© Jarmo Koistinen
Helsinki, Finland
Latitude: 60° 12' 27'' N
Longitude: 24° 51' 42'' E
27 February 2009 1525 (Local Time)
Camera direction: towards SW
Image P/S code: S.6.1
Image I.D.: 5731
CL = 7, CM = 2, CH = /
Nimbostratus is a grey layer of cloud, often dark, with a diffuse appearance caused by more or less continuously falling rain or snow that in most cases reaches the ground. It is thick enough throughout to obscure the Sun. Grey, uniform Nimbostratus is seen in the background of this image while light, intermittent snowfall occurs (supplementary feature praecipitatio). Below the Nimbostratus, we see ragged, fragmented cloud (Stratus fractus) at the lowest level and larger dark grey patches in the upper part of the image; together, these constitute the accessory cloud pannus. The cloud is forming in an increasingly moist layer beneath the Nimbostratus, caused by partial evaporation of the precipitation.
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