Water can exist as a gas, a liquid, or solid at temperatures and conditions found at various places on Earth. Water vapor is the gaseous form, and satellites can track the amount of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere. The transition from vapor to liquid or solid ice crystals in clouds, or from solid or liquid into gas, is a critical source of power in atmospheric physics, driving cloud formation, rain, snow, and the transfer of energy absorbed as sunlight in one place to another.

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