014Natur.505...69K |doi=10.1038/nature12888 |pmid=24380954 |s2cid=4447642}}</ref>