{ "model": { "rank": 7730, "code": "thing-q40526", "model_id": "vr.tr.stratus", "name": "stratus", "purpose": "Let an agent explain stratus clouds and related layered cloud types, describe their formation and weather significance, support cloud identification, and support learning in meteorology.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q40526/", "tier": 2, "score": 54, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "altostratus undulatus cloud", "altostratus", "nimbostratus", "stratus fractus", "stratus nebulosus", "Nimbostratus virga" ], "aliasCount": 6, "merged": 6, "knownIn": 54, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.stratus", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q40526", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q40526", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T03:20:14Z", "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": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q40526", "registryId": "vr.tr.stratus", "name": "stratus", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q40526/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.stratus", "name": "stratus", "purpose": "Let an agent explain stratus clouds and related layered cloud types, describe their formation and weather significance, support cloud identification, and support learning in meteorology.", "definition": "A low-level cloud genus forming a uniform grey layer with a fairly even base, often producing drizzle, snow grains or fog when it reaches the ground, with species such as stratus nebulosus and stratus fractus and related layered clouds including altostratus at middle levels and nimbostratus, the thick rain-bearing layer cloud; stratus clouds form when moist air is cooled near the surface or lifted gently, and are classified in the international cloud atlas.", "what_it_is_for": "Uniform low layer cloud.", "affordances": [ "explain stratus and related types", "describe formation and weather", "support identification", "support learning" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Layered form", "Low base", "Even appearance", "Drizzle-producing" ], "appearance": "A featureless grey layer, sometimes ragged, often low.", "visual_identification": [ "Uniform low grey layer", "Drizzle or fog possible", "Stratocumulus has lumpy elements; cumulus is heaped; cirrostratus is high and thin" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "stratus nebulosus", "stratus fractus", "altostratus", "nimbostratus", "stratus-related fog" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "low-level cloud", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "raindrop", "why": "precipitation from layer clouds" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "northeaster", "why": "storms with layered cloud" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "aurora", "why": "another sky phenomenon entry" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "International Cloud Atlas classification", "Aviation weather reporting codes", "No regulation of the phenomenon" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing stratus with stratocumulus or fog", "Low visibility hazards for aviation and driving", "Misreading cloud reports" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What stratus is.", "rationale": "Meteorology.", "layers": [ { "id": "formation", "name": "Formation", "description": "Formation.", "findings": [ { "id": "formation-finding", "name": "Formation", "description": "Formation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do stratus clouds form from surface cooling or gentle lifting, and how do they relate to fog?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits cloud formation generally?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "types", "name": "Types", "description": "Species and related clouds.", "findings": [ { "id": "types-finding", "name": "Types", "description": "Types.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do stratus nebulosus, stratus fractus, altostratus and nimbostratus differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific cloud type?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Identification and weather.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Identifying stratus.", "findings": [ { "id": "identify-finding", "name": "Identify", "description": "Identification.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can stratus be distinguished from stratocumulus, fog and other layer clouds in the sky?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits cloud identification?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "weather", "name": "Weather", "description": "Weather significance.", "findings": [ { "id": "weather-finding", "name": "Weather", "description": "Weather.", "questions": [ { "text": "What weather do stratus and nimbostratus indicate, and how are they used in forecasting?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits weather forecasting?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Aviation and observation.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "aviation", "name": "Aviation", "description": "Aviation.", "findings": [ { "id": "aviation-finding", "name": "Aviation", "description": "Aviation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do stratus and low ceilings affect aviation, and how are they reported?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is a low visibility hazard present now?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "observe", "name": "Observe", "description": "Observation networks.", "findings": [ { "id": "observe-finding", "name": "Observe", "description": "Observation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are clouds observed and classified by weather services and citizen observers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits weather observation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did cloud classification develop from Howard to the international atlas?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can cloud types be taught with observation exercises?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should altostratus and nimbostratus be separate entries?", "How should cloud atlas resources be linked?", "How should aviation weather 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 stratus, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain stratus clouds and related layered cloud types, describe their formation and weather significance, support cloud identification, and support learning in meteorology.", "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: altostratus undulatus cloud, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratus fractus, stratus nebulosus, Nimbostratus virga.", "6 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 54 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 stratus, 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": [ "altostratus undulatus cloud", "altostratus", "nimbostratus", "stratus fractus", "stratus nebulosus", "Nimbostratus virga" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 54 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 6 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 stratus from another, and a stratus 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 stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a stratus 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 stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus 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 stratus?", "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 stratus?", "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 stratus 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 stratus and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 stratus is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a stratus, 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 stratus, 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 stratus 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 } } } }