Are clouds water vapor??? I cant find the answer. & if you know the following answer please help me out! ; 'Why would farmers in the Midwest "seed" the sky w/ dust in times of drought' and 'What does precipitation do to the quality of the air?' Please help!!
Clouds on Earth are composed of water vapor, yes. Clouds form when cloud seeds, such as particles of dust, soot from fires, airborne sea salt, etc, come in contact with super-cool, ultra-saturated air. This air is filled with miniscule particles of water vapor, and when they come in contact with cloud seeds, they stick, forming bigger and bigger droplets of water. If enough droplets converge, a cloud will form.
Farmers attempting to jump-start this process may spray particles into the air to form clouds artificially or may spray chemicals into the atmosphere to cool an air mass, prompting the formation of ice crystals, which water vapor can then adhere to.
As for how precipitation affects air quality, I believe that rain does pull some pollution from the air, but that's just speculation, and I couldn't speak definitively on that.
Not quite. Water vapor is invisible. When the water vapor condenses in mid-air into liquid droplets it becomes visible. If you've ever walked through a thick fog you'll notice yourself getting covered with tiny water droplets, and a fog is just like a cloud on the ground.
Dust and other contaminants give a good starting point for condensation (if it's cold enough), then more water condenses on that water and it spreads into a cloud.
