Six cameras are revolutionizing observations of shallow cumulus clouds.
The Science
While easily seen by people, the cotton-ball clouds (called shallow cumulus clouds) that drift overhead on partly cloudy days are hard for radars and many other instruments to observe and, therefore, hard to model and predict. Scientists situated six digital cameras in pairs at a distance of 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) from the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility site in Oklahoma with a spacing of 500 meters (a third of a mile) between cameras in a pair. These pairs of cameras provide stereoscopic views of shallow clouds from all sides. When scientists combine the data, they get a complete 3-D view of how the clouds change every 20 seconds. This ring of cameras makes it possible to observe these clouds in greater detail than ever before.
The Impact
Because they are close to the Earth’s surface and are very bright, these puffball clouds have a cooling effect. Even small changes to their abundance as the planet warms could substantially ameliorate or exacerbate warming. These high-resolution observations will allow scientists to test theories regarding the behavior of these important clouds.
Summary
Shallow cumulus clouds play a large role in Earth’s current energy balance, and their response to global warming makes a large and uncertain contribution to Earth’s climate sensitivity. To develop accurate theories and parameterizations of shallow cloud cover, scientists need measurements of clouds’ horizontal dimensions, their elevations, their depths, the rate at which they’re created, the rate at which they dissipate, and how all of these factors vary with changes to the large-scale environment. Only observations that are high-resolution relative to individual clouds in all four dimensions (space and time) can provide these needed data.
Toward this end, researchers installed a ring of cameras around the Southern Great Plains Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site in Oklahoma. Six digital cameras are situated in pairs at a distance of 6 kilometers from the site and with a spacing of 500 meters between cameras in a pair. These pairs provide stereoscopic views of shallow clouds from all sides; when scientists combine the data, they get a complete stereo reconstruction. The result, called the Clouds Optically Gridded by Stereo product, is a 4-D grid of cloudiness covering a cube measuring 6 kilometers by 6 kilometers by 6 kilometers at a spatial resolution of 50 meters and a temporal resolution of 20 seconds. This provides an unprecedented set of data on the sizes, lifetimes, and lifecycles of shallow clouds.
Source: https://science.energy.gov/ber/highlights/2018/ber-2018-12-q/
Animation:
The paper: (open access)
https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0029.1
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So, if I understand this, they are studying one particular type of cloud formation that occurs frequently in the Great Plains. And it sounds like they are mainly interested in the albedo, not heat transport? So does that mean they think they have correctly modeled the heat transport? (I seriously doubt it)
I can’t wait for them to try this on the clouds forming over the Ocean where they are transporting so much heat through convection. Clouds quickly transporting heat upwards, and reflecting light back out into outer space at the same time, thus cooling the ocean surface, which is then free to absorb more heat.
And now that I am thinking about this…shouldn’t the cloud band near the equator start expanding as the Earth heats up, thus transporting ever greater amounts of heat and putting a brake on any serious “greenhouse effect”?
They better stop their research…they are in danger of discovering the skeptics had a point.
With an array of 6 digital cameras recording at 20s intervals …. well … that is literally a true observation. Let’s just hope some clown doesn’t model or Photoshop the results.
If there is a prevailing general cloud direction a second array could add even more detail. Could a laser be incorporated and corresponding frequency camera detail density structure of the developing condensation? There seems to be a lot of inexpensive opportunities here. Drones are relatively inexpensive and maybe even deploy a small instrument laden balloon into the cloud base or ride the updraft itself.
One more of the many interesting things about these developing clouds. I have observed that while they appear to be ‘drifting’ along in the sky, the reality is that they are like a “Pacman” and can actually be developing against the wind. Shocking you might say, but with the upper level wind ( ~5000 ft and humid) at about 5 mph the clouds appear to drift upstream faster than the wind is blowing. Reality is that the cloud was developing into the prevailing wind’s energy composition faster that the wind itself. A few hours later and about 20-25 miles away it went BOOM and appeared on the radar for about 20-30 minutes and dumped 1-2 inches of rain over a 1-2 mile area. There is more than meets the eye from a perspective from the ground. You gotta watch those clouds, radar and atmospheric composition and movement to begin to get a true understanding of what’s happening.
A great deal is known about what happens in clouds but it is the engineers that know it not the scientists apparently.
Clouds operate on the Rankine Cycle principles in like manner to our steam plants that generate electricity.
Peering at them with cameras won’t tell you very much; but going back to basic thermodynamics will.
Clouds have a strong negative feedback too potential warming. They provide the basic thermostat for global temperature.