High-resolution photography of clouds from the surface: Retrieval of optical depth of thin clouds down to centimeter scales: High-Resolution Photography of Clouds

Journal Article · Wed Mar 08 04:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025384· OSTI ID:1344232

Schwartz, Stephen E. ^[1]; Huang, Dong ^[2]; Vladutescu, Daniela Viviana ^[3]

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1. Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York New York USA
2. Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York New York USA; Now at Science Systems and Applications Inc., Greenbelt Maryland USA
3. New York City College of Technology, City University of New York, New York New York USA

This article describes the approach and presents initial results, for a period of several minutes in north central Oklahoma, of an examination of clouds by high resolution digital photography from the surface looking vertically upward. A commercially available camera having 35-mm equivalent focal length up to 1200 mm (nominal resolution as fine as 6 µrad, which corresponds to 9 mm for cloud height 1.5 km) is used to obtain a measure of zenith radiance of a 30 m × 30 m domain as a two-dimensional image consisting of 3456 × 3456 pixels (12 million pixels). Downwelling zenith radiance varies substantially within single images and between successive images obtained at 4-s intervals. Variation in zenith radiance found on scales down to about 10 cm is attributed to variation in cloud optical depth (COD). Attention here is directed primarily to optically thin clouds, COD less than about 2. A radiation transfer model used to relate downwelling zenith radiance to COD and to relate the counts in the camera image to zenith radiance, permits determination of COD on a pixel-by-pixel basis. COD for thin clouds determined in this way exhibits considerable variation, for example, an order of magnitude within 15 m, a factor of 2 within 4 m, and 25% (0.12 to 0.15) over 14 cm. In conclusion, this approach, which examines cloud structure on scales 3 to 5 orders of magnitude finer than satellite products, opens new avenues for examination of cloud structure and evolution.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704; AC02-98CH10886
• OSTI ID: 1344232
• Report Number(s): BNL--113517-2017-JA; KP1701000
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 122; ISSN 2169-897X
• Publisher: American Geophysical Union
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Cloud albedo
Cloud optical depth
Cloud structure
Radiation transfer
Zenith radiance