International Cloud Atlas

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.

These were selected by the Clouds Commission, which also included Julius von Hann, Henrik Mohn, and Abbott Lawrence Rotch.

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.

[3] 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.

[5] The 1939 edition modified the title to International Atlas of Clouds and Types of Skies.

[8] Its additions comprised the following:[9] Particular phenomena were given official cloud names by the WMO in 2017: One reviewer of the 1896 edition noted that "The illustrations are beautifully colored, and quite apart from its great value to meteorology, the 'Cloud Atlas' is well worth owning for the beauty of the illustrations alone.

[11] A reviewer noted "We are not sure that it is desirable that there should be several cloud atlases in existence concurrently; but, probably, administrative difficulties would be raised if in any country copies of the International Cloud Atlas were purchased sufficient in number to supply an entire navy.

[12] The International Cloud Atlas was revised numerous times in response to requirements of its principal user community, meteorologists.