1,926 research outputs found
Comparison of cloud height and depth from atmospheric modelling and ceilometer measurements
In the current study, the cloud base height obtained from the ceilometer measurements, in Evora (south of Portugal), are compared with the results obtained from atmospheric modelling. The atmospheric model adopted is the nonhydrostatic MesoNH model, initiated and forced by ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range weather Forecasts) analyses. Also the simulated cloud depth results are presented. The availability of mesoscale modelling for the region, as well as the cloud local vertical distributions obtained from the ceilometer, provide a good opportunity to compare cloud base height and estimate the errors associated. From the obtained results it is possible to observe that the simulated cloud base height values are in good agreement with the correspondent values obtained from the ceilometer measurements
Time dependent correlations in marine stratocumulus cloud base height records
The scaling ranges of time correlations in the cloud base height records of
marine boundary layer stratocumulus are studied applying the Detrended
Fluctuation Analysis statistical method. We have found that time dependent
variations in the evolution of the exponent reflect the diurnal
dynamics of cloud base height fluctuations in the marine boundary layer. In
general, a more stable structure of the boundary layer corresponds to a lower
value of the - indicator, i.e. larger anti-persistence, thus a set of
fluctuations tending to induce a greater stability of the stratocumulus. In
contrast, during periods of higher instability in the marine boundary, less
anti-persistent (more persistent like) behavior of the system drags it out of
equilibrium, corresponding to larger values. From an analysis of the
frequency spectrum, the stratocumulus base height evolution is found to be a
non-stationary process with stationary increments. The occurrence of these
statistics in cloud base height fluctuations suggests the usefulness of similar
studies for the radiation transfer dynamics modeling.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. C, Vol. 13, No.
2 (2002
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Cloud base height estimates from sky imagery and a network of pyranometers
Cloud base height (CBH) is an important parameter for physics-based high resolution solar radiation modeling. In sky imager-based forecasts, a ceilometer or stereographic setup is needed to derive the CBH; otherwise erroneous CBHs lead to incorrect physical cloud velocity and incorrect projection of cloud shadows, causing solar power forecast errors due to incorrect shadow positions and timing of shadowing events. In this paper, two methods to estimate cloud base height from a single sky imager and distributed ground solar irradiance measurements are proposed. The first method (Time Series Correlation, denoted as âTSCâ) is based upon the correlation between ground-observed global horizontal irradiance (GHI) time series and a modeled GHI time series generated from a sequence of sky images geo-rectified to a candidate set of CBH. The estimated CBH is taken as the candidate that produces the highest correlation coefficient. The second method (Geometric Cloud Shadow Edge, denoted as âGCSEâ) integrates a numerical ramp detection method for ground-observed GHI time series with solar and cloud geometry applied to cloud edges in a sky image. CBH are benchmarked against a collocated ceilometer and stereographically estimated CBH from two sky imagers for 15 min median-filtered CBHs. Over 30 days covering all seasons, the TSC method performs similarly to the GCSE method with nRMSD of 18.9% versus 20.8%. A key limitation of both proposed methods is the requirement of sufficient variation in GHI to enable reliable correlation and ramp detection. The advantage of the two proposed methods is that they can be applied when measurements from only a single sky imager and pyranometers are available
Remote sensing of cloud base charge
Layer clouds are abundant in the Earth's atmosphere. Such clouds do not
become sufficiently strongly charged to generate lightning, but they show weak
charging along the upper and lower cloud boundaries where there is a
conductivity transition. Cloud edge charging has recently been observed using
balloon-carried electrometers. Measurement of cloud boundary charging without
balloons is shown to be possible here for low altitude (<1km) charged cloud
bases, through combining their effect on the surface electric field with laser
time of flight cloud base height measurements, and the application of simple
electrostatic models.Comment: Proceedings of the Electrostatics Society of America conference,
Ottawa, June 201
Statistical Physics in Meteorology
Various aspects of modern statistical physics and meteorology can be tied
together. The historical importance of the University of Wroclaw in the field
of meteorology is first pointed out. Next, some basic difference about time and
space scales between meteorology and climatology is outlined. The nature and
role of clouds both from a geometric and thermal point of view are recalled.
Recent studies of scaling laws for atmospheric variables are mentioned, like
studies on cirrus ice content, brightness temperature, liquid water path
fluctuations, cloud base height fluctuations, .... Technical time series
analysis approaches based on modern statistical physics considerations are
outlined.Comment: Short version of an invited paper at the XXIth Max Born
symposium,Ladek Zdroj, Poland; Sept. 200
Long-term variability of the low-level cloud base height in Poland
The aim of the study is to characterize the long-term variability of the low-level cloud base heights (CBH) in Poland in the years 1971-2020. Data were used from six weather stations belonging to the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management-the National Research Institute (IMWM-NRI), where CBH was first measured using the IWO device and, since the 1990s, using a ceilometer. The analysis allowed for data from eight observation periods (0000, 0300, 0600, 0900, 1200, 1500, 1800, 2100 UTC), which referred to several height ranges (between the ground surface and 2500 m a.s.l.). In the ana-lysed multiyear period, in the cool half of the year, the height of theCumulonimbuscloud bases increased significantly, that is, the number of cases increased at a height of>1000 m and, in the warm half of the year, at>1500 m. In recent years, the number of cases of the Cumulus cloud with abase at a height between 300 and 999 m has clearly decreased, while it has increased at a height of 1000-1499 m (in October-March) and 1500-1999 m(April-September). A similar increase in CBH was found in the case of the Stratocumulus cloud (their greater share between 1500 and 2499 m). It was only in the case of the Stratus cloud that a lowering of the cloud base was noticed, possibly owing to the imperfect measurement of he fractus species.The positive upward trend inthe base heigh to most low-level clouds can be explained by a statistically significant increase in temperature and a decrease in relative air humidity in the lower troposphere
Cloud base height retrieval from multi-angle satellite data
Clouds are a key modulator of the Earth energy budget at the top
of the atmosphere and at the surface. While the cloud top height is
operationally retrieved with global coverage, only few methods have been
proposed to determine cloud base height (zbase) from satellite
measurements. This study presents a new approach to retrieve cloud base
heights using the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on the Terra
satellite. It can be applied if some cloud gaps occur within the chosen
distance of typically 10 km. The MISR cloud base height (MIBase) algorithm
then determines zbase from the ensemble of all MISR cloud top
heights retrieved at a 1.1 km horizontal resolution in this area. MIBase
is first calibrated using 1 year of ceilometer data from more than 1500
sites within the continental United States of America. The 15th percentile of
the cloud top height distribution within a circular area of 10 km radius
provides the best agreement with the ground-based data. The thorough
evaluation of the MIBase product zbase with further ceilometer
data yields a correlation coefficient of about 0.66, demonstrating the
feasibility of this approach to retrieve zbase. The impacts of
the cloud scene structure and macrophysical cloud properties are discussed.
For a 3-year period, the median zbase is generated globally
on a 0.25â Ă 0.25â grid. Even though overcast cloud
scenes and high clouds are excluded from the statistics, the median
zbase retrievals yield plausible results, in particular over ocean
as well as for seasonal differences. The potential of the full 16Â years of
MISR data is demonstrated for the southeast Pacific, revealing interannual
variability in zbase in accordance with reanalysis data. The
global cloud base data for the 3-year period (2007â2009) are available
at https://doi.org/10.5880/CRC1211DB.19.</p
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