Collaborative Research: Global Distribution of Diurnal Cycles and Long-term Changes in Cloud Amounts from Surface Observations

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will result in a catalogue of clouds compiled from data sets gathered from weather stations, both land (from 1971 onward) and ocean (from 1952 onward). The basic ocean data set to be used is readily available from COADS (the Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set jointly archived by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The atlas will be compiled with special emphasis on diurnal cycles, interannual variability and long-term trends useful for climate studies. Information on total cloud cover, low cloud amount, cloud types at three levels (stratus, stratocumulus and fog), types altostratus and altocumulus, and present weather conditions at the time of observation (e.g., precipitation, fog), and cloud base height will be provided. Day and night-time observations will be separated. Satellite-based data sets will be used to supplement the catalogue with optical properties associated with morphologically defined types of cloud. The cloud catalogue arising from this project is expected to prove highly useful to the scientific community for climate change studies; for example, in improving estimates of the Earth's radiation budget.