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Water Transport
through the air


Animation by: Bramer

In the hydrologic cycle, transport is the movement of water through the atmosphere, specifically from over the oceans to over land. Some of the earth's moisture transport is visible as clouds, which themselves consist of ice crystals and/or tiny water droplets. Clouds are propelled from one place to another by either the jet stream, surface-based circulations like land and sea breezes, or other mechanisms. However, a typical 1 kilometer thick cloud contains only enough water for a millimeter of rainfall, whereas the amount of moisture in the atmosphere is usually 10-50 times greater.


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Credits and Acknowledgments for WW2010.
Department of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.