In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol comprising a visible mass of minute liquid droplets or frozen crystals, both of which are made of water or various chemicals. The droplets or particles are suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. On Earth, clouds are formed by the saturation of air in the homosphere (which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere). The air may be cooled to its dew point by a variety of atmospheric processes or it may gain moisture (usually in the form of water vapor) from an adjacent source. Nephology is the science of clouds which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorology.

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