The International Cloud Atlas or simply the Cloud Atlas, is a cloud atlas that was first published in 1896 and has remained in print since. Its initial purposes included aiding the training of meteorologists and promoting more consistent use of vocabulary describing clouds, which were both important for early weather forecasting. The first edition featured color plates of color photographs, then still a very new technology, but noted for being expensive. Numerous later editions have been published.
First edition
Publication of the first edition was arranged by Hugo Hildebrand Hildebrandsson, Albert Riggenbach, and Léon Teisserenc de Bort, members of the Clouds Commission of the International Meteorological Committee aka International Meteorological Organization (now the World Meteorological Organization). It consists of color plates of clouds, and text in English, French, and German. Consequently, it had separate title pages in each language and is known also by its alternate titles Atlas international des nuages and Internationaler Wolkenatlas. These were selected by the Clouds Commission, which also included Julius von Hann, Henrik Mohn, and Abbott Lawrence Rotch. The first edition featured printed color plates, rather than hand-colored plates. Most of the plates were color photographs, but also some paintings. A cirrus cloud was the first type of cloud illustrated, from a color photograph. At the time, color photography was new, complicated, and expensive. Consequently, the Clouds Commission was unable to obtain suitable color photographs of all the cloud types, and they selected paintings to use as substitutes. The first edition was inspired in part by the observation of the English meteorologist Ralph Abercromby that clouds were of the same general kinds everywhere in the world. Abercromby and Hildebrandsson developed a new classification of clouds that was published in an earlier atlas, the 1890 Cloud Atlas by Hugo Hildebrand Hildebrandsson, Wladimir Köppen, and Georg von Neumayer. Other, similar works published prior to this were M. Weilbach's Nordeuropas Sky-former (Copenhagen, 1881), M. Singer's Wolkentafeln (Munich, 1892), Classificazione delle nubi by the Specola Vaticana (Rome, 1893), and the Rev. W. Clement Ley's Cloudland (London, 1894).
Later editions International Cloud Atlas has been published in multiple editions since 1896, including 1911, 1932, 1939, 1956, 1975, 1987 and 2017. The 1932 edition was titled International Atlas of Clouds and of States of the Sky. It was published in Catalan (Atles Internacional dels Núvols i dels Estats del cel) besides the three International Meteorological Organization official languages (English, French and German) because Mr. Rafel Patxot, a member of the scientific committee that collaborated with the Meteorological Service of Catalonia, sponsored the whole publication. The 1939 edition modified the title to International Atlas of Clouds and Types of Skies. The 1956 edition was the first published in two volumes, separating text and plates. This lowered costs and facilitated the publication of translated editions. It was translated into Polish in 1959 (Międzynarodowy atlas chmur; atlas skrócony) and Norwegian in 1958 (Internasjonalt skyatlas 1956). A Dutch translation was published in 1967 (Wolkenatlas. Bewerkt naar de Internationale verkorte wolkenatlas van de Meteorologische Wereldorganisatie).
1975 edition The 1975 edition was published in two volumes 12 years apart: Volume I (text) in 1975 and Volume II (plates) in 1987. Its innovations included a new chapter describing clouds from above, as from aircraft. Also, the former classification of hydrometeors was replaced by a classification of meteors, in which the hydrometeors are one group:
Hydrometeor: an ensemble of liquid or solid water particles suspended in, or falling through, the atmosphere, blown by the wind from the Earth's surface, or deposited on objects on the ground or in free air. Lithometeor: an ensemble of particles most of which are solid and non-aqueous. The particles are more or less suspended in the air, or lifted by the wind from the ground. Photometeor: a luminous phenomenon produced by the reflection, refraction, diffraction or interference of light from the sun or the moon. Electrometeor: a visible or audible manifestation of atmospheric electricity.
2017 edition
The 2017 edition of the International Cloud Atlas has added 12 new cloud formations – one new species, five new supplemental features, one new accessory cloud type, and five new special clouds. The 2017 edition of the atlas is available online. Its additions comprised the following:
Species Volutus: more widely known as roll clouds, a relatively rare formation influenced by wind shear. Supplemental features Asperitas: wave-like billowing clouds with an "underwater" appearance Cavum: commonly termed "hole in a cloud", "fallstreak hole", or "hole punch cloud", formed by ice crystals falling from a higher-altitude cloud of supersaturated liquid water droplets, leaving a round hole Murus: a new formal name for the "wall cloud", seen at the base of supercell thunderstorms Cauda: a tail-like supplemental feature associated with wall clouds Fluctus: Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves Accessory cloud type Flumen: known as "beaver's tail", a type of trailing cloud associated with the inflow boundary of strong thunderstorms Special clouds Particular phenomena were given official cloud names by the WMO in 2017:
Cataractagenitus: waterfall spray Flammagenitus: clouds formed by intense heat; pyrocumulus Homogenitus: clouds formed by human activity, including aircraft contrails, ship tracks, and cooling tower fog Homomutatus: clouds that evolve from Homogenitus into persistent cloud cover Silvagenitus: clouds associated with cloud forests and from evapotranspiration above a forest canopy
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