{ "model": { "rank": 5401, "code": "thing-q185638", "model_id": "vr.tr.cirrus", "name": "cirrus", "purpose": "Let an agent handle cirrus clouds by identification, species, formation, optical effects, weather significance and aviation relevance, using WMO classification.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q185638/", "tier": 2, "score": 67, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "cirrus duplicatus", "cirrus radiatus", "cirrus floccus", "cirrus spissatus", "cirrus fibratus", "cirrus uncinus", "cirrus castellanus", "cirrus intortus", "vertebratus", "Cirrus fluctus" ], "aliasCount": 10, "merged": 10, "knownIn": 67, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.cirrus-animal", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q185638", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q185638", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T13:41:12Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q185638", "registryId": "vr.tr.cirrus", "name": "cirrus", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q185638/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.cirrus", "name": "cirrus", "purpose": "Let an agent handle cirrus clouds by identification, species, formation, optical effects, weather significance and aviation relevance, using WMO classification.", "definition": "A genus of high-level cloud made of ice crystals, appearing as thin, white, wispy filaments, patches or bands, typically above about 6 kilometres in mid-latitudes; species include fibratus, uncinus, spissatus, castellanus and floccus, and cirrus can signal an approaching weather front.", "what_it_is_for": "Weather observation, forecasting and climate science.", "affordances": [ "identify cirrus and its species", "explain how cirrus forms", "relate cirrus to approaching weather", "understand contrail cirrus and climate" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "High-level ice cloud", "Fibrous appearance", "Often precedes fronts", "Linked to halos and contrails" ], "appearance": "Delicate white streaks or hooks high in the sky, often called mares tails.", "visual_identification": [ "Thin wispy ice clouds", "Hooked cirrus uncinus", "Cirrostratus forms a thin veil producing halos" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "cirrus fibratus", "cirrus uncinus", "cirrus spissatus", "cirrus castellanus and floccus", "contrail cirrus" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "high-level cloud", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is made of", "target": "ice crystals", "why": "composition" }, { "relation": "produces", "target": "halo", "why": "optical effect" }, { "relation": "is classified in", "target": "WMO International Cloud Atlas", "why": "reference" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "WMO cloud abbreviation", "value_or_pattern": "Ci", "note": "cloud genus" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "WMO International Cloud Atlas" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Over-reliance on cirrus as a forecast", "Confusing contrails and natural cirrus" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Recognition.", "rationale": "Shape identifies.", "layers": [ { "id": "genus", "name": "Genus", "description": "Cirrus or not.", "findings": [ { "id": "genus-finding", "name": "Genus", "description": "Genus.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is this cloud cirrus, cirrostratus or cirrocumulus?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which features decide it?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "species", "name": "Species", "description": "Species and varieties.", "findings": [ { "id": "species-finding", "name": "Species", "description": "Species.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which cirrus species or variety is it?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How can it be told from others?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "formation", "name": "Formation", "description": "How it forms.", "rationale": "Ice forms high up.", "layers": [ { "id": "ice", "name": "Ice", "description": "Ice crystals.", "findings": [ { "id": "ice-finding", "name": "Ice", "description": "Ice crystals.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do ice crystals form cirrus at high altitude?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Why do fall streaks appear?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contrails", "name": "Contrails", "description": "Aircraft contrails.", "findings": [ { "id": "contrails-finding", "name": "Contrails", "description": "Contrails.", "questions": [ { "text": "When do aircraft contrails spread into cirrus, and what is their climate effect, according to studies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How certain are estimates?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "weather", "name": "Weather", "description": "Significance.", "rationale": "Cirrus can signal change.", "layers": [ { "id": "front", "name": "Front", "description": "Approaching weather.", "findings": [ { "id": "front-finding", "name": "Front", "description": "Approaching fronts.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does increasing cirrus suggest an approaching front here?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What does the official forecast say?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "climate", "name": "Climate", "description": "Radiative effects.", "findings": [ { "id": "climate-finding", "name": "Climate", "description": "Climate effects.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do cirrus clouds affect the Earth energy balance, according to climate assessments?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the effect warming or cooling overall?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "optics", "name": "Optics", "description": "Sky phenomena.", "rationale": "Cirrus creates effects.", "layers": [ { "id": "halos", "name": "Halos", "description": "Halos and arcs.", "findings": [ { "id": "halos-finding", "name": "Halos", "description": "Halos.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which halos and arcs appear with cirrus?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How can they be viewed safely?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "photo", "name": "Photo", "description": "Photography.", "findings": [ { "id": "photo-finding", "name": "Photo", "description": "Photography.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can cirrus be photographed well?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Where can cloud observations be shared?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should species be separate entries?", "How should contrail research be linked?", "How should cloud photos be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a cirrus, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle cirrus clouds by identification, species, formation, optical effects, weather significance and aviation relevance, using WMO classification.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: cirrus duplicatus, cirrus radiatus, cirrus floccus, cirrus spissatus, cirrus fibratus, cirrus uncinus, cirrus castellanus, cirrus intortus, vertebratus, Cirrus fluctus.", "10 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 67 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a cirrus, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "cirrus duplicatus", "cirrus radiatus", "cirrus floccus", "cirrus spissatus", "cirrus fibratus", "cirrus uncinus", "cirrus castellanus", "cirrus intortus", "vertebratus", "Cirrus fluctus" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 67 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 10 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one cirrus from another, and a cirrus from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a cirrus sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a cirrus from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a cirrus passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a cirrus between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a cirrus, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a cirrus is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What cirrus is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of cirrus are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is cirrus operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of cirrus and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of cirrus?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as cirrus?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a cirrus came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a cirrus and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a cirrus is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a cirrus, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a cirrus, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a cirrus is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }