Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy high-altitude clouds composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of supercooled water droplets. Cirrus clouds generally occur in fair weather and point in the direction of air movement at their elevation.

A substance undergoes a phase transition when it moves from one state of matter to another, for example, when water freezes or boils.

Rising into the atmosphere, the water condenses into clouds. When the clouds become too saturated with water, the water is released as snow or ice precipitation which may warm as it falls to reach Earth as rain.

An element in a solid state has atoms or molecules that are constricted and do not move freely. Solids maintain a constant volume and shape and exist at a lower temperature than liquids or gases.

A vibrating object produces a sound wave that travels outwardly from the object through a medium (any liquid or solid matter). The vibration disturbs the particles in the surrounding medium, those particles disturb the particules next to them, and so on, as the sound propagates away from the vibration.