This cloud comes in connection with a weather front and shows as a layer, thicker than cirrostratus but not yet a nimbostratus. It can be quite thick and grey containing both ice crystals and water drops. Very often you see some 'extra clouds' around, like here, some scattered cumulus.

This Altostratos formation in Washington tells that a front is incoming. Washington Monument on the left.

Below this particular front layer in Africa, a lower stratus layer is also visible covering the ground. Between the layers in this snapshot the highest mountain in Africa, the peak of the Kilimanjaro, 5895 m above sea level.

This sky is a typical tropical sky in the rainy season where clouds of all sorts cover the sky. The grey layer looks like and should be an altostratus although the fronts look different in the tropical regions. It could in fact be rest clouds of tropical activity. Below some small cumulus clouds have formed as well.