Observing clouds in 4D with multi-view stereo photogrammetry

Journal Article · 30 July 2018 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-18-0029.1 · OSTI ID:1482538

Romps, David M. ^[1]; Öktem, Ruşen ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Department of Earth and Planetary Science; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division

We report that newly installed stereo cameras ringing the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site in Oklahoma are providing a 4D gridded view of shallow clouds. Six digital cameras have been installed 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 of cameras provide stereoscopic views of shallow clouds from all sides; when these data are combined, they allow for a complete stereo reconstruction. The result – the Clouds Optically Gridded by Stereo (COGS) product – is a 4D grid of cloudiness covering a 6 km × 6 km × 6 km cube 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. Lastly, this type of information is critical for developing cloud macrophysical schemes for the next generation of weather and climate models.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1482538
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 99, Issue 12; ISSN 0003-0007
• Publisher: American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English