Yes. Intense thunderstorms have high cloud tops, and they higher they go the colder they get.
cumulonimbus, sometimes called a thunderhead.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke wrote the story "A Meeting With Medeusa" in which a human explorer parachuted into Jupiter's cloud tops and inflated a hot air balloon - excuse me, a hot-HYDROGEN balloon - in order to observe the cloud layers of Jupiter's atmosphere. In the story, Jupiter was teeming with life, all suspended within the cloud tops. The story is worth reading.
Severe thunderstorms can reach heights up to 60,000 feet, while ordinary thunderstorms typically reach heights of around 30,000 to 40,000 feet. This difference in height is due to the stronger updrafts found in severe thunderstorms, allowing them to build higher into the atmosphere.
Scientists can use anemometers and Doppler radar to measure winds directly. It is also possible to estimate wind speeds with satellite imagery of cloud tops.
Venus clouds move at high speeds, with wind speeds reaching up to 220 mph (360 km/h) at the cloud tops. These fast-moving clouds are composed of sulfuric acid droplets and are carried by the planet's super-rotating atmosphere, where it completes a full rotation in about 4 Earth days.
In this case you would be referring to infrared satellite. You cannot directly determine rainfall rates from infrared imagery. But they can be useful to determine how how the clouds extend into the atmosphere, since higher cloud tops will show up as colder. Higher cloud tops indicate the possibility of intense rainfall associated with deep convection, which is usually an intense thunderstorm.
The majority of the volume of a thunderstorm will always be in the troposphere, however, the tops of some very severe thunderstorms can penetrate into the stratosphere.
Dark rain clouds are commonly referred to as cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds are associated with thunderstorms and heavy rainfall due to their vertical development and ability to produce precipitation.
The last stage of a thunderstorm is the dissipating stage. During this stage, the storm gradually weakens as the updraft weakens and the supply of warm, moist air is cut off. The storm's precipitation diminishes, and the cloud tops begin to spread out, signaling the end of the storm.
Infrared satellite imagery can be used to identify thunderstorms due to their distinctive cold cloud tops. Thunderstorms usually have high cloud tops that are colder than surrounding clouds, making them easily identifiable on infrared satellite images by their brightness and structure.
well yahoo says cloud tops and a core of either liquid or metalic gas. but i would go with cloud tops because its the top contributor
It's common for many cloud tops in a thunderstorm to be higher than 55,000 feet above sea level, says Brent McRoberts of Texas A&M University. Clouds over that range belong in a special category. "That may be as high as they get over the U.S., but in other parts of the world, thunderstorm clouds can be even higher," he says. "In 1990 in the Coral Sea off eastern Australia, some nearby weather balloons measured a thunderstorm cloud to be at least 63,000 feet high. And in the northern Australia and Indonesia area, sometimes called the 'maritime or oceanic continent,' some of the highest clouds known have been reported, several measuring from 65,000 to 72,000 feet by astronauts in the space shuttle. It can happen, but it's rare to see thunderstorms reach more than 65,000 feet."
No. Cumulonimbus clouds have flat bottoms and tops, but are very tall.
Almost every satellite aside from communications satellites measures temperature. Weather satellites geostationary and polar orbiters measure infrared radiation and the temperature can be inferred when the emissivity of the radiation surface is known. While not always knowing this emissivity may seem to be a weakness it is actually use to determine characteristics of the radiation surface. A common example of a use of measuring temperature is that of thunderstorm cloud tops. The storms with the coldest cloud tops are either the heaviest rain producers or may even be severe (large hail and damaging winds).
cumulonimbus, sometimes called a thunderhead.
Some can be, for instance stratocumulus cloud trapped beneath a temperature inversion. As the inversion breaks down through the day from heating, the tops of the cloud become more ragged.
Because it's facking cold mate!