Clouds How to recognise them and be wiser for it

Today’s menu Discussion Some clouds More clouds

Clouds: visible Clouds appear bright Thicker clouds are brighter (greater optical depth) Clouds with more water (or ice) content are brighter

Cloud activity How can we tell different cloud types from one another?

From VIS Brightness Shape (and changes in shape) Texture Motion

Texture

Using IR Temperature –Related to height Change in temperature –Related to change in height Shape

Fronts - Vis

Fronts - IR

Lots of clouds Fronts have all kinds of clouds and we can compare the Vis and IR to tell one from the other Low Sc are dark on the IR but fairly bright on the Vis Ci are bright (cold) on the IR, but less distinctive on the Vis

More info Lots more detail on the Vis – higher resolution Vis has good contrast between cloud and sea, while IR has contrast between cloud and land (at the time of year shown in particular) And there was Ac in there too

Here’s some visible Ci

Here comes the big picture What do you see?

Low clouds

To the computer room GARP