WorldWideScience

Sample records for clouds hvcs originated

  1. THE EVOLUTION OF GAS CLOUDS FALLING IN THE MAGNETIZED GALACTIC HALO: HIGH-VELOCITY CLOUDS (HVCs) ORIGINATED IN THE GALACTIC FOUNTAIN

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwak, Kyujin; Shelton, Robin L.; Raley, Elizabeth A.

    2009-01-01

    In the Galactic fountain scenario, supernovae and/or stellar winds propel material into the Galactic halo. As the material cools, it condenses into clouds. By using FLASH three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we model and study the dynamical evolution of these gas clouds after they form and begin to fall toward the Galactic plane. In our simulations, we assume that the gas clouds form at a height of z = 5 kpc above the Galactic midplane, then begin to fall from rest. We investigate how the cloud's evolution, dynamics, and interaction with the interstellar medium (ISM) are affected by the initial mass of the cloud. We find that clouds with sufficiently large initial densities (n ≥ 0.1 H atoms cm -3 ) accelerate sufficiently and maintain sufficiently large column densities as to be observed and identified as high-velocity clouds (HVCs) even if the ISM is weakly magnetized (1.3 μG). However, the ISM can provide noticeable resistance to the motion of a low-density cloud (n ≤ 0.01 H atoms cm -3 ) thus making it more probable that a low-density cloud will attain the speed of an intermediate-velocity cloud rather than the speed of an HVC. We also investigate the effects of various possible magnetic field configurations. As expected, the ISM's resistance is greatest when the magnetic field is strong and perpendicular to the motion of the cloud. The trajectory of the cloud is guided by the magnetic field lines in cases where the magnetic field is oriented diagonal to the Galactic plane. The model cloud simulations show that the interactions between the cloud and the ISM can be understood via analogy to the shock tube problem which involves shock and rarefaction waves. We also discuss accelerated ambient gas, streamers of material ablated from the clouds, and the cloud's evolution from a sphere-shaped to a disk- or cigar-shaped object.

  2. Distances, metallicities and origins of high-velocity clouds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Woerden, H; Wakker, BP; Peletier, RF; Schwarz, UJ; KraanKorteweg, RC; Henning, PA; Andernach, H

    2000-01-01

    A review is given of distances of high-velocity clouds (HVCs) derived from absorption-line measurements, and of the metallicities of HVCs. Chain A definitely lies in the Galactic halo, between 2.5 and 7 kpc above the plane. The distance limits available for other HVCs allow a variety of locations:

  3. DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN OF HIGH-VELOCITY CLOUDS .3. CLOUDS, COMPLEXES AND POPULATIONS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    WAKKER, BP; VANWOERDEN, H

    1991-01-01

    We present the first complete catalogue of high-velocity clouds (HVCs), followed by a classification of these clouds into complexes and populations. The catalogue will form the basis for comparisons with theoretical models. The study described here yields the following conclusions: (1) Differential

  4. A Discovery of a Compact High Velocity Cloud-Galactic Supershell System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Geumsook; Koo, Bon-Chul; Kang, Ji-hyun; Gibson, Steven J.; Peek, Joshua Eli Goldston; Douglas, Kevin A.; Korpela, Eric J.; Heiles, Carl E.

    2017-01-01

    High velocity clouds (HVCs) are neutral hydrogen (HI) gas clouds having very different radial velocities from those of the Galactic disk material. While some large HVC complexes are known to be gas streams tidally stripped from satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, there are relatively isolated and small angular-sized HVCs, so called “compact HVCs (CHVCs)”, the origin of which remains controversial. There are about 300 known CHVCs in the Milky Way, and many of them show a head-tail structure, implying a ram pressure interaction with the diffuse Galactic halo gas. It is, however, not clear whether CHVCs are completely dissipated in the Galactic halo to feed the multi-phase circumgalactic medium or they can survive their trip through the halo and collide with the Galactic disk. The colliding CHVCs may leave a gigantic trail in the disk, and it had been suggested that some of HI supershells that require ≧ 3 x 1052 erg may be produced by the collision of such HVCs.Here we report the detection of a kiloparsec (kpc)-size supershell in the outskirts of the Milky Way with the compact HVC 040+01-282 (hereafter, CHVC040) at its geometrical center using the “Inner-Galaxy Arecibo L-band Feed Array” HI 21 cm survey data. The morphological and physical properties of both objects suggest that CHVC040, which is either a fragment of a nearby disrupted galaxy or a cloud that originated from an intergalactic accreting flow, collided with the disk ˜5 Myr ago to form the supershell. Our results show that some compact HVCs can survive their trip through the Galactic halo and inject energy and momentum into the Milky Way disk.

  5. THE GALFA-H I COMPACT CLOUD CATALOG

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saul, Destry R.; Peek, J. E. G.; Grcevich, J.; Putman, M. E.; Brown, A. R. H.; Hamden, E. T. [Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States); Douglas, K. A. [Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary/Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, P.O. Box 248, Penticton, BC V2A 6J9 (Canada); Korpela, E. J. [Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Stanimirovic, S.; Lee, M.; Burkhart, B.; Pingel, N. M. [Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 475 N Charter St, Madison, WI 53703 (United States); Heiles, C. [Radio Astronomy Lab, UC Berkeley, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Gibson, S. J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101 (United States); Begum, A. [Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, ITI Campus (Gas Rahat) Building, Govindpura, Bhopal-23 (India); Tonnesen, S. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

    2012-10-10

    We present a catalog of 1964 isolated, compact neutral hydrogen clouds from the Galactic Arecibo L-Band Feed Array Survey Data Release One. The clouds were identified by a custom machine-vision algorithm utilizing the difference of Gaussian kernels to search for clouds smaller than 20'. The clouds have velocities typically between |V{sub LSR}| =20 and 400 km s{sup -1}, line widths of 2.5-35 km s{sup -1}, and column densities ranging from 1 to 35 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 18} cm{sup -2}. The distances to the clouds in this catalog may cover several orders of magnitude, so the masses may range from less than a solar mass for clouds within the Galactic disk, to greater than 10{sup 4} M{sub Sun} for high-velocity clouds (HVCs) at the tip of the Magellanic Stream. To search for trends, we separate the catalog into five populations based on position, velocity, and line width: HVCs; galaxy candidates; cold low-velocity clouds (LVCs); warm, low positive-velocity clouds in the third Galactic quadrant; and the remaining warm LVCs. The observed HVCs are found to be associated with previously identified HVC complexes. We do not observe a large population of isolated clouds at high velocities as some models predict. We see evidence for distinct histories at low velocities in detecting populations of clouds corotating with the Galactic disk and a set of clouds that is not corotating.

  6. SIMULATIONS OF HIGH-VELOCITY CLOUDS. I. HYDRODYNAMICS AND HIGH-VELOCITY HIGH IONS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwak, Kyujin; Henley, David B.; Shelton, Robin L.

    2011-01-01

    We present hydrodynamic simulations of high-velocity clouds (HVCs) traveling through the hot, tenuous medium in the Galactic halo. A suite of models was created using the FLASH hydrodynamics code, sampling various cloud sizes, densities, and velocities. In all cases, the cloud-halo interaction ablates material from the clouds. The ablated material falls behind the clouds where it mixes with the ambient medium to produce intermediate-temperature gas, some of which radiatively cools to less than 10,000 K. Using a non-equilibrium ionization algorithm, we track the ionization levels of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in the gas throughout the simulation period. We present observation-related predictions, including the expected H I and high ion (C IV, N V, and O VI) column densities on sightlines through the clouds as functions of evolutionary time and off-center distance. The predicted column densities overlap those observed for Complex C. The observations are best matched by clouds that have interacted with the Galactic environment for tens to hundreds of megayears. Given the large distances across which the clouds would travel during such time, our results are consistent with Complex C having an extragalactic origin. The destruction of HVCs is also of interest; the smallest cloud (initial mass ∼ 120 M sun ) lost most of its mass during the simulation period (60 Myr), while the largest cloud (initial mass ∼ 4 x 10 5 M sun ) remained largely intact, although deformed, during its simulation period (240 Myr).

  7. High-energy radiation from collisions of high-velocity clouds and the Galactic disc

    Science.gov (United States)

    del Valle, Maria V.; Müller, A. L.; Romero, G. E.

    2018-04-01

    High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are interstellar clouds of atomic hydrogen that do not follow normal Galactic rotation and have velocities of a several hundred kilometres per second. A considerable number of these clouds are falling down towards the Galactic disc. HVCs form large and massive complexes, so if they collide with the disc a great amount of energy would be released into the interstellar medium. The cloud-disc interaction produces two shocks: one propagates through the cloud and the other through the disc. The properties of these shocks depend mainly on the cloud velocity and the disc-cloud density ratio. In this work, we study the conditions necessary for these shocks to accelerate particles by diffusive shock acceleration and we study the non-thermal radiation that is produced. We analyse particle acceleration in both the cloud and disc shocks. Solving a time-dependent two-dimensional transport equation for both relativistic electrons and protons, we obtain particle distributions and non-thermal spectral energy distributions. In a shocked cloud, significant synchrotron radio emission is produced along with soft gamma rays. In the case of acceleration in the shocked disc, the non-thermal radiation is stronger; the gamma rays, of leptonic origin, might be detectable with current instruments. A large number of protons are injected into the Galactic interstellar medium, and locally exceed the cosmic ray background. We conclude that under adequate conditions the contribution from HVC-disc collisions to the galactic population of relativistic particles and the associated extended non-thermal radiation might be important.

  8. A High-velocity Cloud Impact Forming a Supershell in the Milky Way

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Geumsook; Koo, Bon-Chul; Kang, Ji-hyun; Gibson, Steven J.; Peek, J. E. G.; Douglas, Kevin A.; Korpela, Eric J.; Heiles, Carl E.

    2016-08-01

    Neutral atomic hydrogen (H I) gas in interstellar space is largely organized into filaments, loops, and shells, the most prominent of which are “supershells.” These gigantic structures, which require ≳ 3× {10}52 erg to form, are generally thought to be produced by either the explosion of multiple supernovae (SNe) in OB associations or, alternatively, by the impact of high-velocity clouds (HVCs) falling into the Galactic disk. Here, we report the detection of a kiloparsec (kpc)-size supershell in the outskirts of the Milky Way with the compact HVC 040 + 01-282 (hereafter, CHVC040) at its geometrical center using the “Inner-Galaxy Arecibo L-band Feed Array” H I 21 cm survey data. The morphological and physical properties of both objects suggest that CHVC040, which is either a fragment of a nearby disrupted galaxy or a cloud that originated from an intergalactic accreting flow, collided with the disk ˜5 Myr ago to form the supershell. Our results show that some compact HVCs can survive their trip through the Galactic halo and inject energy and momentum into the Milky Way disk.

  9. A new all-sky map of Galactic high-velocity clouds from the 21-cm HI4PI survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westmeier, Tobias

    2018-02-01

    High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are neutral or ionized gas clouds in the vicinity of the Milky Way that are characterized by high radial velocities inconsistent with participation in the regular rotation of the Galactic disc. Previous attempts to create a homogeneous all-sky H I map of HVCs have been hampered by a combination of poor angular resolution, limited surface brightness sensitivity and suboptimal sampling. Here, a new and improved H I map of Galactic HVCs based on the all-sky HI4PI survey is presented. The new map is fully sampled and provides significantly better angular resolution (16.2 versus 36 arcmin) and column density sensitivity (2.3 versus 3.7 × 1018 cm-2 at the native resolution) than the previously available LAB survey. The new HVC map resolves many of the major HVC complexes in the sky into an intricate network of narrow H I filaments and clumps that were not previously resolved by the LAB survey. The resulting sky coverage fraction of high-velocity H I emission above a column density level of 2 × 1018 cm-2 is approximately 15 per cent, which reduces to about 13 per cent when the Magellanic Clouds and other non-HVC emission are removed. The differential sky coverage fraction as a function of column density obeys a truncated power law with an exponent of -0.93 and a turnover point at about 5 × 1019 cm-2. H I column density and velocity maps of the HVC sky are made publicly available as FITS images for scientific use by the community.

  10. Large-scale CO J = 1-0 observations of the giant molecular cloud associated with the infrared ring N35 with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torii, Kazufumi; Fujita, Shinji; Matsuo, Mitsuhiro; Nishimura, Atsushi; Kohno, Mikito; Kuriki, Mika; Tsuda, Yuya; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Umemoto, Tomofumi; Kuno, Nario; Hattori, Yusuke; Yoshiike, Satoshi; Ohama, Akio; Tachihara, Kengo; Shima, Kazuhiro; Habe, Asao; Fukui, Yasuo

    2018-05-01

    We report an observational study of the giant molecular cloud (GMC) associated with the Galactic infrared ring-like structure N35 and two nearby H II regions G024.392+00.072 (H II region A) and G024.510-00.060 (H II region B), using the new CO J = 1-0 data obtained as a part of the FOREST Unbiased Galactic Plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN) project at a spatial resolution of 21″. Our CO data reveals that the GMC, with a total molecular mass of 2.1 × 106 M⊙, has two velocity components of over ˜10-15 km s-1. The majority of molecular gas in the GMC is included in the lower-velocity component (LVC) at ˜110-114 km s-1, while the higher-velocity components (HVCs) at ˜118-126 km s-1 consist of three smaller molecular clouds which are located near the three H II regions. The LVC and HVCs show spatially complementary distributions along the line-of-sight, despite large velocity separations of ˜5-15 km s-1, and are connected in velocity by the CO emission with intermediate intensities. By comparing the observations with simulations, we discuss a scenario where collisions of the three HVCs with the LVC at velocities of ˜10-15 km s-1 can provide an interpretation of these two observational signatures. The intermediate-velocity features between the LVC and HVCs can be understood as broad bridge features, which indicate the turbulent motion of the gas at the collision interfaces, while the spatially complementary distributions represent the cavities created in the LVC by the HVCs through the collisions. Our model indicates that the three H II regions were formed after the onset of the collisions, and it is therefore suggested that the high-mass star formation in the GMC was triggered by the collisions.

  11. The Smith Cloud: surviving a high-speed transit of the Galactic disc

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tepper-García, Thor; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss

    2018-02-01

    The origin and survival of the Smith high-velocity H I cloud has so far defied explanation. This object has several remarkable properties: (i) its prograde orbit is ≈100 km s-1 faster than the underlying Galactic rotation; (ii) its total gas mass (≳ 4 × 106 M⊙) exceeds the mass of all other high-velocity clouds (HVCs) outside of the Magellanic Stream; (iii) its head-tail morphology extends to the Galactic H I disc, indicating some sort of interaction. The Smith Cloud's kinetic energy rules out models based on ejection from the disc. We construct a dynamically self-consistent, multi-phase model of the Galaxy with a view to exploring whether the Smith Cloud can be understood in terms of an infalling, compact HVC that has transited the Galactic disc. We show that while a dark-matter (DM) free HVC of sufficient mass and density can reach the disc, it does not survive the transit. The most important ingredient to survival during a transit is a confining DM subhalo around the cloud; radiative gas cooling and high spatial resolution (≲ 10pc) are also essential. In our model, the cloud develops a head-tail morphology within ∼10 Myr before and after its first disc crossing; after the event, the tail is left behind and accretes on to the disc within ∼400 Myr. In our interpretation, the Smith Cloud corresponds to a gas 'streamer' that detaches, falls back and fades after the DM subhalo, distorted by the disc passage, has moved on. We conclude that subhaloes with MDM ≲ 109 M⊙ have accreted ∼109 M⊙ of gas into the Galaxy over cosmic time - a small fraction of the total baryon budget.

  12. The Galactic fountain as an origin for the Smith Cloud

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marasco, A.; Fraternali, F.

    The recent discovery of an enriched metallicity for the Smith high-velocity H I Cloud (SC) lends support to a Galactic origin for this system. We use a dynamical model of the galactic fountain to reproduce the observed properties of the SC. In our model, fountain clouds are ejected from the region

  13. Cloud chamber experiments on the origin of ice crystal complexity in cirrus clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Schnaiter

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This study reports on the origin of small-scale ice crystal complexity and its influence on the angular light scattering properties of cirrus clouds. Cloud simulation experiments were conducted at the AIDA (Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere cloud chamber of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT. A new experimental procedure was applied to grow and sublimate ice particles at defined super- and subsaturated ice conditions and for temperatures in the −40 to −60 °C range. The experiments were performed for ice clouds generated via homogeneous and heterogeneous initial nucleation. Small-scale ice crystal complexity was deduced from measurements of spatially resolved single particle light scattering patterns by the latest version of the Small Ice Detector (SID-3. It was found that a high crystal complexity dominates the microphysics of the simulated clouds and the degree of this complexity is dependent on the available water vapor during the crystal growth. Indications were found that the small-scale crystal complexity is influenced by unfrozen H2SO4 / H2O residuals in the case of homogeneous initial ice nucleation. Angular light scattering functions of the simulated ice clouds were measured by the two currently available airborne polar nephelometers: the polar nephelometer (PN probe of Laboratoire de Métérologie et Physique (LaMP and the Particle Habit Imaging and Polar Scattering (PHIPS-HALO probe of KIT. The measured scattering functions are featureless and flat in the side and backward scattering directions. It was found that these functions have a rather low sensitivity to the small-scale crystal complexity for ice clouds that were grown under typical atmospheric conditions. These results have implications for the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds and for the radiative transfer through these clouds.

  14. The origin of Halley-type comets: probing the inner Oort cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levison, H.; Dones, L.; Duncan, M.

    2000-10-01

    We have integrated the orbits of 27,700 test particles initially entering the planetary system from the Oort cloud in order to study the origin of Halley-type comets (HTCs). We included the gravitational influence of the Sun, giant planets, passing stars, and galactic tides. We find that an isotropically distributed Oort cloud does not reproduce the observed orbital element distribution of the HTCs. In order to match the observations, the initial inclination distribution of the progenitors of the HTCs must be similar to the observed HTC inclination distribution. We can match the observations with an Oort cloud that consists of an isotropic outer cloud and a disk-like massive inner cloud. These idealized two-component models have inner disks with median inclinations that range from 10 to 50o. This analysis represents the first link between observations and the structure of the inner Oort cloud. HFL and LD gratefully acknowledges grants provided by the NASA Origins of Solar Systems and Planetary Geology and Geophysics Programs. MJD is grateful for the continuing financial support of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and for financial support for work done inthe U.S.from NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Programs.

  15. A note on the possible origin of comets in an interstellar gas cloud

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yabushita, S.; Hasegawa, I.

    1978-01-01

    A possible origin of comets in an interstellar gas cloud is discussed in relation to the two recent results on cometary research. First, among 200 long-period comets whose original incoming orbits were recently calculated, seven have definitely and 14 have probably negative values of 1/a, where 1/a is twice the binding energy (positive a corresponds to an elliptic orbit) with respect to the solar system barycentre. Second, it has been shown how an aggregate of dust grains embedded in an icy matrix of gaseous compounds could form in an interstellar gas cloud, which could be identified with the icy nucleus of a comet. Again, of about 20 comets whose original 1/a values are negative, seven are transformed into future elliptic orbits by planetary perturbation. Thus, a comet which originated in an interstellar cloud could be captured by the solar system

  16. HIGH-ENERGY PARTICLES FLUX ORIGIN IN THE CLOUDS, DARK LIGHTNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuznetsov, V.V.

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Problem of high-energy particles flux origin in clouds is discussed. Conditions in which dark lightning preceding the ordinary one and creating additional ionization, fluxes of fast electrons with MeV energy prior to the earthquake detected among lightning initiating ball-lightning, glow, sprites are considered. All above phenomena appear to be of general nature founded on quantum entanglement of hydrogen bonds protons in water clasters inside clouds.

  17. On the Influence of Air Mass Origin on Low-Cloud Properties in the Southeast Atlantic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Julia; Cermak, Jan; Andersen, Hendrik; Hollmann, Rainer; Schwarz, Katharina

    2017-10-01

    This study investigates the impact of air mass origin and dynamics on cloud property changes in the Southeast Atlantic (SEA) during the biomass burning season. The understanding of clouds and their determinants at different scales is important for constraining the Earth's radiative budget and thus prominent in climate system research. In this study, the thermodynamically stable SEA stratocumulus cover is observed not only as the result of local environmental conditions but also as connected to large-scale meteorology by the often neglected but important role of spatial origins of air masses entering this region. In order to assess to what extent cloud properties are impacted by aerosol concentration, air mass history, and meteorology, a Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory cluster analysis is conducted linking satellite observations of cloud properties (Spinning-Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager), information on aerosol species (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate), and meteorological context (ERA-Interim reanalysis) to air mass clusters. It is found that a characteristic pattern of air mass origins connected to distinct synoptical conditions leads to marked cloud property changes in the southern part of the study area. Long-distance air masses are related to midlatitude weather disturbances that affect the cloud microphysics, especially in the southwestern subdomain of the study area. Changes in cloud effective radius are consistent with a boundary layer deepening and changes in lower tropospheric stability (LTS). In the southeastern subdomain cloud cover is controlled by a generally higher LTS, while air mass origin plays a minor role. This study leads to a better understanding of the dynamical drivers behind observed stratocumulus cloud properties in the SEA and frames potentially interesting conditions for aerosol-cloud interactions.

  18. The Galactic fountain as an origin for the Smith Cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Marasco, A.; Fraternali, F.

    2017-01-01

    The recent discovery of an enriched metallicity for the Smith high-velocity H I Cloud (SC) lends support to a Galactic origin for this system. We use a dynamical model of the galactic fountain to reproduce the observed properties of the SC. In our model, fountain clouds are ejected from the region of the disc spiral arms and move through the halo interacting with a pre-existing hot corona. We find that a simple model where cold gas outflows vertically from the Perseus spiral arm reproduces th...

  19. Turbulence in molecular clouds - A new diagnostic tool to probe their origin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canuto, V. M.; Battaglia, A.

    1985-01-01

    A method is presented to uncover the instability responsible for the type of turbulence observed in molecular clouds and the value of the physical parameters of the 'placental medium' from which turbulence originated. The method utilizes the observational relation between velocities and sizes of molecular clouds, together with a recent model for large-scale turbulence (constructed by Canuto and Goldman, 1985).

  20. The Galactic fountain as an origin for the Smith Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marasco, A.; Fraternali, F.

    2017-01-01

    The recent discovery of an enriched metallicity for the Smith high-velocity H I Cloud (SC) lends support to a Galactic origin for this system. We use a dynamical model of the galactic fountain to reproduce the observed properties of the SC. In our model, fountain clouds are ejected from the region of the disc spiral arms and move through the halo interacting with a pre-existing hot corona. We find that a simple model where cold gas outflows vertically from the Perseus spiral arm reproduces the kinematics and the distance of the SC, but is in disagreement with the cloud's cometary morphology, if this is produced by ram-pressure stripping by the ambient gas. To explain the cloud morphology, we explore two scenarios: (I) the outflow is inclined with respect to the vertical direction and (II) the cloud is entrained by a fast wind that escapes an underlying superbubble. Solutions in agreement with all observational constraints can be found for both cases, the former requires outflow angles >40° while the latter requires ≳1000 km s-1 winds. All scenarios predict that the SC is in the ascending phase of its trajectory and has large - but not implausible - energy requirements.

  1. Planck early results. XVII. Origin of the submillimetre excess dust emission in the Magellanic Clouds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lähteenmäki, A.; Poutanen, T.; Natoli, P.

    2011-01-01

    The integrated spectral energy distributions (SED) of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) appear significantly flatter than expected from dust models based on their far-infrared and radio emission. The still unexplained origin of this millimetre excess is investigate...

  2. COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH OBSERVATIONS OF TRANSLUCENT CLOUDS: Cyg OB2 8A

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snow, Theodore P.; Destree, Joshua D.; Burgh, Eric B.; Ferguson, Ryan M.; Danforth, Charles W.; Cordiner, Martin

    2010-01-01

    Data from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) are presented for the first highly reddened target (Cyg OB2 8A) under the COS Science Team's guaranteed time allocation. Column densities of ionic, atomic, and molecular species are reported and implications are discussed. Data from Cyg OB2 8A demonstrate the ability to analyze highly reddened interstellar sight lines with the COS that were unavailable to previous UV instruments. Measured column densities indicate that the Cyg OB2 8A line of sight contains multiple diffuse clouds rather than a dominant translucent cloud.

  3. Galactic hail: the origin of the high-velocity cloud complex C

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fraternali, F.; Marasco, A.; Armillotta, L.; Marinacci, F.

    High-velocity clouds consist of cold gas that appears to be raining down from the halo to the disc of the Milky Way. Over the past 50 years, two competing scenarios have attributed their origin either to gas accretion from outside the Galaxy or to circulation of gas from the Galactic disc powered by

  4. Origin of coronal mass ejection and magnetic cloud: Thermal or magnetic driven?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Gong-Liang; Wang, Chi; He, Shuang-Hua

    1995-01-01

    A fundamental problem in Solar-Terrestrial Physics is the origin of the solar transient plasma output, which includes the coronal mass ejection and its interplanetary manifestation, e.g. the magnetic cloud. The traditional blast wave model resulted from solar thermal pressure impulse has faced with challenge during recent years. In the MHD numerical simulation study of CME, the authors find that the basic feature of the asymmetrical event on 18 August 1980 can be reproduced neither by a thermal pressure nor by a speed increment. Also, the thermal pressure model fails in simulating the interplanetary structure with low thermal pressure and strong magnetic field strength, representative of a typical magnetic cloud. Instead, the numerical simulation results are in favor of the magnetic field expansion as the likely mechanism for both the asymmetrical CME event and magnetic cloud.

  5. The Mass Outflow Rate of the Milky Way

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fox, Andrew

    2017-08-01

    The balance between gaseous inflow and outflow regulates star formation in spiral galaxies. This paradigm can be tested in the Milky Way, but whereas the star formation rate and inflow rate have both been measured, the outflow rate has not. We propose an archival COS program to determine the Galactic outflow rate in cool gas ( 10^4 K) by surveying UV absorption line high-velocity clouds (HVCs). This project will make use of the newly updated Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive, which contains a uniformly reduced sample of 233 COS G130M spectra of background AGN. The outflow rate will be determined by (1) searching for redshifted HVCs; (2) modeling the clouds with photoionization simulations to determine their masses and physical properties; (3) combining the cloud masses with their velocities and distances. We will measure how the outflow is distributed spatially across the sky, calculate its mass loading factor, and compare the line profiles to synthetic spectra extracted from new hydrodynamic simulations. The distribution of HVC velocities will inform us what fraction of the outflowing clouds will escape the halo and what fraction will circulate back to the disk, to better understand how and where gas enters and exits the Milky Way.

  6. The impact of galactic fountains on the global evolution of galaxy disks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fraternali, F.; Binney, J.; Marasco, A.; Marinacci, F.

    2016-01-01

    The evolution of the Milky Way, and its thin disc in particular, is a history of continuous accretion of fresh gas from the surrounding environment. Evidence for this accretion taking place include high-velocity clouds (HVCs) that appear to be raining down from the halo. I present a model that

  7. Why is the Magellanic Stream so Turbulent? - A Simulational Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Elliott; Shelton, Robin L.

    2018-06-01

    As the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds travel through the Milky Way (MW) halo, gas is tidally and ram pressure stripped from them, forming the Leading Arm (LA) and Magellanic Stream (MS). The evolution of the LA and MS are an interest to astronomers because there is evidence that the diffuse gas that has been stripped off is able to fall onto the galactic disk and cool enough to fuel star formation in the MW. For et al, 2014 published a catalog of 251 high velocity clouds (HVCs) in the MS, many of which have head-tail morphologies, suggesting interaction with the Milky Way’s halo or other gas in the MS. For et al noticed that the pointing direction of the HVCs are random, which they interpreted as an indication of strong turbulence. They suggested the shock cascade scenario as a contributing process, where ablated cloud material generates turbulence (and H-alpha emission). We take a closer look at this process via simulations. We ran numerical simulations of clouds in the MS using the University of Chicago’s FLASH software. We simulated cases that had two clouds, where one trailed behind the other, and we simulated cases that had one cloud in order to examine the effects of drafting on cloud dynamics and velocity dispersion. Initial cloud temperatures ranged from 100 K to 20,000 K. We have created velocity dispersion maps from the FLASH simulation data to visualize turbulence. We compare these generated maps with 21 cm observations (most recently Westmeier, 2017), in order to search for signatures similar to the small scale turbulence seen in the simulations. We find that if the clouds are initially near to each other, then drafting allows the trailing cloud to catch the leading cloud and mix together. For greater separations, Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities disrupt the clouds enough before impact that drafting has a minimal role. Our velocity dispersion maps of the warmer clouds closely match values published in For et al, 2014; although, thermal broadening

  8. NEW HYPOTHESIS AND ELECTROPHYSICS NATURE OF ADDITIONAL MECHANISMS OF ORIGIN, ACCUMULATION AND DIVISION OF ELECTRIC CHARGES IN THE ATMOSPHERIC CLOUDS OF EARTH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. I. Baranov

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. Development of new hypothesis about the possible additional mechanisms of origin, accumulation and division of electric charges in atmospheric clouds, containing shallow dispersible drops of water, shallow particulate dielectric matters and crystals of ice. Methodology. Electrophysics bases of technique of high voltage, theoretical bases of the electrical engineering, theoretical electrophysics, theory of the electromagnetic field, technique of the high electric and magnetic fields. Results. Pulled out and grounded new scientific supposition, related to possible existence in earthly troposphere of additional mechanisms of origin, accumulation and division of electric charges in the atmospheric clouds of Earth, being based on electrization in the warm ascending currents of air of shallow round particulate dielectric matters, getting in an air atmosphere from a terrene and from the smoke extras of industrial enterprises. By a calculation a way it is shown that the offered additional electrophysics mechanisms are able to provide achievement in the atmospheric clouds of such values of volume closeness of charges, total electric charge and tension of the electrostatic field stocked in them inwardly and on the external border of storm clouds which correspond modern experimental information from an area atmospheric electricity. The calculation estimations of levels of electric potential and stocked electric energy executed on the basis of the offered hypothesis in storm clouds specify on possibility of receipt in them of ever higher electric potentials and large supplies of electric energy. The obtained results are supplemented by the known approaches of forming and development in earthly troposphere of the electric charged atmospheric clouds, being based on electrization in the warm ascending streams of air the masses of shallow round aquatic drops. Originality. First on the basis of the well-known theses of technique and electrophysics of

  9. Georeferenced Point Clouds: A Survey of Features and Point Cloud Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johannes Otepka

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a survey of georeferenced point clouds. Concentration is, on the one hand, put on features, which originate in the measurement process themselves, and features derived by processing the point cloud. On the other hand, approaches for the processing of georeferenced point clouds are reviewed. This includes the data structures, but also spatial processing concepts. We suggest a categorization of features into levels that reflect the amount of processing. Point clouds are found across many disciplines, which is reflected in the versatility of the literature suggesting specific features.

  10. Cloud Processed CCN Suppress Stratus Cloud Drizzle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, J. G.; Noble, S. R., Jr.

    2017-12-01

    Conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfate within cloud droplets increases the sizes and decreases the critical supersaturation, Sc, of cloud residual particles that had nucleated the droplets. Since other particles remain at the same sizes and Sc a size and Sc gap is often observed. Hudson et al. (2015) showed higher cloud droplet concentrations (Nc) in stratus clouds associated with bimodal high-resolution CCN spectra from the DRI CCN spectrometer compared to clouds associated with unimodal CCN spectra (not cloud processed). Here we show that CCN spectral shape (bimodal or unimodal) affects all aspects of stratus cloud microphysics and drizzle. Panel A shows mean differential cloud droplet spectra that have been divided according to traditional slopes, k, of the 131 measured CCN spectra in the Marine Stratus/Stratocumulus Experiment (MASE) off the Central California coast. K is generally high within the supersaturation, S, range of stratus clouds (< 0.5%). Because cloud processing decreases Sc of some particles, it reduces k. Panel A shows higher concentrations of small cloud droplets apparently grown on lower k CCN than clouds grown on higher k CCN. At small droplet sizes the concentrations follow the k order of the legend, black, red, green, blue (lowest to highest k). Above 13 µm diameter the lines cross and the hierarchy reverses so that blue (highest k) has the highest concentrations followed by green, red and black (lowest k). This reversed hierarchy continues into the drizzle size range (panel B) where the most drizzle drops, Nd, are in clouds grown on the least cloud-processed CCN (blue), while clouds grown on the most processed CCN (black) have the lowest Nd. Suppression of stratus cloud drizzle by cloud processing is an additional 2nd indirect aerosol effect (IAE) that along with the enhancement of 1st IAE by higher Nc (panel A) are above and beyond original IAE. However, further similar analysis is needed in other cloud regimes to determine if MASE was

  11. Community Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marinos, Alexandros; Briscoe, Gerard

    Cloud Computing is rising fast, with its data centres growing at an unprecedented rate. However, this has come with concerns over privacy, efficiency at the expense of resilience, and environmental sustainability, because of the dependence on Cloud vendors such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Our response is an alternative model for the Cloud conceptualisation, providing a paradigm for Clouds in the community, utilising networked personal computers for liberation from the centralised vendor model. Community Cloud Computing (C3) offers an alternative architecture, created by combing the Cloud with paradigms from Grid Computing, principles from Digital Ecosystems, and sustainability from Green Computing, while remaining true to the original vision of the Internet. It is more technically challenging than Cloud Computing, having to deal with distributed computing issues, including heterogeneous nodes, varying quality of service, and additional security constraints. However, these are not insurmountable challenges, and with the need to retain control over our digital lives and the potential environmental consequences, it is a challenge we must pursue.

  12. Static Mechanical Loading Influences the Expression of Extracellular Matrix and Cell Adhesion Proteins in Vaginal Cells Derived From Premenopausal Women With Severe Pelvic Organ Prolapse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kufaishi, Hala; Alarab, May; Drutz, Harold; Lye, Stephen; Shynlova, Oksana

    2016-08-01

    Primary human vaginal cells derived from women with severe pelvic organ prolapse (POP-HVCs) demonstrate altered cellular characteristics as compared to cells derived from asymptomatic women (control-HVCs). Using computer-controllable Flexcell stretch unit, we examined whether POP-HVCs react differently to mechanical loading as compared to control-HVCs by the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) components, cell-ECM adhesion proteins, and ECM degrading and maturating enzymes. Vaginal tissue biopsies from premenopausal patients with Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification System stage ≥3 (n = 8) and asymptomatic controls (n = 7) were collected during vaginal hysterectomy or repair. Human vaginal cells were isolated by enzymatic digestion, seeded on collagen (COLI)-coated plates, and stretched (24 hours, 25% elongation). Total RNA was extracted, and 84 genes were screened using Human ECM and Adhesion Molecules polymerase chain reaction array; selected genes were verified by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Stretch-conditioned media (SCM) were collected and analyzed by protein array, immunoblotting, and zymography. In mechanically stretched control-HVCs, transcript levels of integrins (ITGA1, ITGA4, ITGAV, and ITGB1) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 2, 8, and 13 were downregulated (P SCM from POP-HVCs compared to control-HVCs. Primary human vaginal cells derived from women with severe pelvic organ prolapse and control-HVCs react differentially to in vitro mechanical stretch. Risk factors that induce stretch may alter ECM composition and cell-ECM interaction in pelvic floor tissue leading to the abatement of pelvic organ support and subsequent POP development. © The Author(s) 2016.

  13. Slow Cooling in Low Metallicity Clouds: An Origin of Globular Cluster Bimodality?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, Ricardo; Bryan, Greg L.

    2018-05-01

    We explore the relative role of small-scale fragmentation and global collapse in low-metallicity clouds, pointing out that in such clouds the cooling time may be longer than the dynamical time, allowing the cloud to collapse globally before it can fragment. This, we suggest, may help to explain the formation of the low-metallicity globular cluster population, since such dense stellar systems need a large amount of gas to be collected in a small region (without significant feedback during the collapse). To explore this further, we carry out numerical simulations of low-metallicity Bonner-Ebert stable gas clouds, demonstrating that there exists a critical metallicity (between 0.001 and 0.01 Z⊙) below which the cloud collapses globally without fragmentation. We also run simulations including a background radiative heating source, showing that this can also produce clouds that do not fragment, and that the critical metallicity - which can exceed the no-radiation case - increases with the heating rate.

  14. A review of observations of organic matter in fogs and clouds: Origin, processing and fate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herckes, Pierre; Valsaraj, Kalliat T.; Collett, Jeffrey L.

    2013-10-01

    While fog and cloud composition has been studied for decades, most of the research was limited to inorganic species and fog acidity. Recently the focus has shifted towards organic matter in the atmospheric aqueous phase of fogs and clouds: its origin, reactivity and fate. An impressive number of fog and cloud chemistry observational studies have been performed over the last decade throughout the world. In the present work we will review the state of knowledge of atmospheric organic matter processing by fogs, with a focus on field observations. We start by reviewing observational studies in general and then discuss our knowledge on the occurrence of organic matter in fogs, its solubility, characterization and molecular speciation. Organic carbon concentrations can vary widely from approximately 1 mg C/L in remote marine environments to more than 100 mg C/L in polluted radiation fogs, accounting for a substantial part of fogwater solutes. The carbonaceous material can enter the droplets from the gas and particle phase and the scavenging behavior of fogs will be detailed. Observational studies showed evidence of aqueous phase transformation of organic material, in particular secondary organic aerosol (SOA) generation, in fog. Recent observations of biological material in fog suggest also an impact of biological processing within the droplets on fog organic matter. The review will end with a discussion of the impact of fog on the deposition fluxes of organic material and hence its atmospheric lifetime.

  15. SPECTRAL LINE SURVEY TOWARD MOLECULAR CLOUDS IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nishimura, Yuri; Watanabe, Yoshimasa; Yamamoto, Satoshi [Department of Physics, the University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033 (Japan); Shimonishi, Takashi [Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Aramakiazaaoba 6-3, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8578 (Japan); Sakai, Nami [RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan); Aikawa, Yuri [Center for Computational Sciences, The University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1, Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577 (Japan); Kawamura, Akiko [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8588 (Japan)

    2016-02-20

    Spectral line survey observations of seven molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have been conducted in the 3 mm band with the Mopra 22 m telescope to reveal chemical compositions in low metallicity conditions. Spectral lines of fundamental species such as CS, SO, CCH, HCN, HCO{sup +}, and HNC are detected in addition to those of CO and {sup 13}CO, while CH{sub 3}OH is not detected in any source and N{sub 2}H{sup +} is marginally detected in two sources. The molecular-cloud scale (10 pc scale) chemical composition is found to be similar among the seven sources regardless of different star formation activities, and hence, it represents the chemical composition characteristic of the LMC without influences by star formation activities. In comparison with chemical compositions of Galactic sources, the characteristic features are (1) deficient N-bearing molecules, (2) abundant CCH, and (3) deficient CH{sub 3}OH. Feature (1) is due to a lower elemental abundance of nitrogen in the LMC, whereas features (2) and (3) seem to originate from extended photodissociation regions and warmer temperature in cloud peripheries due to a lower abundance of dust grains in the low metallicity condition. In spite of general resemblance of chemical abundances among the seven sources, the CS/HCO{sup +} and SO/HCO{sup +} ratios are found to be slightly higher in a quiescent molecular cloud. An origin of this trend is discussed in relation to possible depletion of sulfur along the molecular cloud formation.

  16. Star clouds of Magellan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tucker, W.

    1981-01-01

    The Magellanic Clouds are two irregular galaxies belonging to the local group which the Milky Way belongs to. By studying the Clouds, astronomers hope to gain insight into the origin and composition of the Milky Way. The overall structure and dynamics of the Clouds are clearest when studied in radio region of the spectrum. One benefit of directly observing stellar luminosities in the Clouds has been the discovery of the period-luminosity relation. Also, the Clouds are a splendid laboratory for studying stellar evolution. It is believed that both Clouds may be in the very early stage in the development of a regular, symmetric galaxy. This raises a paradox because some of the stars in the star clusters of the Clouds are as old as the oldest stars in our galaxy. An explanation for this is given. The low velocity of the Clouds with respect to the center of the Milky Way shows they must be bound to it by gravity. Theories are given on how the Magellanic Clouds became associated with the galaxy. According to current ideas the Clouds orbits will decay and they will spiral into the Galaxy

  17. Light-element nucleosynthesis in a molecular cloud interacting with a supernova remnant and the origin of beryllium-10 in the protosolar nebula

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tatischeff, Vincent; Duprat, Jean; De Séréville, Nicolas

    2014-01-01

    density of about 1 H-atom cm –3 , and eventually interacted with the presolar molecular cloud only during the radiative stage. This model naturally provides an explanation for the injection of other short-lived radionuclides of stellar origin into the cold presolar molecular cloud ( 26 Al, 41 Ca, and 36 Cl) and is in agreement with the solar system originating from the collapse of a molecular cloud shocked by a supernova blast wave.

  18. Sulfur isotope ratios and the origins of the aerosols and cloud droplets in California stratus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ludwig, F.L.

    1976-01-01

    Marine aerosols often have sulfur-to-chloride ratios greater than that found in seawater. Sulfur isotope ratios ( 34 S/ 32 S) were measured in aerosol and cloud droplet samples collected in the San Francisco Bay Area in an attempt to understand the processes that produce the observed sulfur-to-chloride ratios. Seawater sulfur usually has very high sulfur isotope ratios: fossil fuel sulfur tends to have smaller isotope ratios and sulfur of bacteriogenic origin still smaller. Samples collected in unpolluted marine air over the hills south of San Francisco had sulfur ratios that were significantly lower than the values for samples collected in nearby areas that were subject to urban pollution. The highest sulfur isotope ratios were found in the offshore seawater. The results suggest bacteriogenic origins, of the marine air sulfur aerosol material. The low isotope ratios in the marine air cannot be explained as a mixture of seawater sulfur and pollutant sulfur, because both tend to have higher isotope ratios. (Auth.)

  19. Sahara Dust Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Dust Particles Click on the image for Quicktime movie from 7/15-7/24 A continent-sized cloud of hot air and dust originating from the Sahara Desert crossed the Atlantic Ocean and headed towards Florida and the Caribbean. A Saharan Air Layer, or SAL, forms when dry air and dust rise from Africa's west coast and ride the trade winds above the Atlantic Ocean. These dust clouds are not uncommon, especially during the months of July and August. They start when weather patterns called tropical waves pick up dust from the desert in North Africa, carry it a couple of miles into the atmosphere and drift westward. In a sequence of images created by data acquired by the Earth-orbiting Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ranging from July 15 through July 24, we see the distribution of the cloud in the atmosphere as it swirls off of Africa and heads across the ocean to the west. Using the unique silicate spectral signatures of dust in the thermal infrared, AIRS can detect the presence of dust in the atmosphere day or night. This detection works best if there are no clouds present on top of the dust; when clouds are present, they can interfere with the signal, making it much harder to detect dust as in the case of July 24, 2005. In the Quicktime movie, the scale at the bottom of the images shows +1 for dust definitely detected, and ranges down to -1 for no dust detected. The plots are averaged over a number of AIRS observations falling within grid boxes, and so it is possible to obtain fractional numbers. [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Total Water Vapor in the Atmosphere Around the Dust Cloud Click on the image for Quicktime movie The dust cloud is contained within a dry adiabatic layer which originates over the Sahara Desert. This Saharan Air Layer (SAL) advances Westward over the Atlantic Ocean, overriding the cool, moist air nearer the surface. This burst of very dry air is visible in the AIRS retrieved total water

  20. Vent Complexes above Dolerite Sills in Phanerozoic LIPs: Implications for Proterozoic LIPs and IOCG Deposits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ernst, R. E.; Bleeker, W.; Svensen, H.; Planke, S.; Polozov, A. G.

    2009-05-01

    New insights into the origin of IOCG (iron oxide copper gold) deposits [e.g., 1, 2, 3] follow from recent studies of Phanerozoic Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). Detailed seismic studies of the 62-55 Ma North Atlantic Igneous Province and complementary studies in the 183 Ma Karoo and 250 Ma Siberian LIPs reveal thousands of hydrothermal vent complexes (HVCs). Up to 5-10 km across at the paleosurface, these vents connect to underlying dolerite sills at paleodepths of up to 8 km [4, 5, 6, 7]. They originate from explosive release of gases generated when thick sills (>50 m) are emplaced into volatile-rich but low-permeability sedimentary strata. HVCs are phreatomagmatic in origin. Their architecture, economic potential for IOCG-type deposits, and effects on climate strongly depend on the type of host rocks (black shales at Karoo and evaporites at Siberian LIPs) and its fluid (brines) saturation at the time of emplacement. About 250 HVCs associated with the Siberian LIP are mineralized having magnetite in the matrix. Some are being mined for Fe (Korshunovskoe and Rudnogorskoe), but their economic potential for copper and gold mineralization is understudied. These observations from the Phanerozoic LIP record suggest that HVCs should also be an essential component of sill provinces associated with Proterozoic LIPs, with a potential for causing major climatic shifts and IOCG-type deposits, particularly if the host sediments include substantial evaporites. Two examples are discussed here. The 725 Ma Franklin LIP covers 1.1 Mkm2 in northern Canada [8]; in the Minto Inlier of Victoria Island, this event comprises volcanics, sills, and breccia pipes [9, 10]. The breccia pipes appear identical to HVCs and, furthermore, the presence of evaporites in the host sediments of the Shaler Supergroup suggests (based on the Siberian trap example) the potential for IOCG-type mineralization. Could 1.59 Ga sills, as exemplified by the exposed Western Channel Diabase sills on the eastern

  1. Experimental project - Cloud chamber

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nour, Elena; Quinchard, Gregory; Soudon, Paul

    2015-01-01

    This document reports an academic experimental project dealing with the general concepts of radioactivity and their application to the cloud room experiment. The author first recalls the history of the design and development of a cloud room, and some definitions and characteristics of cosmic radiation, and proposes a description of the principle and physics of a cloud room. The second part is a theoretical one, and addresses the involved particles, the origins of electrons, and issues related to the transfer of energy (Bremsstrahlung effect, Bragg peak). The third part reports the experimental work with the assessment of a cloud droplet radius, the identification of a trace for each particle (alphas and electrons), and the study of the magnetic field deviation

  2. Southeast Atlantic Cloud Properties in a Multivariate Statistical Model - How Relevant is Air Mass History for Local Cloud Properties?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Julia; Cermak, Jan; Andersen, Hendrik

    2017-04-01

    This study aims at untangling the impacts of external dynamics and local conditions on cloud properties in the Southeast Atlantic (SEA) by combining satellite and reanalysis data using multivariate statistics. The understanding of clouds and their determinants at different scales is important for constraining the Earth's radiative budget, and thus prominent in climate-system research. In this study, SEA stratocumulus cloud properties are observed not only as the result of local environmental conditions but also as affected by external dynamics and spatial origins of air masses entering the study area. In order to assess to what extent cloud properties are impacted by aerosol concentration, air mass history, and meteorology, a multivariate approach is conducted using satellite observations of aerosol and cloud properties (MODIS, SEVIRI), information on aerosol species composition (MACC) and meteorological context (ERA-Interim reanalysis). To account for the often-neglected but important role of air mass origin, information on air mass history based on HYSPLIT modeling is included in the statistical model. This multivariate approach is intended to lead to a better understanding of the physical processes behind observed stratocumulus cloud properties in the SEA.

  3. Aerosol effects on cloud water amounts were successfully simulated by a global cloud-system resolving model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Yousuke; Goto, Daisuke; Michibata, Takuro; Suzuki, Kentaroh; Takemura, Toshihiko; Tomita, Hirofumi; Nakajima, Teruyuki

    2018-03-07

    Aerosols affect climate by modifying cloud properties through their role as cloud condensation nuclei or ice nuclei, called aerosol-cloud interactions. In most global climate models (GCMs), the aerosol-cloud interactions are represented by empirical parameterisations, in which the mass of cloud liquid water (LWP) is assumed to increase monotonically with increasing aerosol loading. Recent satellite observations, however, have yielded contradictory results: LWP can decrease with increasing aerosol loading. This difference implies that GCMs overestimate the aerosol effect, but the reasons for the difference are not obvious. Here, we reproduce satellite-observed LWP responses using a global simulation with explicit representations of cloud microphysics, instead of the parameterisations. Our analyses reveal that the decrease in LWP originates from the response of evaporation and condensation processes to aerosol perturbations, which are not represented in GCMs. The explicit representation of cloud microphysics in global scale modelling reduces the uncertainty of climate prediction.

  4. Origin of stars and structure of galaxies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palous, J.

    1988-01-01

    The substance is described of molecular clouds from interstellar mass and the origin, process and termination of the gravitational collapse are described which lead to the creation of stars. The probability is described of the origin of high-mass and lower-mass stars. The connection is discussed between the creation of stars, molecular clouds and the structure of galaxies. (E.S.). 7 figs

  5. The Magellanic Stream and debris clouds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    For, B.-Q.; Staveley-Smith, L. [International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009 (Australia); Matthews, D. [Centre for Materials and Surface Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086 (Australia); McClure-Griffiths, N. M., E-mail: biqing.for@icrar.org [CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Epping, NSW 1710 (Australia)

    2014-09-01

    We present a study of the discrete clouds and filaments in the Magellanic Stream using a new high-resolution survey of neutral hydrogen (H I) conducted with the H75 array of the Australia Telescope Compact Array, complemented by single-dish data from the Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey. From the individual and combined data sets, we have compiled a catalog of 251 clouds and listed their basic parameters, including a morphological description useful for identifying cloud interactions. We find an unexpectedly large number of head-tail clouds in the region. The implication for the formation mechanism and evolution is discussed. The filaments appear to originate entirely from the Small Magellanic Cloud and extend into the northern end of the Magellanic Bridge.

  6. Molecular clouds toward the super star cluster NGC 3603; possible evidence for a cloud-cloud collision in triggering the cluster formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fukui, Y.; Ohama, A.; Hanaoka, N.; Furukawa, N.; Torii, K.; Hasegawa, K.; Fukuda, T.; Soga, S.; Moribe, N.; Kuroda, Y.; Hayakawa, T.; Kuwahara, T.; Yamamoto, H.; Okuda, T. [Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan); Dawson, J. R. [School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus, Churchill Avenue, Sandy Bay, TAS 7005 (Australia); Mizuno, N.; Kawamura, A. [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan); Onishi, T.; Maezawa, H. [Department of Astrophysics, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan); Mizuno, A., E-mail: fukui@a.phys.nagoya-u.ac.jp [Solar-terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601 (Japan)

    2014-01-01

    We present new large field observations of molecular clouds with NANTEN2 toward the super star cluster NGC 3603 in the transitions {sup 12}CO(J = 2-1, J = 1-0) and {sup 13}CO(J = 2-1, J = 1-0). We suggest that two molecular clouds at 13 km s{sup –1} and 28 km s{sup –1} are associated with NGC 3603 as evidenced by higher temperatures toward the H II region, as well as morphological correspondence. The mass of the clouds is too small to gravitationally bind them, given their relative motion of ∼20 km s{sup –1}. We suggest that the two clouds collided with each other 1 Myr ago to trigger the formation of the super star cluster. This scenario is able to explain the origin of the highest mass stellar population in the cluster, which is as young as 1 Myr and is segregated within the central sub-pc of the cluster. This is the second super star cluster along with Westerlund 2 where formation may have been triggered by a cloud-cloud collision.

  7. THE MAGELLANIC INTER-CLOUD PROJECT (MAGIC). I. EVIDENCE FOR INTERMEDIATE-AGE STELLAR POPULATIONS IN BETWEEN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Noeel, N. E. D.; Read, J. I. [ETH Zuerich, Institute for Astronomy, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093 Zuerich (Switzerland); Conn, B. C.; Rix, H.-W. [Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg (Germany); Carrera, R. [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, C/Via Lactea s/n, E-38200, La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Dolphin, A., E-mail: noelia@phys.ethz.ch [Raytheon Company, P.O. Box 11337, Tucson, AZ 85734-1337 (United States)

    2013-05-10

    The origin of the gas in between the Magellanic Clouds (MCs)-known as the ''Magellanic Bridge'' (MB)-is puzzling. Numerical simulations suggest that the MB formed from tidally stripped gas and stars in a recent interaction between the MCs. However, the apparent lack of stripped intermediate- or old-age stars associated with the MB is at odds with this picture. In this paper, we present the first results from the MAGellanic Inter-Cloud program (MAGIC) aimed at probing the stellar populations in the inter-Cloud region. We present observations of the stellar populations in two large fields located in between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), secured using the WFI camera on the 2.2 m telescope in La Silla. Using a synthetic color-magnitude diagram technique, we present the first quantitative evidence for the presence of intermediate-age and old stars in the inter-Cloud region. The intermediate-age stars-which make up {approx}28% of all stars in the region-are not present in fields at a similar distance from the SMC in a direction pointing away from the LMC. This provides potential evidence that these intermediate-age stars could have been tidally stripped from the SMC. However, spectroscopic studies will be needed to confirm or rule out the tidal origin for the inter-Cloud gas and stars.

  8. Privacy and legal issues in cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Weber, Rolf H

    2015-01-01

    Adopting a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, this book focuses on emerging and innovative attempts to tackle privacy and legal issues in cloud computing, such as personal data privacy, security and intellectual property protection. Leading international academics and practitioners in the fields of law and computer science examine the specific legal implications of cloud computing pertaining to jurisdiction, biomedical practice and information ownership. This collection offers original and critical responses to the rising challenges posed by cloud computing.

  9. Tharsis Limb Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Annotated image of Tharsis Limb Cloud 7 September 2005 This composite of red and blue Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired on 6 July 2005 shows an isolated water ice cloud extending more than 30 kilometers (more than 18 miles) above the martian surface. Clouds such as this are common in late spring over the terrain located southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. Arsia Mons is the dark, oval feature near the limb, just to the left of the 'T' in the 'Tharsis Montes' label. The dark, nearly circular feature above the 'S' in 'Tharsis' is the volcano, Pavonis Mons, and the other dark circular feature, above and to the right of 's' in 'Montes,' is Ascraeus Mons. Illumination is from the left/lower left. Season: Northern Autumn/Southern Spring

  10. Comparison of cloud optical depth and cloud mask applying BRDF model-based background surface reflectance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, H. W.; Yeom, J. M.; Woo, S. H.

    2017-12-01

    Over the thin cloud region, satellite can simultaneously detect the reflectance from thin clouds and land surface. Since the mixed reflectance is not the exact cloud information, the background surface reflectance should be eliminated to accurately distinguish thin cloud such as cirrus. In the previous research, Kim et al (2017) was developed the cloud masking algorithm using the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), which is one of significant instruments for Communication, Ocean, and Meteorology Satellite (COMS). Although GOCI has 8 spectral channels including visible and near infra-red spectral ranges, the cloud masking has quantitatively reasonable result when comparing with MODIS cloud mask (Collection 6 MYD35). Especially, we noticed that this cloud masking algorithm is more specialized in thin cloud detections through the validation with Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) data. Because this cloud masking method was concentrated on eliminating background surface effects from the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance. Applying the difference between TOA reflectance and the bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model-based background surface reflectance, cloud areas both thick cloud and thin cloud can be discriminated without infra-red channels which were mostly used for detecting clouds. Moreover, when the cloud mask result was utilized as the input data when simulating BRDF model and the optimized BRDF model-based surface reflectance was used for the optimized cloud masking, the probability of detection (POD) has higher value than POD of the original cloud mask. In this study, we examine the correlation between cloud optical depth (COD) and its cloud mask result. Cloud optical depths mostly depend on the cloud thickness, the characteristic of contents, and the size of cloud contents. COD ranges from less than 0.1 for thin clouds to over 1000 for the huge cumulus due to scattering by droplets. With

  11. New Substrate-Guided Method of Predicting Slow Conducting Isthmuses of Ventricular Tachycardia: Preliminary Analysis to the Combined Use of Voltage Limit Adjustment and Fast-Fourier Transform Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuroki, Kenji; Nogami, Akihiko; Igarashi, Miyako; Masuda, Keita; Kowase, Shinya; Kurosaki, Kenji; Komatsu, Yuki; Naruse, Yoshihisa; Machino, Takeshi; Yamasaki, Hiro; Xu, Dongzhu; Murakoshi, Nobuyuki; Sekiguchi, Yukio; Aonuma, Kazutaka

    2018-04-01

    Several conducting channels of ventricular tachycardia (VT) can be identified using voltage limit adjustment (VLA) of substrate mapping. However, the sensitivity or specificity to predict a VT isthmus is not high by using VLA alone. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the combined use of VLA and fast-Fourier transform analysis to predict VT isthmuses. VLA and fast-Fourier transform analyses of local ventricular bipolar electrograms during sinus rhythm were performed in 9 postinfarction patients who underwent catheter ablation for a total of 13 monomorphic VTs. Relatively higher voltage areas on an electroanatomical map were defined as high voltage channels (HVCs), and relatively higher fast-Fourier transform areas were defined as high-frequency channels (HFCs). HVCs were classified into full or partial HVCs (the entire or >30% of HVC can be detectable, respectively). Twelve full HVCs were identified in 7 of 9 patients. HFCs were located on 7 of 12 full HVCs. Five VT isthmuses (71%) were included in the 7 full HVC+/HFC+ sites, whereas no VT isthmus was found in the 5 full HVC+/HFC- sites. HFCs were identical to 9 of 16 partial HVCs. Eight VT isthmuses (89%) were included in the 9 partial HVC+/HFC+ sites, whereas no VT isthmus was found in the 7 partial HVC+/HFC- sites. All HVC+/HFC+ sites predicted VT isthmus with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 80%. Combined use of VLA and fast-Fourier transform analysis may be a useful method to detect VT isthmuses. © 2018 American Heart Association, Inc.

  12. Definition of "banner clouds" based on time lapse movies

    OpenAIRE

    Schween , J. H.; Kuettner , J.; Reinert , D.; Reuder , J.; Wirth , V.

    2007-01-01

    International audience; Banner clouds appear on the leeward side of a mountain and resemble a banner or a flag. This article provides a comprehensive definition of "banner clouds". It is based primarily on an extensive collection of time lapse movies, but previous attempts at an explanation of this phenomenon are also taken into account. The following ingredients are considered essential: the cloud must be attached to the mountain but not appear on the windward side; the cloud must originate ...

  13. Global model comparison of heterogeneous ice nucleation parameterizations in mixed phase clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, Yuxing; Penner, Joyce E.

    2012-04-01

    A new aerosol-dependent mixed phase cloud parameterization for deposition/condensation/immersion (DCI) ice nucleation and one for contact freezing are compared to the original formulations in a coupled general circulation model and aerosol transport model. The present-day cloud liquid and ice water fields and cloud radiative forcing are analyzed and compared to observations. The new DCI freezing parameterization changes the spatial distribution of the cloud water field. Significant changes are found in the cloud ice water fraction and in the middle cloud fractions. The new DCI freezing parameterization predicts less ice water path (IWP) than the original formulation, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. The smaller IWP leads to a less efficient Bergeron-Findeisen process resulting in a larger liquid water path, shortwave cloud forcing, and longwave cloud forcing. It is found that contact freezing parameterizations have a greater impact on the cloud water field and radiative forcing than the two DCI freezing parameterizations that we compared. The net solar flux at top of atmosphere and net longwave flux at the top of the atmosphere change by up to 8.73 and 3.52 W m-2, respectively, due to the use of different DCI and contact freezing parameterizations in mixed phase clouds. The total climate forcing from anthropogenic black carbon/organic matter in mixed phase clouds is estimated to be 0.16-0.93 W m-2using the aerosol-dependent parameterizations. A sensitivity test with contact ice nuclei concentration in the original parameterization fit to that recommended by Young (1974) gives results that are closer to the new contact freezing parameterization.

  14. A survey of high-velocity H I in the Cetus region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, R.J.

    1982-01-01

    The region 02sup(h) 16sup(m) 0 0 surrounding the Cohen and Davies complex of high-velocity clouds has been surveyed in the 21-cm line of H I using the Jodrell Bank MK II radio telescope (beamwidth 31 x 34 arcmin). The high-velocity cloud complex was sampled every 2sup(m) in right ascension and every 0 0 .5 in declination. The observations cover a velocity range of 2100 km s -1 with a resolution of 7.3 km s -1 and an rms noise level of 0.025 K. No HVCs were found outside the velocity range -400 to +100 km s -1 . The data are presented on microfiche as a set of contour maps showing 21-cm line temperature as a function of declination and radial velocity at constant values of right ascension. Discussion is centred on the very-high-velocity clouds at velocities of -360 to -190 km s -1 . It is concluded that they are probably debris from the tidal interaction between our Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. (author)

  15. ID based cryptography for secure cloud data storage

    OpenAIRE

    Kaaniche , Nesrine; Boudguiga , Aymen; Laurent , Maryline

    2013-01-01

    International audience; This paper addresses the security issues of storing sensitive data in a cloud storage service and the need for users to trust the commercial cloud providers. It proposes a cryptographic scheme for cloud storage, based on an original usage of ID-Based Cryptography. Our solution has several advantages. First, it provides secrecy for encrypted data which are stored in public servers. Second, it offers controlled data access and sharing among users, so that unauthorized us...

  16. Aerosols, clouds, and precipitation in the North Atlantic trades observed during the Barbados aerosol cloud experiment – Part 1: Distributions and variability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Jung

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Shallow marine cumulus clouds are by far the most frequently observed cloud type over the Earth's oceans; but they are poorly understood and have not been investigated as extensively as stratocumulus clouds. This study describes and discusses the properties and variations of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation associated with shallow marine cumulus clouds observed in the North Atlantic trades during a field campaign (Barbados Aerosol Cloud Experiment- BACEX, March–April 2010, which took place off Barbados where African dust periodically affects the region. The principal observing platform was the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS Twin Otter (TO research aircraft, which was equipped with standard meteorological instruments, a zenith pointing cloud radar and probes that measured aerosol, cloud, and precipitation characteristics.The temporal variation and vertical distribution of aerosols observed from the 15 flights, which included the most intense African dust event during all of 2010 in Barbados, showed a wide range of aerosol conditions. During dusty periods, aerosol concentrations increased substantially in the size range between 0.5 and 10 µm (diameter, particles that are large enough to be effective giant cloud condensation nuclei (CCN. The 10-day back trajectories showed three distinct air masses with distinct vertical structures associated with air masses originating in the Atlantic (typical maritime air mass with relatively low aerosol concentrations in the marine boundary layer, Africa (Saharan air layer, and mid-latitudes (continental pollution plumes. Despite the large differences in the total mass loading and the origin of the aerosols, the overall shapes of the aerosol particle size distributions were consistent, with the exception of the transition period.The TO was able to sample many clouds at various phases of growth. Maximum cloud depth observed was less than ∼ 3 km, while most

  17. Radiative Importance of Aerosol-Cloud Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsay, Si-Chee

    1999-01-01

    Aerosol particles are input into the troposphere by biomass burning, among other sources. These aerosol palls cover large expanses of the earth's surface. Aerosols may directly scatter solar radiation back to space, thus increasing the earth's albedo and act to cool the earth's surface and atmosphere. Aerosols also contribute to the earth's energy balance indirectly. Hygroscopic aerosol act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and thus affects cloud properties. In 1977, Twomey theorized that additional available CCN would create smaller but more numerous cloud droplets in a cloud with a given amount of liquid water. This in turn would increase the cloud albedo which would scatter additional radiation back to space and create a similar cooling pattern as the direct aerosol effect. Estimates of the magnitude of the aerosol indirect effect on a global scale range from 0.0 to -4.8 W/sq m. Thus the indirect effect can be of comparable magnitude and opposite in sign to the estimates of global greenhouse gas forcing Aerosol-cloud interaction is not a one-way process. Just as aerosols have an influence on clouds through the cloud microphysics, clouds have an influence on aerosols. Cloud droplets are solutions of liquid water and CCN, now dissolved. When the cloud droplet evaporates it leaves behind an aerosol particle. This new particle does not have to have the same properties as the original CCN. In fact, studies show that aerosol particles that result from cloud processing are larger in size than the original CCN. Optical properties of aerosol particles are dependent on the size of the particles. Larger particles have a smaller backscattering fraction, and thus less incoming solar radiation will be backscattered to space if the aerosol particles are larger. Therefore, we see that aerosols and clouds modify each other to influence the radiative balance of the earth. Understanding and quantifying the spatial and seasonal patterns of the aerosol indirect forcing may have

  18. Molecular clouds in Orion and Monoceros

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maddalena, R.J.

    1986-01-01

    About one-eighth of a well-sampled 850 deg 2 region of Orion and Monoceros, extending from the Taurus dark cloud complex to the CMa OB 1 association, shows emission at the frequency of the J = 1 → 0 transition of CO coming from either local clouds (d 8 from the galactic plane or from more distant objects located within a few degrees of the plane and well outside the solar circle. Local giant molecular clouds associated with Orion A and B have enhanced temperatures and densities near their western edges possibly due to compression of molecular gas by a high pressure region created by the cumulative effects of ∼10 supernovae that occurred in the Orion OB association. Another giant molecular cloud found to be associated with Mon R2 may be related to the Orion clouds. Two filamentary clouds (one possible 200 pc long but only 3-10 pc wide) were found that may represent a new class of object; magnetic fields probably play a role in confining these filaments. An expanding ring of clouds concentric with the H II region S 264 and its ionizing 08 star λ Ori was also investigated, and a possible evolutionary sequence for the ring is given in detail: the clouds probably constitute fragments of the original cloud from which λ Ori formed, the gas pressure of the H II region and the rocket effect having disrupted the cloud and accelerated the fragments to their present velocities

  19. Lidar Point Cloud - USGS National Map 3DEP Downloadable Data Collection

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — This data collection consists of Lidar Point Cloud (LPC) projects as provided to the USGS. These point cloud files contain all the original lidar points collected,...

  20. Origin of the Earth and planets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Safronov, V.S.; Ruskol, E.L.

    1982-01-01

    The present state of the Schmidt hypothesis on planets formation by combining cold solid particles and bodies in the protoplanet dust cloud is briefly outlined in a popular form. The most debatable problems of the planet cosmogony: formation of and processes in a protoplanet cloud, results of analytical evaluations and numerical simulation of origin of the Earth and planets-giants are discussed [ru

  1. Definition of "banner clouds" based on time lapse movies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. H. Schween

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Banner clouds appear on the leeward side of a mountain and resemble a banner or a flag. This article provides a comprehensive definition of "banner clouds". It is based primarily on an extensive collection of time lapse movies, but previous attempts at an explanation of this phenomenon are also taken into account. The following ingredients are considered essential: the cloud must be attached to the mountain but not appear on the windward side; the cloud must originate from condensation of water vapour contained in the air (rather than consist of blowing snow; the cloud must be persistent; and the cloud must not be of convective nature. The definition is illustrated and discussed with the help of still images and time lapse movies taken at Mount Zugspitze in the Bavarian Alps.

  2. Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud/Virtual Open Campus Quick-Start Guide

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    The GIFT Account allows users to log into GIFT Cloud , manage their personal storage in GIFT Cloud , download GIFT Local, and access resources...ARL-CR-0796 ● MAR 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud / Virtual Open...originator. ARL-CR-0796 ● MAR 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud / Virtual

  3. On origin of stellar clusters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tovmasyan, G.M.

    1977-01-01

    The ratios of the gas component of the mass of young stellar clusters to their stellar mass are considered. They change by more than four orders from one cluster to another. The results are in direct contradiction with the hypothesis of formation of cluster stars from a preliminarily existing gas cloud by its condensation, and they favour the Ambartsumian hypothesis of the joint origin of stars and gas clouds from superdense protostellar matter

  4. Nimbus-3/HRIR Level 2 Earth's Cloud Cover and Temperature of Cloud Tops and Terrain Features V001

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Nimbus High Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) was originally designed to perform two major functions: First, to map the Earth's cloud cover at night to...

  5. THE ORIGIN OF NEUTRAL HYDROGEN CLOUDS IN NEARBY GALAXY GROUPS: EXPLORING THE RANGE OF GALAXY INTERACTIONS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chynoweth, Katie M.; Polisensky, Emil; Holley-Bockelmann, Kelly; Langston, Glen I.

    2011-01-01

    We combine high-resolution N-body simulations with deep observations of neutral hydrogen (H I) in nearby galaxy groups in order to explore two well-known theories of H I cloud formation: H I stripping by galaxy interactions and dark-matter minihalos with embedded H I gas. This paper presents new data from three galaxy groups-Canes Venatici I, NGC 672, and NGC 45-and assembles data from our previous galaxy group campaign to generate a rich H I cloud archive to compare to our simulated data. We find no H I clouds in the Canes Venatici I, NGC 672, or NGC 45 galaxy groups. We conclude that H I clouds in our detection space are most likely to be generated through recent, strong galaxy interactions. We find no evidence of H I clouds associated with dark-matter halos above M HI ∼ 10 6 M sun , within ±700 km s -1 of galaxies, and within 50 kpc projected distance of galaxies.

  6. Cloud Infrastructure & Applications - CloudIA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sulistio, Anthony; Reich, Christoph; Doelitzscher, Frank

    The idea behind Cloud Computing is to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Services and Software-as-a-Service over the Internet on an easy pay-per-use business model. To harness the potentials of Cloud Computing for e-Learning and research purposes, and to small- and medium-sized enterprises, the Hochschule Furtwangen University establishes a new project, called Cloud Infrastructure & Applications (CloudIA). The CloudIA project is a market-oriented cloud infrastructure that leverages different virtualization technologies, by supporting Service-Level Agreements for various service offerings. This paper describes the CloudIA project in details and mentions our early experiences in building a private cloud using an existing infrastructure.

  7. Alone on a wide wide sea. The origin of SECCO 1, an isolated star-forming gas cloud in the Virgo cluster*†‡

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellazzini, M.; Armillotta, L.; Perina, S.; Magrini, L.; Cresci, G.; Beccari, G.; Battaglia, G.; Fraternali, F.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Martin, N. F.; Calura, F.; Ibata, R.; Coccato, L.; Testa, V.; Correnti, M.

    2018-06-01

    SECCO 1 is an extremely dark, low-mass (M⋆ ≃ 105 M⊙), star-forming stellar system lying in the low-velocity cloud (LVC) substructure of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and hosting several H II regions. Here, we review our knowledge of this remarkable system, and present the results of (a) additional analysis of our panoramic spectroscopic observations with MUSE, (b) the combined analysis of Hubble Space Telescope and MUSE data, and (c) new narrow-band observations obtained with OSIRIS@GTC to search for additional H II regions in the surroundings of the system. We provide new evidence supporting an age as young as ≲ 4 Myr for the stars that are currently ionizing the gas in SECCO 1. We identify only one new promising candidate H II region possibly associated with SECCO 1, thus confirming the extreme isolation of the system. We also identify three additional candidate pressure-supported dark clouds in Virgo among the targets of the SECCO survey. Various possible hypotheses for the nature and origin of SECCO 1 are considered and discussed, also with the help of dedicated hydrodynamical simulations showing that a hydrogen cloud with the characteristics of SECCO 1 can likely survive for ≳ 1 Gyr while travelling within the LVC Intra Cluster Medium.

  8. Formation of Massive Molecular Cloud Cores by Cloud-cloud Collision

    OpenAIRE

    Inoue, Tsuyoshi; Fukui, Yasuo

    2013-01-01

    Recent observations of molecular clouds around rich massive star clusters including NGC3603, Westerlund 2, and M20 revealed that the formation of massive stars could be triggered by a cloud-cloud collision. By using three-dimensional, isothermal, magnetohydrodynamics simulations with the effect of self-gravity, we demonstrate that massive, gravitationally unstable, molecular cloud cores are formed behind the strong shock waves induced by the cloud-cloud collision. We find that the massive mol...

  9. SEEDING THE FORMATION OF COLD GASEOUS CLOUDS IN MILKY WAY-SIZE HALOS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keres, Dusan; Hernquist, Lars

    2009-01-01

    We use one of the highest resolution cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations to date to demonstrate that cold gaseous clouds form around Milky Way-size galaxies. We further explore mechanisms responsible for their formation and show that a large fraction of clouds originate as a consequence of late-time filamentary 'cold mode' accretion. Here, filaments that are still colder and denser than the surrounding halo gas are not able to connect directly to galaxies, as they do at high redshift, but are instead susceptible to the combined action of cooling and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at intermediate radii within the halo leading to the production of cold, dense pressure-confined clouds, without an associated dark matter component. This process is aided through the compression of the incoming filaments by the hot halo gas and expanding shocks during the halo buildup. Our mechanism directly seeds clouds from gas with substantial local overdensity, unlike in previous models, and provides a channel for the origin of cloud complexes. These clouds can later 'rain' onto galaxies, delivering fuel for star formation. Owing to the relatively large cross-section of filaments and the net angular momentum carried by the gas, the clouds will be distributed in a modestly flattened region around a galaxy.

  10. On the origin of subvisible cirrus clouds in the tropical upper troposphere

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Reverdy

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Spaceborne lidar observations have recently revealed a previously undetected significant population of Subvisible Cirrus (SVC. We show them to be colder than −74 °, with an optical depth below 0.0015 on average. The formation and persistence over time of this new cloud population could be related to several atmospheric phenomena. In this paper, we investigate if these clouds follow the same formation mechanisms as the general tropical cirrus population (including convection and in-situ ice nucleation, or if specific nucleation sites and trace species play a role in their formation. The importance of three scenarios in the formation of the global SVC population is investigated through different approaches that include comparisons with data imaging from several spaceborne instruments and back-trajectories that document the history and behavior of air masses leading to the point in time and space where subvisible cirrus were detected. In order to simplify the study of their formation, we singled out SVC with coherent temperature histories (mean variance lower than 4 K according to back-trajectories along 5, 10 or 15 days (respectively 58, 25 and 11% of SVC. Our results suggest that external processes, including local increases in liquid and hygroscopic aerosol concentration (either through biomass burning or volcanic injection forming sulfate-based aerosols in the troposphere or the stratosphere have very limited short-term or mid-term impact on the SVC population. On the other hand, we find that ~20% of air masses leading to SVC formation interacted with convective activity 5 days before they led to cloud formation and detection, a number that climbs to 60% over 15 days. SVC formation appears especially linked to convection over Africa and Central America, more so during JJA than DJF. These results support the view that the SVC population observed by CALIOP is an extension of the general upper tropospheric ice clouds population with its extreme

  11. Coupling spectral-bin cloud microphysics with the MOSAIC aerosol model in WRF-Chem: Methodology and results for marine stratocumulus clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Wenhua; Fan, Jiwen; Easter, R. C.; Yang, Qing; Zhao, Chun; Ghan, Steven J.

    2016-09-01

    Aerosol-cloud interaction processes can be represented more physically with bin cloud microphysics relative to bulk microphysical parameterizations. However, due to computational power limitations in the past, bin cloud microphysics was often run with very simple aerosol treatments. The purpose of this study is to represent better aerosol-cloud interaction processes in the Chemistry version of Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF-Chem) at convection-permitting scales by coupling spectral-bin cloud microphysics (SBM) with the MOSAIC sectional aerosol model. A flexible interface is built that exchanges cloud and aerosol information between them. The interface contains a new bin aerosol activation approach, which replaces the treatments in the original SBM. It also includes the modified aerosol resuspension and in-cloud wet removal processes with the droplet loss tendencies and precipitation fluxes from SBM. The newly coupled system is evaluated for two marine stratocumulus cases over the Southeast Pacific Ocean with either a simplified aerosol setup or full-chemistry. We compare the aerosol activation process in the newly coupled SBM-MOSAIC against the SBM simulation without chemistry using a simplified aerosol setup, and the results show consistent activation rates. A longer time simulation reinforces that aerosol resuspension through cloud drop evaporation plays an important role in replenishing aerosols and impacts cloud and precipitation in marine stratocumulus clouds. Evaluation of the coupled SBM-MOSAIC with full-chemistry using aircraft measurements suggests that the new model works realistically for the marine stratocumulus clouds, and improves the simulation of cloud microphysical properties compared to a simulation using MOSAIC coupled with the Morrison two-moment microphysics.

  12. Electron cloud and ion effects

    CERN Document Server

    Arduini, Gianluigi

    2002-01-01

    The significant progress in the understanding and control of machine impedances has allowed obtaining beams with increasing brilliance. Dense positively charged beams generate electron clouds via gas ionization, photoemission and multipacting. The electron cloud in turn interacts with the beam and the surrounding environment originating fast coupled and single bunch instabilities, emittance blow-up, additional loads to vacuum and cryogenic systems, perturbation to beam diagnostics and feedbacks and it constitutes a serious limitation to machine performance. In a similar way high brilliance electron beams are mainly affected by positively charged ions produced by residual gas ionization. Recent observations of electron cloud build-up and its effects in present accelerators are reviewed and compared with theory and with the results of state-of-the-art computer simulations. Two-stream instabilities induced by the interaction between electron beams and ions are discussed. The implications for future accelerators ...

  13. Two-moment bulk stratiform cloud microphysics in the GFDL AM3 GCM: description, evaluation, and sensitivity tests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Salzmann

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available A new stratiform cloud scheme including a two-moment bulk microphysics module, a cloud cover parameterization allowing ice supersaturation, and an ice nucleation parameterization has been implemented into the recently developed GFDL AM3 general circulation model (GCM as part of an effort to treat aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions more realistically. Unlike the original scheme, the new scheme facilitates the study of cloud-ice-aerosol interactions via influences of dust and sulfate on ice nucleation. While liquid and cloud ice water path associated with stratiform clouds are similar for the new and the original scheme, column integrated droplet numbers and global frequency distributions (PDFs of droplet effective radii differ significantly. This difference is in part due to a difference in the implementation of the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF mechanism, which leads to a larger contribution from super-cooled droplets in the original scheme. Clouds are more likely to be either completely glaciated or liquid due to the WBF mechanism in the new scheme. Super-saturations over ice simulated with the new scheme are in qualitative agreement with observations, and PDFs of ice numbers and effective radii appear reasonable in the light of observations. Especially, the temperature dependence of ice numbers qualitatively agrees with in-situ observations. The global average long-wave cloud forcing decreases in comparison to the original scheme as expected when super-saturation over ice is allowed. Anthropogenic aerosols lead to a larger decrease in short-wave absorption (SWABS in the new model setup, but outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR decreases as well, so that the net effect of including anthropogenic aerosols on the net radiation at the top of the atmosphere (netradTOA = SWABS-OLR is of similar magnitude for the new and the original scheme.

  14. Two-moment bulk stratiform cloud microphysics in the GFDL AM3 GCM: description, evaluation, and sensitivity tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salzmann, M.; Ming, Y.; Golaz, J.-C.; Ginoux, P. A.; Morrison, H.; Gettelman, A.; Krämer, M.; Donner, L. J.

    2010-08-01

    A new stratiform cloud scheme including a two-moment bulk microphysics module, a cloud cover parameterization allowing ice supersaturation, and an ice nucleation parameterization has been implemented into the recently developed GFDL AM3 general circulation model (GCM) as part of an effort to treat aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions more realistically. Unlike the original scheme, the new scheme facilitates the study of cloud-ice-aerosol interactions via influences of dust and sulfate on ice nucleation. While liquid and cloud ice water path associated with stratiform clouds are similar for the new and the original scheme, column integrated droplet numbers and global frequency distributions (PDFs) of droplet effective radii differ significantly. This difference is in part due to a difference in the implementation of the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) mechanism, which leads to a larger contribution from super-cooled droplets in the original scheme. Clouds are more likely to be either completely glaciated or liquid due to the WBF mechanism in the new scheme. Super-saturations over ice simulated with the new scheme are in qualitative agreement with observations, and PDFs of ice numbers and effective radii appear reasonable in the light of observations. Especially, the temperature dependence of ice numbers qualitatively agrees with in-situ observations. The global average long-wave cloud forcing decreases in comparison to the original scheme as expected when super-saturation over ice is allowed. Anthropogenic aerosols lead to a larger decrease in short-wave absorption (SWABS) in the new model setup, but outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) decreases as well, so that the net effect of including anthropogenic aerosols on the net radiation at the top of the atmosphere (netradTOA = SWABS-OLR) is of similar magnitude for the new and the original scheme.

  15. Origin of comets - implications for planetary formation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weissman, P.R.; Arizona Univ., Tucson)

    1985-01-01

    Primordial and episodic theories for the origin of comets are discussed. The implications of the former type for the origin of the solar system are considered. Candidate sites for the formation of comets are compared. The possible existence of a massive inner Oort cloud is discussed

  16. Dark Targets, Aerosols, Clouds and Toys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Remer, L. A.

    2015-12-01

    Today if you use the Thomson-Reuters Science Citations Index to search for "aerosol*", across all scientific disciplines and years, with no constraints, and you sort by number of citations, you will find a 2005 paper published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences in the top 20. This is the "The MODIS Aerosol Algorithm, Products and Validation". Although I am the first author, there are in total 12 co-authors who each made a significant intellectual contribution to the paper or to the algorithm, products and validation described. This paper, that algorithm, those people lie at the heart of a lineage of scientists whose collaborations and linked individual pursuits have made a significant contribution to our understanding of radiative transfer and climate, of aerosol properties and the global aerosol system, of cloud physics and aerosol-cloud interaction, and how to measure these parameters and maximize the science that can be obtained from those measurements. The 'lineage' had its origins across the globe, from Soviet Russia to France, from the U.S. to Israel, from the Himalayas, the Sahel, the metropolises of Sao Paulo, Taipei, and the cities of east and south Asia. It came together in the 1990s and 2000s at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, using cultural diversity as a strength to form a common culture of scientific creativity that continues to this day. The original algorithm has spawned daughter algorithms that are being applied to new satellite and airborne sensors. The original MODIS products have been fundamental to analyses as diverse as air quality monitoring and aerosol-cloud forcing. AERONET, designed originally for the need of validation, is now its own thriving institution, and the lineage continues to push forward to provide new technology for the coming generations.

  17. Relationship between cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction and cloud albedo, and new surface-based approach for determining cloud albedo

    OpenAIRE

    Y. Liu; W. Wu; M. P. Jensen; T. Toto

    2011-01-01

    This paper focuses on three interconnected topics: (1) quantitative relationship between surface shortwave cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction, and cloud albedo; (2) surfaced-based approach for measuring cloud albedo; (3) multiscale (diurnal, annual and inter-annual) variations and covariations of surface shortwave cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction, and cloud albedo. An analytical expression is first derived to quantify the relationship between cloud radiative forcing, cloud fractio...

  18. Comments on ''Geomagnetic response to magnetic clouds'' by Robert M. Wilson; and reply

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gonzalez, W.D.; Gonzalez, A.L.C.; Wilson, R.M.

    1988-01-01

    The paper 'Geomagnetic Response to Magnetic Clouds' by Wilson (1987) tried to show an association between geomagnetic storm intervals and the passage of interplanetary magnetic clouds at the Earth's magnetosphere. The association is shown through a superposed epoch analysis of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF)-B Z component and the D st geomagnetic storm index for 19 cloud events occurring between 1973 and 1978. Two aspects of the magnetic cloud-storm relationship are challenged. The first concerns the northward-southward rotation of the IMF-B Z component which is known to exist but not accounted for in Wilson's article. The second concerns the magnitude of the storms associated with the passage of magnetic clouds. In a reply Wilson explains the distinction between N-turning and S-turning clouds of the 19 clouds studied 12 were southward and 7 northward turning. The average behaviour of both is similar, the differences being due to the different onset values of D st . The second problem is attributed to a misunderstanding of the meaning of the I-bars given in the original article. The original results of Wilson are reaffirmed. The comment on the reply suggests that the average peak D st value for S-N clouds is larger by 30% than for the N-S clouds and that the final intensity of the storm can be altered by the type of cloud involved (S-N) or (N-S). (U.K.)

  19. COMETARY ORIGIN OF THE ZODIACAL CLOUD AND CARBONACEOUS MICROMETEORITES. IMPLICATIONS FOR HOT DEBRIS DISKS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nesvorny, David; Levison, Harold F.; Bottke, William F.; Jenniskens, Peter; Vokrouhlicky, David; Gounelle, Matthieu

    2010-01-01

    The zodiacal cloud is a thick circumsolar disk of small debris particles produced by asteroid collisions and comets. Their relative contribution and how particles of different sizes dynamically evolve to produce the observed phenomena of light scattering, thermal emission, and meteoroid impacts are unknown. Until now, zodiacal cloud models have been phenomenological in nature, composed of ad hoc components with properties not understood from basic physical processes. Here, we present a zodiacal cloud model based on the orbital properties and lifetimes of comets and asteroids, and on the dynamical evolution of dust after ejection. The model is quantitatively constrained by Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) observations of thermal emission, but also qualitatively consistent with other zodiacal cloud observations, with meteor observations, with spacecraft impact experiments, and with properties of recovered micrometeorites (MMs). We find that particles produced by Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) are scattered by Jupiter before they are able to orbitally decouple from the planet and drift down to 1 AU. Therefore, the inclination distribution of JFC particles is broader than that of their source comets and leads to good fits to the broad latitudinal distribution of fluxes observed by IRAS. We find that 85%-95% of the observed mid-infrared emission is produced by particles from JFCs and 100 μm undergo a further collisional cascade with smaller fragments being progressively more affected by Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag. Upon reaching D -1 mean for D = 100-200 μm with ∼12 km s -1 being the most common case), many JFC grains should survive frictional heating and land on Earth's surface. This explains why most MMs collected in antarctic ice have primitive carbonaceous composition. The present mass of the inner zodiacal cloud at 19 g, mainly in D = 100-200 μm particles. The inner zodiacal cloud should have been >10 4 times brighter during the Late Heavy Bombardment

  20. An Automatic Cloud Detection Method for ZY-3 Satellite

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHEN Zhenwei

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Automatic cloud detection for optical satellite remote sensing images is a significant step in the production system of satellite products. For the browse images cataloged by ZY-3 satellite, the tree discriminate structure is adopted to carry out cloud detection. The image was divided into sub-images and their features were extracted to perform classification between clouds and grounds. However, due to the high complexity of clouds and surfaces and the low resolution of browse images, the traditional classification algorithms based on image features are of great limitations. In view of the problem, a prior enhancement processing to original sub-images before classification was put forward in this paper to widen the texture difference between clouds and surfaces. Afterwards, with the secondary moment and first difference of the images, the feature vectors were extended in multi-scale space, and then the cloud proportion in the image was estimated through comprehensive analysis. The presented cloud detection algorithm has already been applied to the ZY-3 application system project, and the practical experiment results indicate that this algorithm is capable of promoting the accuracy of cloud detection significantly.

  1. More than a Word Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filatova, Olga

    2016-01-01

    Word cloud generating applications were originally designed to add visual attractiveness to posters, websites, slide show presentations, and the like. They can also be an effective tool in reading and writing classes in English as a second language (ESL) for all levels of English proficiency. They can reduce reading time and help to improve…

  2. Protostellar formation in rotation interstellar clouds. III. Nonaxisymmetric collapse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boss, A.P.

    1980-01-01

    A full three spatial-dimension gravitational hydrodynamics code has been used to follow the collapse of isothermal rotating clouds subjected to various nonaxialy symmetric perturbations (NAP). An initially axially symmetric cloud collapsed to form a ring which then fragmented into a binary protostellar system. A low thermal energy cloud with a large bar-shaped NAP collapsed and fragmented directly into a binary; higher thermal energy clouds damp out such NAPs while higher rotational rotational energy clouds produce binaries with wider separations. Fragmentation into single and binary systems has been seen. The tidal effects of other nearby protostellar clouds are shown to have an important effect upon the collapse and should not be neglected. The three-dimensional calculations indicate that isothermal interstellar clouds may fragment (with or without passing through a transitory ring phase) into protostellar objects while still in the isothermal regime. The fragments obtained have masses and specific spin angular momenta roughly a 10th that of the original cloud. Interstellar clouds and their fragments may pass through successive collapse phases with fragmentation and reduction of spin angular momentum (by conversion to orbital angular momentum and preferential accretion of low angular momentum matter) terminating in the formation of pre--main-sequence stars with the observed pre--main-sequence rotation rates

  3. Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tritsis, Aris; Tassis, Konstantinos

    2018-05-11

    Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

  4. Cloud-Top Entrainment in Stratocumulus Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mellado, Juan Pedro

    2017-01-01

    Cloud entrainment, the mixing between cloudy and clear air at the boundary of clouds, constitutes one paradigm for the relevance of small scales in the Earth system: By regulating cloud lifetimes, meter- and submeter-scale processes at cloud boundaries can influence planetary-scale properties. Understanding cloud entrainment is difficult given the complexity and diversity of the associated phenomena, which include turbulence entrainment within a stratified medium, convective instabilities driven by radiative and evaporative cooling, shear instabilities, and cloud microphysics. Obtaining accurate data at the required small scales is also challenging, for both simulations and measurements. During the past few decades, however, high-resolution simulations and measurements have greatly advanced our understanding of the main mechanisms controlling cloud entrainment. This article reviews some of these advances, focusing on stratocumulus clouds, and indicates remaining challenges.

  5. Cloud type comparisons of AIRS, CloudSat, and CALIPSO cloud height and amount

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. H. Kahn

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available The precision of the two-layer cloud height fields derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS is explored and quantified for a five-day set of observations. Coincident profiles of vertical cloud structure by CloudSat, a 94 GHz profiling radar, and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO, are compared to AIRS for a wide range of cloud types. Bias and variability in cloud height differences are shown to have dependence on cloud type, height, and amount, as well as whether CloudSat or CALIPSO is used as the comparison standard. The CloudSat-AIRS biases and variability range from −4.3 to 0.5±1.2–3.6 km for all cloud types. Likewise, the CALIPSO-AIRS biases range from 0.6–3.0±1.2–3.6 km (−5.8 to −0.2±0.5–2.7 km for clouds ≥7 km (<7 km. The upper layer of AIRS has the greatest sensitivity to Altocumulus, Altostratus, Cirrus, Cumulonimbus, and Nimbostratus, whereas the lower layer has the greatest sensitivity to Cumulus and Stratocumulus. Although the bias and variability generally decrease with increasing cloud amount, the ability of AIRS to constrain cloud occurrence, height, and amount is demonstrated across all cloud types for many geophysical conditions. In particular, skill is demonstrated for thin Cirrus, as well as some Cumulus and Stratocumulus, cloud types infrared sounders typically struggle to quantify. Furthermore, some improvements in the AIRS Version 5 operational retrieval algorithm are demonstrated. However, limitations in AIRS cloud retrievals are also revealed, including the existence of spurious Cirrus near the tropopause and low cloud layers within Cumulonimbus and Nimbostratus clouds. Likely causes of spurious clouds are identified and the potential for further improvement is discussed.

  6. A comparison of shock-cloud and wind-cloud interactions: effect of increased cloud density contrast on cloud evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, K. J. A.; Pittard, J. M.

    2018-05-01

    The similarities, or otherwise, of a shock or wind interacting with a cloud of density contrast χ = 10 were explored in a previous paper. Here, we investigate such interactions with clouds of higher density contrast. We compare the adiabatic hydrodynamic interaction of a Mach 10 shock with a spherical cloud of χ = 103 with that of a cloud embedded in a wind with identical parameters to the post-shock flow. We find that initially there are only minor morphological differences between the shock-cloud and wind-cloud interactions, compared to when χ = 10. However, once the transmitted shock exits the cloud, the development of a turbulent wake and fragmentation of the cloud differs between the two simulations. On increasing the wind Mach number, we note the development of a thin, smooth tail of cloud material, which is then disrupted by the fragmentation of the cloud core and subsequent `mass-loading' of the flow. We find that the normalized cloud mixing time (tmix) is shorter at higher χ. However, a strong Mach number dependence on tmix and the normalized cloud drag time, t_{drag}^' }, is not observed. Mach-number-dependent values of tmix and t_{drag}^' } from comparable shock-cloud interactions converge towards the Mach-number-independent time-scales of the wind-cloud simulations. We find that high χ clouds can be accelerated up to 80-90 per cent of the wind velocity and travel large distances before being significantly mixed. However, complete mixing is not achieved in our simulations and at late times the flow remains perturbed.

  7. Cloud Computing, Tieto Cloud Server Model

    OpenAIRE

    Suikkanen, Saara

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to find out what is cloud computing. To be able to make wise decisions when moving to cloud or considering it, companies need to understand what cloud is consists of. Which model suits best to they company, what should be taken into account before moving to cloud, what is the cloud broker role and also SWOT analysis of cloud? To be able to answer customer requirements and business demands, IT companies should develop and produce new service models. IT house T...

  8. Modeling the partitioning of organic chemical species in cloud phases with CLEPS (1.1)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rose, Clémence; Chaumerliac, Nadine; Deguillaume, Laurent; Perroux, Hélène; Mouchel-Vallon, Camille; Leriche, Maud; Patryl, Luc; Armand, Patrick

    2018-02-01

    The new detailed aqueous-phase mechanism Cloud Explicit Physico-chemical Scheme (CLEPS 1.0), which describes the oxidation of isoprene-derived water-soluble organic compounds, is coupled with a warm microphysical module simulating the activation of aerosol particles into cloud droplets. CLEPS 1.0 was then extended to CLEPS 1.1 to include the chemistry of the newly added dicarboxylic acids dissolved from the particulate phase. The resulting coupled model allows the prediction of the aqueous-phase concentrations of chemical compounds originating from particle scavenging, mass transfer from the gas-phase and in-cloud aqueous chemical reactivity. The aim of the present study was more particularly to investigate the effect of particle scavenging on cloud chemistry. Several simulations were performed to assess the influence of various parameters on model predictions and to interpret long-term measurements conducted at the top of Puy de Dôme (PUY, France) in marine air masses. Specific attention was paid to carboxylic acids, whose predicted concentrations are on average in the lower range of the observations, with the exception of formic acid, which is rather overestimated in the model. The different sensitivity runs highlight the fact that formic and acetic acids mainly originate from the gas phase and have highly variable aqueous-phase reactivity depending on the cloud acidity, whereas C3-C4 carboxylic acids mainly originate from the particulate phase and are supersaturated in the cloud.

  9. Cloud computing development in Armenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vazgen Ghazaryan

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of the research is to clarify benefits and risks in regards with data protection, cost; business can have by the use of this new technologies for the implementation and management of organization’s information systems.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative case study of the results obtained via interviews. Three research questions were raised: Q1: How can company benefit from using Cloud Computing compared to other solutions?; Q2: What are possible issues that occur with Cloud Computing?; Q3: How would Cloud Computing change an organizations’ IT infrastructure?Findings – The calculations provided in the interview section prove the financial advantages, even though the precise degree of flexibility and performance has not been assessed. Cloud Computing offers great scalability. Another benefit that Cloud Computing offers, in addition to better performance and flexibility, is reliable and simple backup data storage, physically distributed and so almost invulnerable to damage. Although the advantages of Cloud Computing more than compensate for the difficulties associated with it, the latter must be carefully considered. Since the cloud architecture is relatively new, so far the best guarantee against all risks it entails, from a single company's perspective, is a well-formulated service-level agreement, where the terms of service and the shared responsibility and security roles between the client and the provider are defined.Research limitations/implications – study was carried out on the bases of two companies, which gives deeper view, but for more widely applicable results, a wider analysis is necessary.Practical implications:Originality/Value – novelty of the research depends on the fact that existing approaches on this problem mainly focus on technical side of computing.Research type: case study

  10. The Kimball Free-Cloud Model: A Failed Innovation in Chemical Education?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, William B.

    2014-01-01

    This historical review traces the origins of the Kimball free-cloud model of the chemical bond, otherwise known as the charge-cloud or tangent-sphere model, and the central role it played in attempts to reform the introductory chemical curriculum at both the high school and college levels in the 1960s. It also critically evaluates the limitations…

  11. Estimating the Reliability of the Elements of Cloud Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iuliia V. Ignatova

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud technologies are a very considerable area that influence IT infrastructure, network services and applications. Research has highlighted difficulties in the functioning of cloud infrastructure. For instance, if a server is subjected to malicious attacks or a force majeure causes a failure in the cloud's service, it is required to determine the time that it takes the system to return to being fully functional after the crash. This will determine the technological and financial risks faced by the owner and end users of cloud services. Therefore, to solve the problem of determining the expected time before service is resumed after a failure, we propose to apply Markovian queuing systems, specifically a model of a multi-channel queuing system with Poisson input flow and denial-of-service (breakdown. (original abstract

  12. Numerical simulations of altocumulus with a cloud resolving model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, S.; Krueger, S.K. [Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

    1996-04-01

    Altocumulus and altostratus clouds together cover approximately 22% of the earth`s surface. They play an important role in the earth`s energy budget through their effect on solar and infrared radiation. However, there has been little altocumulus cloud investigation by either modelers or observational programs. Starr and Cox (SC) (1985a,b) simulated an altostratus case as part of the same study in which they modeled a thin layer of cirrus. Although this calculation was originally described as representing altostratus, it probably better represents altocumulus stratiformis. In this paper, we simulate altocumulus cloud with a cloud resolving model (CRM). We simply describe the CRM first. We calculate the same middle-level cloud case as SC to compare our results with theirs. We will look at the role of cloud-scale processes in response to large-scale forcing. We will also discuss radiative effects by simulating diurnal and nocturnal cases. Finally, we discuss the utility of a 1D model by comparing 1D simulations and 2D simulations.

  13. +Cloud: An Agent-Based Cloud Computing Platform

    OpenAIRE

    González, Roberto; Hernández de la Iglesia, Daniel; de la Prieta Pintado, Fernando; Gil González, Ana Belén

    2017-01-01

    Cloud computing is revolutionizing the services provided through the Internet, and is continually adapting itself in order to maintain the quality of its services. This study presents the platform +Cloud, which proposes a cloud environment for storing information and files by following the cloud paradigm. This study also presents Warehouse 3.0, a cloud-based application that has been developed to validate the services provided by +Cloud.

  14. The Application of the Technology of 3D Satellite Cloud Imaging in Virtual Reality Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao-fang Xie

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available Using satellite cloud images to simulate clouds is one of the new visual simulation technologies in Virtual Reality (VR. Taking the original data of satellite cloud images as the source, this paper depicts specifically the technology of 3D satellite cloud imaging through the transforming of coordinates and projection, creating a DEM (Digital Elevation Model of cloud imaging and 3D simulation. A Mercator projection was introduced to create a cloud image DEM, while solutions for geodetic problems were introduced to calculate distances, and the outer-trajectory science of rockets was introduced to obtain the elevation of clouds. For demonstration, we report on a computer program to simulate the 3D satellite cloud images.

  15. A Mobility Management Using Follow-Me Cloud-Cloudlet in Fog-Computing-Based RANs for Smart Cities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yuh-Shyan; Tsai, Yi-Ting

    2018-02-06

    Mobility management for supporting the location tracking and location-based service (LBS) is an important issue of smart city by providing the means for the smooth transportation of people and goods. The mobility is useful to contribute the innovation in both public and private transportation infrastructures for smart cities. With the assistance of edge/fog computing, this paper presents a fully new mobility management using the proposed follow-me cloud-cloudlet (FMCL) approach in fog-computing-based radio access networks (Fog-RANs) for smart cities. The proposed follow-me cloud-cloudlet approach is an integration strategy of follow-me cloud (FMC) and follow-me edge (FME) (or called cloudlet). A user equipment (UE) receives the data, transmitted from original cloud, into the original edge cloud before the handover operation. After the handover operation, an UE searches for a new cloud, called as a migrated cloud, and a new edge cloud, called as a migrated edge cloud near to UE, where the remaining data is migrated from the original cloud to the migrated cloud and all the remaining data are received in the new edge cloud. Existing FMC results do not have the property of the VM migration between cloudlets for the purpose of reducing the transmission latency, and existing FME results do not keep the property of the service migration between data centers for reducing the transmission latency. Our proposed FMCL approach can simultaneously keep the VM migration between cloudlets and service migration between data centers to significantly reduce the transmission latency. The new proposed mobility management using FMCL approach aims to reduce the total transmission time if some data packets are pre-scheduled and pre-stored into the cache of cloudlet if UE is switching from the previous Fog-RAN to the serving Fog-RAN. To illustrate the performance achievement, the mathematical analysis and simulation results are examined in terms of the total transmission time, the

  16. A Mobility Management Using Follow-Me Cloud-Cloudlet in Fog-Computing-Based RANs for Smart Cities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuh-Shyan Chen

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Mobility management for supporting the location tracking and location-based service (LBS is an important issue of smart city by providing the means for the smooth transportation of people and goods. The mobility is useful to contribute the innovation in both public and private transportation infrastructures for smart cities. With the assistance of edge/fog computing, this paper presents a fully new mobility management using the proposed follow-me cloud-cloudlet (FMCL approach in fog-computing-based radio access networks (Fog-RANs for smart cities. The proposed follow-me cloud-cloudlet approach is an integration strategy of follow-me cloud (FMC and follow-me edge (FME (or called cloudlet. A user equipment (UE receives the data, transmitted from original cloud, into the original edge cloud before the handover operation. After the handover operation, an UE searches for a new cloud, called as a migrated cloud, and a new edge cloud, called as a migrated edge cloud near to UE, where the remaining data is migrated from the original cloud to the migrated cloud and all the remaining data are received in the new edge cloud. Existing FMC results do not have the property of the VM migration between cloudlets for the purpose of reducing the transmission latency, and existing FME results do not keep the property of the service migration between data centers for reducing the transmission latency. Our proposed FMCL approach can simultaneously keep the VM migration between cloudlets and service migration between data centers to significantly reduce the transmission latency. The new proposed mobility management using FMCL approach aims to reduce the total transmission time if some data packets are pre-scheduled and pre-stored into the cache of cloudlet if UE is switching from the previous Fog-RAN to the serving Fog-RAN. To illustrate the performance achievement, the mathematical analysis and simulation results are examined in terms of the total transmission time

  17. Bayer HealthCare Delivers a Dose of Reality for Cloud Payoff Mantras in Multinationals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Winkler, Till J.; Benlian, Alexander; Piper, Marc

    2014-01-01

    Cloud services provide high cost advantages” is one of several often-quoted assertions (called mantras in this article) about payoffs from cloud computing. These mantras, however, have their origins in the experiences of small and mid-size companies, but, as the case of Bayer HealthCare’s cloud-b......-based CRM rollout program shows, may not always be true for large multinational companies. To ensure payoffs from the cloud, multinationals must adopt strategies for coping with the inhibitors identified in this article....

  18. Silicon Photonics Cloud (SiCloud)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    DeVore, P. T. S.; Jiang, Y.; Lynch, M.

    2015-01-01

    Silicon Photonics Cloud (SiCloud.org) is the first silicon photonics interactive web tool. Here we report new features of this tool including mode propagation parameters and mode distribution galleries for user specified waveguide dimensions and wavelengths.......Silicon Photonics Cloud (SiCloud.org) is the first silicon photonics interactive web tool. Here we report new features of this tool including mode propagation parameters and mode distribution galleries for user specified waveguide dimensions and wavelengths....

  19. Photogrammetric Analysis of Rotor Clouds Observed during T-REX

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romatschke, U.; Grubišić, V.

    2017-12-01

    Stereo photogrammetric analysis is a rarely utilized but highly valuable tool for studying smaller, highly ephemeral clouds. In this study, we make use of data that was collected during the Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX), which took place in Owens Valley, eastern California, in the spring of 2006. The data set consists of matched digital stereo photographs obtained at high temporal (on the order of seconds) and spatial resolution (limited by the pixel size of the cameras). Using computer vision techniques we have been able to develop algorithms for camera calibration, automatic feature matching, and ultimately reconstruction of 3D cloud scenes. Applying these techniques to images from different T-REX IOPs we capture the motion of clouds in several distinct mountain wave scenarios ranging from short lived lee wave clouds on an otherwise clear sky day to rotor clouds formed in an extreme turbulence environment with strong winds and high cloud coverage. Tracking the clouds in 3D space and time allows us to quantify phenomena such as vertical and horizontal movement of clouds, turbulent motion at the upstream edge of rotor clouds, the structure of the lifting condensation level, extreme wind shear, and the life cycle of clouds in lee waves. When placed into context with the existing literature that originated from the T-REX field campaign, our results complement and expand our understanding of the complex dynamics observed in a variety of different lee wave settings.

  20. Characteristics of bacterial community in cloud water at Mt Tai: similarity and disparity under polluted and non-polluted cloud episodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Min; Xu, Caihong; Chen, Jianmin; Zhu, Chao; Li, Jiarong; Lv, Ganglin

    2017-04-01

    Bacteria are widely distributed in atmospheric aerosols and are indispensable components of clouds, playing an important role in the atmospheric hydrological cycle. However, limited information is available about the bacterial community structure and function, especially for the increasing air pollution in the North China Plain. Here, we present a comprehensive characterization of bacterial community composition, function, variation, and environmental influence for cloud water collected at Mt Tai from 24 July to 23 August 2014. Using Miseq 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the highly diverse bacterial community in cloud water and the predominant phyla of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Firmicutes were investigated. Bacteria that survive at low temperature, radiation, and poor nutrient conditions were found in cloud water, suggesting adaption to an extreme environment. The bacterial gene functions predicted from the 16S rRNA gene using the Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) suggested that the pathways related to metabolism and disease infections were significantly correlated with the predominant genera. The abundant genera Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Pseudomonas, and Empedobacter originated from a wide range of habitats including cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei active species, opportunistic pathogens, and functional species, demonstrating the importance of ecology and health in cloud water. Cluster analysis including hierarchical cluster (Hcluster) and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) indicated a significant disparity between polluted and non-polluted samples. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) demonstrated that potential pathogens were enriched in the polluted cloud samples, whereas the diverse ecological function groups were significant in the non-polluted samples. Discrepant community structure determined by redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that the major ions in

  1. Relationship between Trustworthiness, Transparency, and Security in Cloud Computing Environments: A Regression Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibrahim, Sara

    2017-01-01

    The insider security threat causes new and dangerous dimensions in cloud computing. Those internal threats are originated from contractors or the business partners' input that have access to the systems. A study of trustworthiness and transparency might assist the organizations to monitor employees' activity more cautiously on cloud technologies…

  2. Critical Factors for Personal Cloud Storage Adoption in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jianya Wang

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: In order to explain and predict the adoption of personal cloud storage, this study explores the critical factors involved in the adoption of personal cloud storage and empirically validates their relationships to a user's intentions. Design/methodology/approach: Based on technology acceptance model (TAM, network externality, trust, and an interview survey, this study proposes a personal cloud storage adoption model. We conducted an empirical analysis by structural equation modeling based on survey data obtained with a questionnaire. Findings: Among the adoption factors we identified, network externality has the salient influence on a user's adoption intention, followed by perceived usefulness, individual innovation, perceived trust, perceived ease of use, and subjective norms. Cloud storage characteristics are the most important indirect factors, followed by awareness to personal cloud storage and perceived risk. However, although perceived risk is regarded as an important factor by other cloud computing researchers, we found that it has no significant influence. Also, subjective norms have no significant influence on perceived usefulness. This indicates that users are rational when they choose whether to adopt personal cloud storage. Research limitations: This study ignores time and cost factors that might affect a user's intention to adopt personal cloud storage. Practical implications: Our findings might be helpful in designing and developing personal cloud storage products, and helpful to regulators crafting policies. Originality/value: This study is one of the first research efforts that discuss Chinese users' personal cloud storage adoption, which should help to further the understanding of personal cloud adoption behavior among Chinese users.

  3. Cloud vertical profiles derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat and a comparison with MODIS derived clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, S.; Sun-Mack, S.; Miller, W. F.; Rose, F. G.; Minnis, P.; Wielicki, B. A.; Winker, D. M.; Stephens, G. L.; Charlock, T. P.; Collins, W. D.; Loeb, N. G.; Stackhouse, P. W.; Xu, K.

    2008-05-01

    CALIPSO and CloudSat from the a-train provide detailed information of vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. The vertical distribution of cloud occurrence is derived from one month of CALIPSO and CloudSat data as a part of the effort of merging CALIPSO, CloudSat and MODIS with CERES data. This newly derived cloud profile is compared with the distribution of cloud top height derived from MODIS on Aqua from cloud algorithms used in the CERES project. The cloud base from MODIS is also estimated using an empirical formula based on the cloud top height and optical thickness, which is used in CERES processes. While MODIS detects mid and low level clouds over the Arctic in April fairly well when they are the topmost cloud layer, it underestimates high- level clouds. In addition, because the CERES-MODIS cloud algorithm is not able to detect multi-layer clouds and the empirical formula significantly underestimates the depth of high clouds, the occurrence of mid and low-level clouds is underestimated. This comparison does not consider sensitivity difference to thin clouds but we will impose an optical thickness threshold to CALIPSO derived clouds for a further comparison. The effect of such differences in the cloud profile to flux computations will also be discussed. In addition, the effect of cloud cover to the top-of-atmosphere flux over the Arctic using CERES SSF and FLASHFLUX products will be discussed.

  4. Making and Breaking Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2017-10-01

    Molecular clouds which youre likely familiar with from stunning popular astronomy imagery lead complicated, tumultuous lives. A recent study has now found that these features must be rapidly built and destroyed.Star-Forming CollapseA Hubble view of a molecular cloud, roughly two light-years long, that has broken off of the Carina Nebula. [NASA/ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley)/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]Molecular gas can be found throughout our galaxy in the form of eminently photogenic clouds (as featured throughout this post). Dense, cold molecular gas makes up more than 20% of the Milky Ways total gas mass, and gravitational instabilities within these clouds lead them to collapse under their own weight, resulting in the formation of our galaxys stars.How does this collapse occur? The simplest explanation is that the clouds simply collapse in free fall, with no source of support to counter their contraction. But if all the molecular gas we observe collapsed on free-fall timescales, star formation in our galaxy would churn a rate thats at least an order of magnitude higher than the observed 12 solar masses per year in the Milky Way.Destruction by FeedbackAstronomers have theorized that there may be some mechanism that supports these clouds against gravity, slowing their collapse. But both theoretical studies and observations of the clouds have ruled out most of these potential mechanisms, and mounting evidence supports the original interpretation that molecular clouds are simply gravitationally collapsing.A sub-mm image from ESOs APEX telescope of part of the Taurus molecular cloud, roughly ten light-years long, superimposed on a visible-light image of the region. [ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin]If this is indeed the case, then one explanation for our low observed star formation rate could be that molecular clouds are rapidly destroyed by feedback from the very stars

  5. The cloud chamber. A wonderful instrument for discoveries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fadel, Kamil

    2012-01-01

    The author proposes an overview of the various applications and discoveries based on the use of the cloud chamber or Wilson chamber: blood flow rate measurements, investigation of alpha radiation (interaction of an alpha particle with gas atoms), investigation of beta radioactivity with the evidence of the existence of the neutrino, confirmation of a relativistic effect, discovery of the neutron in the 1930's, uranium fission, evidence of the cosmic origin of a ionizing radiation in the 1930's. The author briefly evokes the technological evolutions of these cloud chambers

  6. Aerosol particles in the Mexican East Pacific Part I: processing and vertical redistribution by clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Baumgardner

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Airborne measurements of aerosol particle size distributions were made in the Mexican Intertropical Convergence Zone. The volume concentrations of submicron and super micron particles at cloud base were compared with those in near-cloud regions over a range of altitudes. Of 78 near-cloud regions analyzed, 68% and 45% had enhanced volumes of submicron particles and supermicron particles, respectively. In addition, 35% of these regions had supermicron particles removed, presumably by precipitation. In 61% of the cases the enhancement in volume occurred over the size range from 0.1 to 50 μm whereas only submicron volumes were enhanced in 35% of the cases. In regions near clouds that were formed in air of maritime origin the frequency of volume enhancement decreased with increasing altitude and was twice as frequent on the dissipating side of clouds compared to the growing side. No such differences were found in the regions near clouds formed in air originating from the land. The frequency and average magnitude of volume enhancement are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with previous observational and theoretical studies that relate enhancements in particle mass to the uptake by cloud droplets of SO2 accompanied by additional growth by droplet coalescence.

  7. Dynamical instabilities in magnetohydrodynamic wind-cloud interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banda-Barragan, Wladimir Eduardo; Parkin, Elliot Ross; Crocker, Roland M.; Federrath, Christoph; Bicknell, Geoffrey Vincent

    2015-08-01

    We report the results from a comprehensive numerical study that investigates the role of dynamical instabilities in magnetohydrodynamic interactions between winds and spherical clouds in the interstellar medium. The growth of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities at interfaces between wind and cloud material is responsible for the disruption of clouds and the formation of filamentary tails. We show how different strengths and orientations of the initial magnetic field affect the development of unstable modes and the ultimate morphology of these filaments. In the weak field limit, for example, KH instabilities developing at the flanks of clouds are dominant, whilst they are suppressed when stronger fields are considered. On the other hand, perturbations that originate RT instabilities at the leading edge of clouds are enhanced when fields are locally stronger. The orientation of the field lines also plays an important role in the structure of filaments. Magnetic ropes are key features of systems in which fields are aligned with the wind velocity, whilst current sheets are favoured when the initial field is preferentially transverse to the wind velocity. We compare our findings with analytical predictions obtained from the linear theory of hydromagnetic stability and provide a classification of filamentary tails based on their morphology.

  8. ANGULAR MOMENTUM IN GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUDS. I. THE MILKY WAY

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imara, Nia; Blitz, Leo

    2011-01-01

    We present a detailed analysis comparing the velocity fields in molecular clouds and the atomic gas that surrounds them in order to address the origin of the gradients. To that end, we present first-moment intensity-weighted velocity maps of the molecular clouds and surrounding atomic gas. The maps are made from high-resolution 13 CO observations and 21 cm observations from the Leiden/Argentine/Bonn Galactic H I Survey. We find that (1) the atomic gas associated with each molecular cloud has a substantial velocity gradient-ranging from 0.02 to 0.07 km s -1 pc -1 -whether or not the molecular cloud itself has a substantial linear gradient. (2) If the gradients in the molecular and atomic gas were due to rotation, this would imply that the molecular clouds have less specific angular momentum than the surrounding H I by a factor of 1-6. (3) Most importantly, the velocity gradient position angles in the molecular and atomic gas are generally widely separated-by as much as 130 deg. in the case of the Rosette molecular cloud. This result argues against the hypothesis that molecular clouds formed by simple top-down collapse from atomic gas.

  9. DETECTION OF SLOPE MOVEMENT BY COMPARING POINT CLOUDS CREATED BY SFM SOFTWARE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Oda

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes movement detection method between point clouds created by SFM software, without setting any onsite georeferenced points. SfM software, like Smart3DCaputure, PhotoScan, and Pix4D, are convenient for non-professional operator of photogrammetry, because these systems require simply specification of sequence of photos and output point clouds with colour index which corresponds to the colour of original image pixel where the point is projected. SfM software can execute aerial triangulation and create dense point clouds fully automatically. This is useful when monitoring motion of unstable slopes, or loos rocks in slopes along roads or railroads. Most of existing method, however, uses mesh-based DSM for comparing point clouds before/after movement and it cannot be applied in such cases that part of slopes forms overhangs. And in some cases movement is smaller than precision of ground control points and registering two point clouds with GCP is not appropriate. Change detection method in this paper adopts CCICP (Classification and Combined ICP algorithm for registering point clouds before / after movement. The CCICP algorithm is a type of ICP (Iterative Closest Points which minimizes point-to-plane, and point-to-point distances, simultaneously, and also reject incorrect correspondences based on point classification by PCA (Principle Component Analysis. Precision test shows that CCICP method can register two point clouds up to the 1 pixel size order in original images. Ground control points set in site are useful for initial setting of two point clouds. If there are no GCPs in site of slopes, initial setting is achieved by measuring feature points as ground control points in the point clouds before movement, and creating point clouds after movement with these ground control points. When the motion is rigid transformation, in case that a loose Rock is moving in slope, motion including rotation can be analysed by executing CCICP for a

  10. The Hyalella (Crustacea: Amphipoda) species cloud of the ancient Lake Titicaca originated from multiple colonizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adamowicz, Sarah J; Marinone, María Cristina; Menu-Marque, Silvina; Martin, Jeffrey W; Allen, Daniel C; Pyle, Michelle N; De Los Ríos, Patricio; Sobel, Crystal N; Ibañez, Carla; Pinto, Julio; Witt, Jonathan D S

    2018-08-01

    Ancient lakes are renowned for their exceptional diversity of endemic species. As model systems for the study of sympatric speciation, it is necessary to understand whether a given hypothesized species flock is of monophyletic or polyphyletic origin. Here, we present the first molecular characterization of the Hyalella (Crustacea: Amphipoda) species complex of Lake Titicaca, using COI and 28S DNA sequences, including samples from the connected Small and Large Lakes that comprise Lake Titicaca as well as from a broader survey of southern South American sites. At least five evolutionarily distant lineages are present within Lake Titicaca, which were estimated to have diverged from one another 12-20 MYA. These major lineages are dispersed throughout the broader South American Hyalella phylogeny, with each lineage representing at least one independent colonization of the lake. Moreover, complex genetic relationships are revealed between Lake Titicaca individuals and those from surrounding water bodies, which may be explained by repeated dispersal into and out of the lake, combined with parallel intralacustrine diversification within two separate clades. Although further work in deeper waters will be required to determine the number of species present and modes of diversification, our results strongly indicate that this amphipod species cloud is polyphyletic with a complex geographic history. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Stratocumulus Cloud Top Radiative Cooling and Cloud Base Updraft Speeds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kazil, J.; Feingold, G.; Balsells, J.; Klinger, C.

    2017-12-01

    Cloud top radiative cooling is a primary driver of turbulence in the stratocumulus-topped marine boundary. A functional relationship between cloud top cooling and cloud base updraft speeds may therefore exist. A correlation of cloud top radiative cooling and cloud base updraft speeds has been recently identified empirically, providing a basis for satellite retrieval of cloud base updraft speeds. Such retrievals may enable analysis of aerosol-cloud interactions using satellite observations: Updraft speeds at cloud base co-determine supersaturation and therefore the activation of cloud condensation nuclei, which in turn co-determine cloud properties and precipitation formation. We use large eddy simulation and an off-line radiative transfer model to explore the relationship between cloud-top radiative cooling and cloud base updraft speeds in a marine stratocumulus cloud over the course of the diurnal cycle. We find that during daytime, at low cloud water path (CWP correlated, in agreement with the reported empirical relationship. During the night, in the absence of short-wave heating, CWP builds up (CWP > 50 g m-2) and long-wave emissions from cloud top saturate, while cloud base heating increases. In combination, cloud top cooling and cloud base updrafts become weakly anti-correlated. A functional relationship between cloud top cooling and cloud base updraft speed can hence be expected for stratocumulus clouds with a sufficiently low CWP and sub-saturated long-wave emissions, in particular during daytime. At higher CWPs, in particular at night, the relationship breaks down due to saturation of long-wave emissions from cloud top.

  12. Cloud networking understanding cloud-based data center networks

    CERN Document Server

    Lee, Gary

    2014-01-01

    Cloud Networking: Understanding Cloud-Based Data Center Networks explains the evolution of established networking technologies into distributed, cloud-based networks. Starting with an overview of cloud technologies, the book explains how cloud data center networks leverage distributed systems for network virtualization, storage networking, and software-defined networking. The author offers insider perspective to key components that make a cloud network possible such as switch fabric technology and data center networking standards. The final chapters look ahead to developments in architectures

  13. POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF THE G2 CLOUD FROM THE TIDAL DISRUPTION OF A KNOWN GIANT STAR BY SGR A*

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guillochon, James; Loeb, Abraham; MacLeod, Morgan; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico

    2014-01-01

    The discovery of the gas cloud G2 on a near-radial orbit about Sgr A* has prompted much speculation on its origin. In this Letter, we propose that G2 formed out of the debris stream produced by the removal of mass from the outer envelope of a nearby giant star. We perform hydrodynamical simulations of the returning tidal debris stream with cooling and find that the stream condenses into clumps that fall periodically onto Sgr A*. We propose that one of these clumps is the observed G2 cloud, with the rest of the stream being detectable at lower Brγ emissivity along a trajectory that would trace from G2 to the star that was partially disrupted. By simultaneously fitting the orbits of S2, G2, and ∼2000 candidate stars, and by fixing the orbital plane of each candidate star to G2 (as is expected for a tidal disruption), we find that several stars have orbits that are compatible with the notion that one of them was tidally disrupted to produce G2. If one of these stars were indeed disrupted, it last encountered Sgr A* hundreds of years ago and has likely encountered Sgr A* repeatedly. However, while these stars are compatible with the giant disruption scenario given their measured positions and proper motions, their radial velocities are currently unknown. If one of these stars' radial velocity is measured to be compatible with a disruptive orbit, it would strongly suggest that its disruption produced G2

  14. Data distribution method of workflow in the cloud environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yong; Wu, Junjuan; Wang, Ying

    2017-08-01

    Cloud computing for workflow applications provides the required high efficiency calculation and large storage capacity and it also brings challenges to the protection of trade secrets and other privacy data. Because of privacy data will cause the increase of the data transmission time, this paper presents a new data allocation algorithm based on data collaborative damage degree, to improve the existing data allocation strategy? Safety and public cloud computer algorithm depends on the private cloud; the static allocation method in the initial stage only to the non-confidential data division to improve the original data, in the operational phase will continue to generate data to dynamically adjust the data distribution scheme. The experimental results show that the improved method is effective in reducing the data transmission time.

  15. Carbon pellet cloud striations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parks, P.B.

    1989-01-01

    Fine scale striations, with alternating rows of bright and dark zones, have been observed in the ablation clouds of carbon pellets injected into the TEXT tokamak. The striations extend along the magnetic field for about 1 cm with quite regular cross-field variations characterized by a wavelength of a few mm. Their potential as a diagnostic tool for measuring q-profiles in tokamaks provides motivation for investigating the origin of the striations. The authors propose that the striations are not due to a sequence of high and low ablation rates because of the finite thermal magnetic islands localized at rational surfaces, q = m/n, would be responsible for reducing the electron flux to the pellet region; the length of the closed field line which forms the local magnetic axis of the island is too long to prevent a depletion of plasma electrons in a flux tube intercepting the pellet for the duration 2 rp / vp . Instead, they propose that striations are the manifestation of the saturated state of growing fluctuations inside the cloud. The instability is generated by E x B rotation of the ablation cloud. The outward centrifugal force points down the ablation density gradient inducing the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The instability is not present for wave numbers along the field lines, which may explain why the striations are long and uniform in that direction. The E field develops inside the ablation cloud as a result of cold electron return currents which are induced to cancel the incoming hot plasma electron current streaming along the field lines

  16. Supernova Driving. IV. The star-formation rate of molecular clouds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Padoan, Paolo; Haugbølle, Troels; Nordlund, Åke

    2017-01-01

    We compute the star-formation rate (SFR) in molecular clouds (MCs) that originate ab initio in a new, higher-resolution simulation of supernova-driven turbulence. Because of the large number of well-resolved clouds with self-consistent boundary and initial conditions, we obtain a large range...... of cloud physical parameters with realistic statistical distributions, which is an unprecedented sample of star-forming regions to test SFR models and to interpret observational surveys. We confirm the dependence of the SFR per free-fall time, SFRff, on the virial parameter, αvir, found in previous...... MCs and in clouds near the Galactic center. Although not explicitly modeled by the theory, the scatter is consistent with the physical assumptions of our revised model and may also result in part from a lack of statistical equilibrium of the turbulence, due to the transient nature of MCs....

  17. Formation of giant molecular clouds in global spiral structures: the role of orbital dynamics and cloud-cloud collisions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberts, W.W. Jr.; Stewart, G.R.

    1987-01-01

    The different roles played by orbital dynamics and dissipative cloud-cloud collisions in the formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in a global spiral structure are investigated. The interstellar medium (ISM) is simulated by a system of particles, representing clouds, which orbit in a spiral-perturbed, galactic gravitational field. The overall magnitude and width of the global cloud density distribution in spiral arms is very similar in the collisional and collisionless simulations. The results suggest that the assumed number density and size distribution of clouds and the details of individual cloud-cloud collisions have relatively little effect on these features. Dissipative cloud-cloud collisions play an important steadying role for the cloud system's global spiral structure. Dissipative cloud-cloud collisions also damp the relative velocity dispersion of clouds in massive associations and thereby aid in the effective assembling of GMC-like complexes

  18. Evaluation of Passive Multilayer Cloud Detection Using Preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO Cloud Profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Chang, F.; Huang, J.; Nguyen, L.; Ayers, J. K.; Spangenberg, D. A.; Yi, Y.; Trepte, C. R.

    2006-12-01

    During the last few years, several algorithms have been developed to detect and retrieve multilayered clouds using passive satellite data. Assessing these techniques has been difficult due to the need for active sensors such as cloud radars and lidars that can "see" through different layers of clouds. Such sensors have been available only at a few surface sites and on aircraft during field programs. With the launch of the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites on April 28, 2006, it is now possible to observe multilayered systems all over the globe using collocated cloud radar and lidar data. As part of the A- Train, these new active sensors are also matched in time ad space with passive measurements from the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E). The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) has been developing and testing algorithms to detect ice-over-water overlapping cloud systems and to retrieve the cloud liquid path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP) for those systems. One technique uses a combination of the CERES cloud retrieval algorithm applied to MODIS data and a microwave retrieval method applied to AMSR-E data. The combination of a CO2-slicing cloud retireval technique with the CERES algorithms applied to MODIS data (Chang et al., 2005) is used to detect and analyze such overlapped systems that contain thin ice clouds. A third technique uses brightness temperature differences and the CERES algorithms to detect similar overlapped methods. This paper uses preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO data to begin a global scale assessment of these different methods. The long-term goals are to assess and refine the algorithms to aid the development of an optimal combination of the techniques to better monitor ice 9and liquid water clouds in overlapped conditions.

  19. Size-density relations in dark clouds: Non-LTE effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maloney, P.

    1986-01-01

    One of the major goals of molecular astronomy has been to understand the physics and dynamics of dense interstellar clouds. Because the interpretation of observations of giant molecular clouds is complicated by their very complex structure and the dynamical effects of star formation, a number of studies have concentrated on dark clouds. Leung, Kutner and Mead (1982) (hereafter LKM) and Myers (1983), in studies of CO and NH 3 emission, concluded that dark clouds exhibit significant correlations between linewidth and cloud radius of the form delta v varies as R(0.5) and between mean density and radius of the form n varies as R(-1), as originally suggested by Larson (1981). This result suggests that these objects are in virial equilibrium. However, the mean densities inferred from the CO data of LKM are based on an local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) analysis of their 13CO data. At the very low mean densities inferred by LKM for the larger clouds in their samples, the assumption of LTE becomes very questionable. As most of the range in R in the density-size correlation comes from the clouds observed in CO, it seems worthwhile to examine how non-LTE effects will influence the derived densities. Microturbulent models of inhomogeneous clouds of varying central concentration with the linewidth-size and mean density-size relations found by Myers show sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO line in the larger clouds, with the result that LTE analysis considerbly underestimates the actual column density. A more general approach which doesn't require detailed modeling of the clouds is to consider whether the observed T/sub R/*(13CO)/T/sub R/*(12CO) ratios in the clouds studied by LKM are in the range where the LTE-derived optical depths be seriously in error due to sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO molecule

  20. Privacy-preserving public auditing for data integrity in cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaik Saleem, M.; Murali, M.

    2018-04-01

    Cloud computing which has collected extent concentration from communities of research and with industry research development, a large pool of computing resources using virtualized sharing method like storage, processing power, applications and services. The users of cloud are vend with on demand resources as they want in the cloud computing. Outsourced file of the cloud user can easily tampered as it is stored at the third party service providers databases, so there is no integrity of cloud users data as it has no control on their data, therefore providing security assurance to the users data has become one of the primary concern for the cloud service providers. Cloud servers are not responsible for any data loss as it doesn’t provide the security assurance to the cloud user data. Remote data integrity checking (RDIC) licenses an information to data storage server, to determine that it is really storing an owners data truthfully. RDIC is composed of security model and ID-based RDIC where it is responsible for the security of every server and make sure the data privacy of cloud user against the third party verifier. Generally, by running a two-party Remote data integrity checking (RDIC) protocol the clients would themselves be able to check the information trustworthiness of their cloud. Within the two party scenario the verifying result is given either from the information holder or the cloud server may be considered as one-sided. Public verifiability feature of RDIC gives the privilege to all its users to verify whether the original data is modified or not. To ensure the transparency of the publicly verifiable RDIC protocols, Let’s figure out there exists a TPA who is having knowledge and efficiency to verify the work to provide the condition clearly by publicly verifiable RDIC protocols.

  1. Double-moment cloud microphysics scheme for the deep convection parameterization in the GFDL AM3

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belochitski, A.; Donner, L.

    2014-12-01

    A double-moment cloud microphysical scheme originally developed by Morrision and Gettelman (2008) for the stratiform clouds and later adopted for the deep convection by Song and Zhang (2011) has been implemented in to the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's atmospheric general circulation model AM3. The scheme treats cloud drop, cloud ice, rain, and snow number concentrations and mixing ratios as diagnostic variables and incorporates processes of autoconversion, self-collection, collection between hydrometeor species, sedimentation, ice nucleation, drop activation, homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing, and the Bergeron-Findeisen process. Such detailed representation of microphysical processes makes the scheme suitable for studying the interactions between aerosols and convection, as well as aerosols' indirect effects on clouds and their roles in climate change. The scheme is first tested in the single column version of the GFDL AM3 using forcing data obtained at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurment project's Southern Great Planes site. Scheme's impact on SCM simulations is discussed. As the next step, runs of the full atmospheric GCM incorporating the new parameterization are compared to the unmodified version of GFDL AM3. Global climatological fields and their variability are contrasted with those of the original version of the GCM. Impact on cloud radiative forcing and climate sensitivity is investigated.

  2. Cloud Computing Fundamentals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furht, Borko

    In the introductory chapter we define the concept of cloud computing and cloud services, and we introduce layers and types of cloud computing. We discuss the differences between cloud computing and cloud services. New technologies that enabled cloud computing are presented next. We also discuss cloud computing features, standards, and security issues. We introduce the key cloud computing platforms, their vendors, and their offerings. We discuss cloud computing challenges and the future of cloud computing.

  3. High-latitude molecular clouds and infrared cirrus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vries, H.W. de.

    1988-01-01

    The high-latitude infrared cirrus detected by IRAS is identified with atomic and molecular clouds. These clouds are small (usually less than 1 sq. deg.) and show weak CO emission. On the basis of a distance of 100 pc they are characterized by a mass of a few solar masses and a radius of about 1 pc. Thermal radiation by dust as a results of heating by the diffuse interstellar radiation field is the most-plausible origin of the cirrus emission at far-infrared wavelengths. On the basis of plausible assumptions regarding the uniformity of both the gas-to-dust ratio and the heating and cooling of the dust, the flux density at 100 μm from regions with low visual extinction should be a good tracer of the gas column density. Indeed, the data show an approximately linear proportionality between N(HI), obtained from 21-cm observations, and I 100 (HI), the flux density from dust associated with HI. If the ratio of column density to flux density in high-latitude molecular clouds is equal to the corresponding relation in atomic ones, a value for the ratio of H 2 column density to CO velocity-integrated radiation temperature may be obtained. Although low-mass clouds may be large in number, the fraction of the Galactic molecular mass in the form of these clouds is probably no more than 1%

  4. Relationships among cloud occurrence frequency, overlap, and effective thickness derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat merged cloud vertical profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, Seiji; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Miller, Walter F.; Rose, Fred G.; Chen, Yan; Minnis, Patrick; Wielicki, Bruce A.

    2010-01-01

    A cloud frequency of occurrence matrix is generated using merged cloud vertical profiles derived from the satellite-borne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and cloud profiling radar. The matrix contains vertical profiles of cloud occurrence frequency as a function of the uppermost cloud top. It is shown that the cloud fraction and uppermost cloud top vertical profiles can be related by a cloud overlap matrix when the correlation length of cloud occurrence, which is interpreted as an effective cloud thickness, is introduced. The underlying assumption in establishing the above relation is that cloud overlap approaches random overlap with increasing distance separating cloud layers and that the probability of deviating from random overlap decreases exponentially with distance. One month of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and CloudSat data (July 2006) support these assumptions, although the correlation length sometimes increases with separation distance when the cloud top height is large. The data also show that the correlation length depends on cloud top hight and the maximum occurs when the cloud top height is 8 to 10 km. The cloud correlation length is equivalent to the decorrelation distance introduced by Hogan and Illingworth (2000) when cloud fractions of both layers in a two-cloud layer system are the same. The simple relationships derived in this study can be used to estimate the top-of-atmosphere irradiance difference caused by cloud fraction, uppermost cloud top, and cloud thickness vertical profile differences.

  5. Clustering, randomness, and regularity in cloud fields: 2. Cumulus cloud fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, T.; Lee, J.; Weger, R. C.; Welch, R. M.

    1992-12-01

    During the last decade a major controversy has been brewing concerning the proper characterization of cumulus convection. The prevailing view has been that cumulus clouds form in clusters, in which cloud spacing is closer than that found for the overall cloud field and which maintains its identity over many cloud lifetimes. This "mutual protection hypothesis" of Randall and Huffman (1980) has been challenged by the "inhibition hypothesis" of Ramirez et al. (1990) which strongly suggests that the spatial distribution of cumuli must tend toward a regular distribution. A dilemma has resulted because observations have been reported to support both hypotheses. The present work reports a detailed analysis of cumulus cloud field spatial distributions based upon Landsat, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, and Skylab data. Both nearest-neighbor and point-to-cloud cumulative distribution function statistics are investigated. The results show unequivocally that when both large and small clouds are included in the cloud field distribution, the cloud field always has a strong clustering signal. The strength of clustering is largest at cloud diameters of about 200-300 m, diminishing with increasing cloud diameter. In many cases, clusters of small clouds are found which are not closely associated with large clouds. As the small clouds are eliminated from consideration, the cloud field typically tends towards regularity. Thus it would appear that the "inhibition hypothesis" of Ramirez and Bras (1990) has been verified for the large clouds. However, these results are based upon the analysis of point processes. A more exact analysis also is made which takes into account the cloud size distributions. Since distinct clouds are by definition nonoverlapping, cloud size effects place a restriction upon the possible locations of clouds in the cloud field. The net effect of this analysis is that the large clouds appear to be randomly distributed, with only weak tendencies towards

  6. The spectral energy distribution of the scattered light from dark clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattila, Kalevi; Schnur, G. F. O.

    1989-01-01

    A dark cloud is exposed to the ambient radiation field of integrated starlight in the Galaxy. Scattering of starlight by the dust particles gives rise to a diffuse surface brightness of the dark nebula. The intensity and the spectrum of this diffuse radiation can be used to investigate, e.g., the scattering parameters of the dust, the optical thickness of the cloud, and as a probe of the ambient radiation field at the location of the cloud. An understanding of the scattering process is also a prerequisite for the isolation of broad spectral features due to fluorescence or to any other non-scattering origin of the diffuse light. Model calculations are presented for multiple scattering in a spherical cloud. These calculations show that the different spectral shapes of the observed diffuse light can be reproduced with standard dust parameters. The possibility to use the observed spectrum as a diagnostic tool for analyzing the thickness of the cloud and the dust particle is discussed.

  7. Cloud occurrences and cloud radiative effects (CREs) from CERES-CALIPSO-CloudSat-MODIS (CCCM) and CloudSat radar-lidar (RL) products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ham, Seung-Hee; Kato, Seiji; Rose, Fred G.; Winker, David; L'Ecuyer, Tristan; Mace, Gerald G.; Painemal, David; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Chen, Yan; Miller, Walter F.

    2017-08-01

    Two kinds of cloud products obtained from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), CloudSat, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are compared and analyzed in this study: Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)-CALIPSO-CloudSat-MODIS (CCCM) product and CloudSat radar-lidar products such as GEOPROF-LIDAR and FLXHR-LIDAR. Compared to GEOPROF-LIDAR, low-level (40°). The difference occurs when hydrometeors are detected by CALIPSO lidar but are undetected by CloudSat radar. In the comparison of cloud radiative effects (CREs), global mean differences between CCCM and FLXHR-LIDAR are mostly smaller than 5 W m-2, while noticeable regional differences are found. For example, CCCM shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) CREs are larger than FXLHR-LIDAR along the west coasts of Africa and America because the GEOPROF-LIDAR algorithm misses shallow marine boundary layer clouds. In addition, FLXHR-LIDAR SW CREs are larger than the CCCM counterpart over tropical oceans away from the west coasts of America. Over midlatitude storm-track regions, CCCM SW and LW CREs are larger than the FLXHR-LIDAR counterpart.

  8. Relation of Cloud Occurrence Frequency, Overlap, and Effective Thickness Derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat Merged Cloud Vertical Profiles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, Seiji; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Miller, Walter F.; Rose, Fred G.; Chen, Yan; Minnis, Patrick; Wielicki, Bruce A.

    2009-01-01

    A cloud frequency of occurrence matrix is generated using merged cloud vertical profile derived from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR). The matrix contains vertical profiles of cloud occurrence frequency as a function of the uppermost cloud top. It is shown that the cloud fraction and uppermost cloud top vertical pro les can be related by a set of equations when the correlation distance of cloud occurrence, which is interpreted as an effective cloud thickness, is introduced. The underlying assumption in establishing the above relation is that cloud overlap approaches the random overlap with increasing distance separating cloud layers and that the probability of deviating from the random overlap decreases exponentially with distance. One month of CALIPSO and CloudSat data support these assumptions. However, the correlation distance sometimes becomes large, which might be an indication of precipitation. The cloud correlation distance is equivalent to the de-correlation distance introduced by Hogan and Illingworth [2000] when cloud fractions of both layers in a two-cloud layer system are the same.

  9. Single particle analysis of ice crystal residuals observed in orographic wave clouds over Scandinavia during INTACC experiment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. C. Targino

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Individual ice crystal residual particles collected over Scandinavia during the INTACC (INTeraction of Aerosol and Cold Clouds experiment in October 1999 were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM equipped with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX. Samples were collected onboard the British Met Office Hercules C-130 aircraft using a Counterflow Virtual Impactor (CVI. This study is based on six samples collected in orographic clouds. The main aim of this study is to characterize cloud residual elemental composition in conditions affected by different airmasses. In total 609 particles larger than 0.1 μm diameter were analyzed and their elemental composition and morphology were determined. Thereafter a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the signal detected with SEM-EDX in order to identify the major particle classes and their abundance. A cluster containing mineral dust, represented by aluminosilicates, Fe-rich and Si-rich particles, was the dominating class of particles, accounting for about 57.5% of the particles analyzed, followed by low-Z particles, 23.3% (presumably organic material and sea salt (6.7%. Sulfur was detected often across all groups, indicating ageing and in-cloud processing of particles. A detailed inspection of samples individually unveiled a relationship between ice crystal residual composition and airmass origin. Cloud residual samples from clean airmasses (that is, trajectories confined to the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and/or with source altitude in the free troposphere were dominated primarily by low-Z and sea salt particles, while continentally-influenced airmasses (with trajectories that originated or traveled over continental areas and with source altitude in the continental boundary layer contained mainly mineral dust residuals. Comparison of residual composition for similar cloud ambient temperatures around –27°C revealed that supercooled clouds are more likely to persist in conditions where

  10. Size-density relations in dark clouds: Non-LTE effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maloney, P.

    1986-01-01

    One of the major goals of molecular astronomy has been to understand the physics and dynamics of dense interstellar clouds. Because the interpretation of observations of giant molecular clouds is complicated by their very complex structure and the dynamical effects of star formation, a number of studies have concentrated on dark clouds. Leung, Kutner and Mead (1982) (hereafter LKM) and Myers (1983), in studies of CO and NH3 emission, concluded that dark clouds exhibit significant correlations between linewidth and cloud radius of the form delta v varies as R(0.5) and between mean density and radius of the form n varies as R(-1), as originally suggested by Larson (1981). This result suggests that these objects are in virial equilibrium. However, the mean densities inferred from the CO data of LKM are based on an local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) analysis of their 13CO data. At the very low mean densities inferred by LKM for the larger clouds in their samples, the assumption of LTE becomes very questionable. As most of the range in R in the density-size correlation comes from the clouds observed in CO, it seems worthwhile to examine how non-LTE effects will influence the derived densities. One way to assess the validity of LTE-derived densities is to construct cloud models and then to interpret them in the same way as the observed data. Microturbulent models of inhomogeneous clouds of varying central concentration with the linewidth-size and mean density-size relations found by Myers show sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO line in the larger clouds, with the result that LTE analysis considerbly underestimates the actual column density. A more general approach which doesn't require detailed modeling of the clouds is to consider whether the observed T sub R*(13CO)/T sub R*(12CO) ratios in the clouds studied by LKM are in the range where the LTE-derived optical depths (and hence column densities) can be seriously in error due to sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO

  11. Intrusion detection in cloud computing based attack patterns and risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ben Charhi Youssef

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper is an extension of work originally presented in SYSCO CONF.We extend our previous work by presenting the initial results of the implementation of intrusion detection based on risk assessment on cloud computing. The idea focuses on a novel approach for detecting cyber-attacks on the cloud environment by analyzing attacks pattern using risk assessment methodologies. The aim of our solution is to combine evidences obtained from Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS deployed in a cloud with risk assessment related to each attack pattern. Our approach presents a new qualitative solution for analyzing each symptom, indicator and vulnerability analyzing impact and likelihood of distributed and multi-steps attacks directed to cloud environments. The implementation of this approach will reduce the number of false alerts and will improve the performance of the IDS.

  12. Contrasting Cloud Composition Between Coupled and Decoupled Marine Boundary Layer Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    WANG, Z.; Mora, M.; Dadashazar, H.; MacDonald, A.; Crosbie, E.; Bates, K. H.; Coggon, M. M.; Craven, J. S.; Xian, P.; Campbell, J. R.; AzadiAghdam, M.; Woods, R. K.; Jonsson, H.; Flagan, R. C.; Seinfeld, J.; Sorooshian, A.

    2016-12-01

    Marine stratocumulus clouds often become decoupled from the vertical layer immediately above the ocean surface. This study contrasts cloud chemical composition between coupled and decoupled marine stratocumulus clouds. Cloud water and droplet residual particle composition were measured in clouds off the California coast during three airborne experiments in July-August of separate years (E-PEACE 2011, NiCE 2013, BOAS 2015). Decoupled clouds exhibited significantly lower overall mass concentrations in both cloud water and droplet residual particles, consistent with reduced cloud droplet number concentration and sub-cloud aerosol (Dp > 100 nm) number concentration, owing to detachment from surface sources. Non-refractory sub-micrometer aerosol measurements show that coupled clouds exhibit higher sulfate mass fractions in droplet residual particles, owing to more abundant precursor emissions from the ocean and ships. Consequently, decoupled clouds exhibited higher mass fractions of organics, nitrate, and ammonium in droplet residual particles, owing to effects of long-range transport from more distant sources. Total cloud water mass concentration in coupled clouds was dominated by sodium and chloride, and their mass fractions and concentrations exceeded those in decoupled clouds. Conversely, with the exception of sea salt constituents (e.g., Cl, Na, Mg, K), cloud water mass fractions of all species examined were higher in decoupled clouds relative to coupled clouds. These results suggest that an important variable is the extent to which clouds are coupled to the surface layer when interpreting microphysical data relevant to clouds and aerosol particles.

  13. Context-aware distributed cloud computing using CloudScheduler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seuster, R.; Leavett-Brown, CR; Casteels, K.; Driemel, C.; Paterson, M.; Ring, D.; Sobie, RJ; Taylor, RP; Weldon, J.

    2017-10-01

    The distributed cloud using the CloudScheduler VM provisioning service is one of the longest running systems for HEP workloads. It has run millions of jobs for ATLAS and Belle II over the past few years using private and commercial clouds around the world. Our goal is to scale the distributed cloud to the 10,000-core level, with the ability to run any type of application (low I/O, high I/O and high memory) on any cloud. To achieve this goal, we have been implementing changes that utilize context-aware computing designs that are currently employed in the mobile communication industry. Context-awareness makes use of real-time and archived data to respond to user or system requirements. In our distributed cloud, we have many opportunistic clouds with no local HEP services, software or storage repositories. A context-aware design significantly improves the reliability and performance of our system by locating the nearest location of the required services. We describe how we are collecting and managing contextual information from our workload management systems, the clouds, the virtual machines and our services. This information is used not only to monitor the system but also to carry out automated corrective actions. We are incrementally adding new alerting and response services to our distributed cloud. This will enable us to scale the number of clouds and virtual machines. Further, a context-aware design will enable us to run analysis or high I/O application on opportunistic clouds. We envisage an open-source HTTP data federation (for example, the DynaFed system at CERN) as a service that would provide us access to existing storage elements used by the HEP experiments.

  14. AceCloud: Molecular Dynamics Simulations in the Cloud.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvey, M J; De Fabritiis, G

    2015-05-26

    We present AceCloud, an on-demand service for molecular dynamics simulations. AceCloud is designed to facilitate the secure execution of large ensembles of simulations on an external cloud computing service (currently Amazon Web Services). The AceCloud client, integrated into the ACEMD molecular dynamics package, provides an easy-to-use interface that abstracts all aspects of interaction with the cloud services. This gives the user the experience that all simulations are running on their local machine, minimizing the learning curve typically associated with the transition to using high performance computing services.

  15. VMware private cloud computing with vCloud director

    CERN Document Server

    Gallagher, Simon

    2013-01-01

    It's All About Delivering Service with vCloud Director Empowered by virtualization, companies are not just moving into the cloud, they're moving into private clouds for greater security, flexibility, and cost savings. However, this move involves more than just infrastructure. It also represents a different business model and a new way to provide services. In this detailed book, VMware vExpert Simon Gallagher makes sense of private cloud computing for IT administrators. From basic cloud theory and strategies for adoption to practical implementation, he covers all the issues. You'll lea

  16. Quality of Experience Assessment of Video Quality in Social Clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asif Ali Laghari

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Video sharing on social clouds is popular among the users around the world. High-Definition (HD videos have big file size so the storing in cloud storage and streaming of videos with high quality from cloud to the client are a big problem for service providers. Social clouds compress the videos to save storage and stream over slow networks to provide quality of service (QoS. Compression of video decreases the quality compared to original video and parameters are changed during the online play as well as after download. Degradation of video quality due to compression decreases the quality of experience (QoE level of end users. To assess the QoE of video compression, we conducted subjective (QoE experiments by uploading, sharing, and playing videos from social clouds. Three popular social clouds, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, were selected to upload and play videos online for users. The QoE was recorded by using questionnaire given to users to provide their experience about the video quality they perceive. Results show that Facebook and Twitter compressed HD videos more as compared to other clouds. However, Facebook gives a better quality of compressed videos compared to Twitter. Therefore, users assigned low ratings for Twitter for online video quality compared to Tumblr that provided high-quality online play of videos with less compression.

  17. Photometric Metallicities of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Amy Elizabeth

    2018-06-01

    In the field of astronomy, the study of galaxies is vitally important to understanding the structure and evolution of the universe. Within the study of galaxies, of particular interest are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC, respectively), two of the Milky Way’s closest and most massive satellite galaxies. Their close proximity make them ideal candidates for understanding astrophysical processes such as galaxy interactions. In order to fully understand the Magellanic Clouds, it is imperative that the metallicity of the clouds be mapped in detail. In order to accomplish this task, I will use data from the Survey of Magellanic Stellar History (SMASH) which is a deep, multi-band (ugriz) photometric survey of the Magellanic Clouds that contains approximately 400 million objects in 197 fully-calibrated fields. SMASH is an extensive and deep photometric data set that enables the full-scale study of the galactic structure in the Clouds. The SMASH u-band is sensitive to metallicity for main-sequence turn-off stars which we calibrate using SDSS spectroscopy in overlapping regions (mainly standard star fields). The final steps will be to make metallicity maps of the main bodies and peripheries of the LMC and SMC. Ultimately, these metallicity maps will help us trace out population gradients in the Clouds and uncover the origin of their very extended stellar peripheries.

  18. The role of clouds and oceans in global greenhouse warming

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoffert, M.I.

    1992-12-01

    During the past three years we have conducted several studies using models and a combination of satellite data, in situ meteorological and oceanic data, and paleoclimate reconstructions, under the DoE program, ''Quantifying the Link Between Change in Radiative Balance and Atmospheric Temperature''. Our goals were to investigate effects of global cloudiness variations on global climate and their implications for cloud feedback and continue development and application of NYU transient climate/ocean models, with emphasis on coupled effects of greenhouse warming and feedbacks by both the clouds and oceans. Our original research plan emphasized the use of cloud, surface temperature and ocean data sets interpreted by focused climate/ocean models to develop a cloud radiative forcing scenario for the past 100 years and to assess the transient climate response; to narrow key uncertainties in the system; and to identify those aspects of the climate system most likely to be affected by greenhouse warming over short, medium and long time scales

  19. Origin of the atmospheres of the earth and the planets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, Z M

    1978-06-01

    From a systematic analysis of the whole history of the protoplanetary cloud and the observational facts of the earth's atmosphere, new theory is proposed on the origin of the atmospheres of the earth and the planets. For the earth-like planets, there were profound primordial atmospheres originated from the protoplanetary cloud by the accretion of the embryoes of planets. These primordial atmospheres has existed in a time scale of 10/sup 3/ to 10/sup 7/ years and were composed of chemically reducing gases. The presence of such a reducing atmosphere may be of great significance to the theories of cosmogony and the origin of life. The contents are as follows: the escape of the nebulae and the planetary atmospheres, the blowing-off of the atmospheres and the disspiation of gases driven by the solar wind, the accretion of gases by the planetary embryoes, the primordial atmospheres.

  20. A SEARCH FOR DUST EMISSION IN THE LEO INTERGALACTIC CLOUD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bot, Caroline; Helou, George; Puget, Jeremie; Latter, William B.; Schneider, Stephen; Terzian, Yervant

    2009-01-01

    We present a search for infrared dust emission associated with the Leo cloud, a large intergalactic cloud in the M96 group. Mid-infrared and far-infrared images were obtained with the InfraRed Array Camera and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our analysis of these maps is done at each wavelength relative to the H I spatial distribution. We observe a probable detection at 8 μm and a marginal detection at 24 μm associated with the highest H I column densities in the cloud. At 70 and 160 μm, upper limits on the dust emission are deduced. The level of the detection is low so that the possibility of a fortuitous cirrus clump or of an overdensity of extragalactic sources along the line of sight cannot be excluded. If this detection is confirmed, the quantities of dust inferred imply a dust-to-gas ratio in the intergalactic cloud up to a few times solar but no less than 1/20 solar. A confirmed detection would therefore exclude the possibility that the intergalactic cloud has a primordial origin. Instead, this large intergalactic cloud could therefore have been formed through interactions between galaxies in the group.

  1. Creating cloud-free Landsat ETM+ data sets in tropical landscapes: cloud and cloud-shadow removal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebastián Martinuzzi; William A. Gould; Olga M. Ramos Gonzalez

    2007-01-01

    Clouds and cloud shadows are common features of visible and infrared remotelysensed images collected from many parts of the world, particularly in humid and tropical regions. We have developed a simple and semiautomated method to mask clouds and shadows in Landsat ETM+ imagery, and have developed a recent cloud-free composite of multitemporal images for Puerto Rico and...

  2. Gravity, turbulence and the scaling ``laws'' in molecular clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ballesteros-Paredes, Javier

    The so-called Larson (1981) scaling laws found empirically in molecular clouds have been generally interpreted as evidence that the clouds are turbulent and fractal. In the present contribution we discussed how recent observations and models of cloud formation suggest that: (a) these relations are the result of strong observational biases due to the cloud definition itself: since the filling factor of the dense structures is small, by thresholding the column density the computed mean density between clouds is nearly constant, and nearly the same as the threshold (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012). (b) When accounting for column density variations, the velocity dispersion-size relation does not appears anymore. Instead, dense cores populate the upper-left corner of the δ v-R diagram (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (c) Instead of a δ v-R relation, a more appropriate relation seems to be δ v 2 / R = 2 GMΣ, which suggest that clouds are in collapse, rather than supported by turbulence (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (d) These results, along with the shapes of the star formation histories (Hartmann, Ballesteros-Paredes & Heitsch 2012), line profiles of collapsing clouds in numerical simulations (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), core-to-core velocity dispersions (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), time-evolution of the column density PDFs (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b), etc., strongly suggest that the actual source of the non-thermal motions is gravitational collapse of the clouds, so that the turbulent, chaotic component of the motions is only a by-product of the collapse, with no significant ``support" role for the clouds. This result calls into question if the scale-free nature of the motions has a turbulent, origin (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a; Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b, Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012).

  3. Zen of cloud learning cloud computing by examples on Microsoft Azure

    CERN Document Server

    Bai, Haishi

    2014-01-01

    Zen of Cloud: Learning Cloud Computing by Examples on Microsoft Azure provides comprehensive coverage of the essential theories behind cloud computing and the Windows Azure cloud platform. Sharing the author's insights gained while working at Microsoft's headquarters, it presents nearly 70 end-to-end examples with step-by-step guidance on implementing typical cloud-based scenarios.The book is organized into four sections: cloud service fundamentals, cloud solutions, devices and cloud, and system integration and project management. Each chapter contains detailed exercises that provide readers w

  4. TURBULENCE DECAY AND CLOUD CORE RELAXATION IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao, Yang; Law, Chung K.; Xu, Haitao

    2015-01-01

    The turbulent motion within molecular clouds is a key factor controlling star formation. Turbulence supports molecular cloud cores from evolving to gravitational collapse and hence sets a lower bound on the size of molecular cloud cores in which star formation can occur. On the other hand, without a continuous external energy source maintaining the turbulence, such as in molecular clouds, the turbulence decays with an energy dissipation time comparable to the dynamic timescale of clouds, which could change the size limits obtained from Jean's criterion by assuming constant turbulence intensities. Here we adopt scaling relations of physical variables in decaying turbulence to analyze its specific effects on the formation of stars. We find that the decay of turbulence provides an additional approach for Jeans' criterion to be achieved, after which gravitational infall governs the motion of the cloud core. This epoch of turbulence decay is defined as cloud core relaxation. The existence of cloud core relaxation provides a more complete understanding of the effect of the competition between turbulence and gravity on the dynamics of molecular cloud cores and star formation

  5. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CLOUD COMPUTING AND MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING

    OpenAIRE

    Nidhi Rajak*, Diwakar Shukla

    2018-01-01

    Present era is of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and there are number of researches are going on Cloud Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing such security issues, data management, load balancing and so on. Cloud computing provides the services to the end user over Internet and the primary objectives of this computing are resource sharing and pooling among the end users. Mobile Cloud Computing is a combination of Cloud Computing and Mobile Computing. Here, data is stored in...

  6. Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud/Virtual Open Campus Quick Start Guide (Revision 1)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-06-01

    ARL-CR-0816 ● JUNE 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud/Virtual Open...to the originator. ARL-CR-0816 ● JUNE 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT...January 2017 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Cloud/Virtual Open Campus Quick-Start Guide (Revision 1

  7. Review of Cloud Computing and existing Frameworks for Cloud adoption

    OpenAIRE

    Chang, Victor; Walters, Robert John; Wills, Gary

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a selected review for Cloud Computing and explains the benefits and risks of adopting Cloud Computing in a business environment. Although all the risks identified may be associated with two major Cloud adoption challenges, a framework is required to support organisations as they begin to use Cloud and minimise risks of Cloud adoption. Eleven Cloud Computing frameworks are investigated and a comparison of their strengths and limitations is made; the result of the comparison...

  8. The Vela Cloud: A Giant H I Anomaly in the NGC 3256 GROUP

    Science.gov (United States)

    English, Jayanne; Koribalski, B.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Freeman, K. C.; McCain, Claudia F.

    2010-01-01

    We present Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of a galaxy-sized intergalactic H I cloud ("the Vela Cloud") in the NGC 3256 galaxy group. The group contains the prominent merging galaxy NGC 3256, which is surrounded by a number of H I fragments, the tidally disturbed galaxy NGC 3263, and several other peculiar galaxies. The Vela Cloud, with an H I mass of 3-5 × 10^9 M_{⊙}, resides southeast of NGC 3256 and west of NGC 3263, within an area of 9' × 16' (100 kpc × 175 kpc for an adopted distance of 38 Mpc). In our ATCA data the Vela Cloud appears as three diffuse components and contains four density enhancements. The Vela Cloud's properties, together with its group environment, suggest that it has a tidal origin. Each density enhancement contains ˜ 10^{8} M_{⊙} of H I gas, which is sufficient material for the formation of globular cluster progenitors. However, if we represent the enhancements as Bonnor-Ebert spheres, then the pressure of the surrounding H I would need to increase by at least a factor of 9 in order to cause the collapse of an enhancement. Thus we do not expect them to form massive bound stellar systems like super star clusters or tidal dwarf galaxies. Since the H I density enhancements have some properties in common with high-velocity clouds, we explore whether they may evolve to be identified with these starless clouds instead. Original plate material is copyright © the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with their permission. The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under US Government grant NAG W-2166.

  9. Cloud CCN feedback

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hudson, J.G.

    1992-01-01

    Cloud microphysics affects cloud albedo precipitation efficiency and the extent of cloud feedback in response to global warming. Compared to other cloud parameters, microphysics is unique in its large range of variability and the fact that much of the variability is anthropogenic. Probably the most important determinant of cloud microphysics is the spectra of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) which display considerable variability and have a large anthropogenic component. When analyzed in combination three field observation projects display the interrelationship between CCN and cloud microphysics. CCN were measured with the Desert Research Institute (DRI) instantaneous CCN spectrometer. Cloud microphysical measurements were obtained with the National Center for Atmospheric Research Lockheed Electra. Since CCN and cloud microphysics each affect the other a positive feedback mechanism can result

  10. PROCESSING UAV AND LIDAR POINT CLOUDS IN GRASS GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Petras

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Today’s methods of acquiring Earth surface data, namely lidar and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV imagery, non-selectively collect or generate large amounts of points. Point clouds from different sources vary in their properties such as number of returns, density, or quality. We present a set of tools with applications for different types of points clouds obtained by a lidar scanner, structure from motion technique (SfM, and a low-cost 3D scanner. To take advantage of the vertical structure of multiple return lidar point clouds, we demonstrate tools to process them using 3D raster techniques which allow, for example, the development of custom vegetation classification methods. Dense point clouds obtained from UAV imagery, often containing redundant points, can be decimated using various techniques before further processing. We implemented and compared several decimation techniques in regard to their performance and the final digital surface model (DSM. Finally, we will describe the processing of a point cloud from a low-cost 3D scanner, namely Microsoft Kinect, and its application for interaction with physical models. All the presented tools are open source and integrated in GRASS GIS, a multi-purpose open source GIS with remote sensing capabilities. The tools integrate with other open source projects, specifically Point Data Abstraction Library (PDAL, Point Cloud Library (PCL, and OpenKinect libfreenect2 library to benefit from the open source point cloud ecosystem. The implementation in GRASS GIS ensures long term maintenance and reproducibility by the scientific community but also by the original authors themselves.

  11. Electron-microscope study of cloud and fog nuclei

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ogiwara, S; Okita, T

    1952-01-01

    Droplets of clouds on a mountain and of fog in an urban area were captured and the form, nature and size of their nuclei were studied by means of an electron-microscope and by a chamber of constant humidity. These nuclei have similar form and nature to the hygroscopic particles in haze and to the artificially produced combustion particles. No sea-salt nuclei were found in our observations, therefore, sea-spray appears to be an insignificant source of condensation nuclei. It was found that both the cloud and the fog nuclei originated in combustion products which were the mixture of hygroscopic and non-hygroscopic substances, and that the greater part of the nuclei did not contain pure sulfuric acid.

  12. Cloud Governance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Berthing, Hans Henrik

    Denne præsentation beskriver fordele og værdier ved anvendelse af Cloud Computing. Endvidere inddrager resultater fra en række internationale analyser fra ISACA om Cloud Computing.......Denne præsentation beskriver fordele og værdier ved anvendelse af Cloud Computing. Endvidere inddrager resultater fra en række internationale analyser fra ISACA om Cloud Computing....

  13. Comparisons of Satellite-Deduced Overlapping Cloud Properties and CALIPSO CloudSat Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Sun-Mack, Sunny

    2010-01-01

    Introduction to the overlapped cloud properties derived from polar-orbiting (MODIS) and geostationary (GOES-12, -13, Meteosat-8, -9, etc.) meteorological satellites, which are produced at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) cloud research & development team (NASA lead scientist: Dr. Patrick Minnis). Comparison of the LaRC CERES MODIS Edition-3 overlapped cloud properties to the CALIPSO and the CloudSat active sensing data. High clouds and overlapped clouds occur frequently as deduced by CALIPSO (44 & 25%), CloudSat (25 & 4%), and MODIS (37 & 6%). Large fractions of optically-thin cirrus and overlapped clouds are deduced from CALIPSO, but much smaller fractions are from CloudSat and MODIS. For overlapped clouds, the averaged upper-layer CTHs are about 12.8 (CALIPSO), 10.9 (CloudSat) and 10 km (MODIS), and the averaged lower-layer CTHs are about 3.6 (CALIPSO), 3.2 (CloudSat) and 3.9 km (MODIS). Based on comparisons of upper and lower-layer cloud properties as deduced from the MODIS, CALIPSO and CloudSat data, more enhanced passive satellite methods for retrieving thin cirrus and overlapped cloud properties are needed and are under development.

  14. Securing the Cloud Cloud Computer Security Techniques and Tactics

    CERN Document Server

    Winkler, Vic (JR)

    2011-01-01

    As companies turn to cloud computing technology to streamline and save money, security is a fundamental concern. Loss of certain control and lack of trust make this transition difficult unless you know how to handle it. Securing the Cloud discusses making the move to the cloud while securing your peice of it! The cloud offers felxibility, adaptability, scalability, and in the case of security-resilience. This book details the strengths and weaknesses of securing your company's information with different cloud approaches. Attacks can focus on your infrastructure, communications network, data, o

  15. Cloud management and security

    CERN Document Server

    Abbadi, Imad M

    2014-01-01

    Written by an expert with over 15 years' experience in the field, this book establishes the foundations of Cloud computing, building an in-depth and diverse understanding of the technologies behind Cloud computing. In this book, the author begins with an introduction to Cloud computing, presenting fundamental concepts such as analyzing Cloud definitions, Cloud evolution, Cloud services, Cloud deployment types and highlighting the main challenges. Following on from the introduction, the book is divided into three parts: Cloud management, Cloud security, and practical examples. Part one presents the main components constituting the Cloud and federated Cloud infrastructure(e.g., interactions and deployment), discusses management platforms (resources and services), identifies and analyzes the main properties of the Cloud infrastructure, and presents Cloud automated management services: virtual and application resource management services. Part two analyzes the problem of establishing trustworthy Cloud, discuss...

  16. Cloud computing patterns fundamentals to design, build, and manage cloud applications

    CERN Document Server

    Fehling, Christoph; Retter, Ralph; Schupeck, Walter; Arbitter, Peter

    2014-01-01

    The current work provides CIOs, software architects, project managers, developers, and cloud strategy initiatives with a set of architectural patterns that offer nuggets of advice on how to achieve common cloud computing-related goals. The cloud computing patterns capture knowledge and experience in an abstract format that is independent of concrete vendor products. Readers are provided with a toolbox to structure cloud computing strategies and design cloud application architectures. By using this book cloud-native applications can be implemented and best suited cloud vendors and tooling for i

  17. Application of cloud database in the management of clinical data of patients with skin diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Xiao-fei; Liu, Rui; DU, Wei; Fan, Xue; Chen, Dian; Zuo, Ya-gang; Sun, Qiu-ning

    2015-04-01

    To evaluate the needs and applications of using cloud database in the daily practice of dermatology department. The cloud database was established for systemic scleroderma and localized scleroderma. Paper forms were used to record the original data including personal information, pictures, specimens, blood biochemical indicators, skin lesions,and scores of self-rating scales. The results were input into the cloud database. The applications of the cloud database in the dermatology department were summarized and analyzed. The personal and clinical information of 215 systemic scleroderma patients and 522 localized scleroderma patients were included and analyzed using the cloud database. The disease status,quality of life, and prognosis were obtained by statistical calculations. The cloud database can efficiently and rapidly store and manage the data of patients with skin diseases. As a simple, prompt, safe, and convenient tool, it can be used in patients information management, clinical decision-making, and scientific research.

  18. Military clouds: utilization of cloud computing systems at the battlefield

    Science.gov (United States)

    Süleyman, Sarıkürk; Volkan, Karaca; İbrahim, Kocaman; Ahmet, Şirzai

    2012-05-01

    Cloud computing is known as a novel information technology (IT) concept, which involves facilitated and rapid access to networks, servers, data saving media, applications and services via Internet with minimum hardware requirements. Use of information systems and technologies at the battlefield is not new. Information superiority is a force multiplier and is crucial to mission success. Recent advances in information systems and technologies provide new means to decision makers and users in order to gain information superiority. These developments in information technologies lead to a new term, which is known as network centric capability. Similar to network centric capable systems, cloud computing systems are operational today. In the near future extensive use of military clouds at the battlefield is predicted. Integrating cloud computing logic to network centric applications will increase the flexibility, cost-effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of network-centric capabilities. In this paper, cloud computing and network centric capability concepts are defined. Some commercial cloud computing products and applications are mentioned. Network centric capable applications are covered. Cloud computing supported battlefield applications are analyzed. The effects of cloud computing systems on network centric capability and on the information domain in future warfare are discussed. Battlefield opportunities and novelties which might be introduced to network centric capability by cloud computing systems are researched. The role of military clouds in future warfare is proposed in this paper. It was concluded that military clouds will be indispensible components of the future battlefield. Military clouds have the potential of improving network centric capabilities, increasing situational awareness at the battlefield and facilitating the settlement of information superiority.

  19. Clustering, randomness, and regularity in cloud fields. 4: Stratocumulus cloud fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, J.; Chou, J.; Weger, R. C.; Welch, R. M.

    1994-01-01

    To complete the analysis of the spatial distribution of boundary layer cloudiness, the present study focuses on nine stratocumulus Landsat scenes. The results indicate many similarities between stratocumulus and cumulus spatial distributions. Most notably, at full spatial resolution all scenes exhibit a decidedly clustered distribution. The strength of the clustering signal decreases with increasing cloud size; the clusters themselves consist of a few clouds (less than 10), occupy a small percentage of the cloud field area (less than 5%), contain between 20% and 60% of the cloud field population, and are randomly located within the scene. In contrast, stratocumulus in almost every respect are more strongly clustered than are cumulus cloud fields. For instance, stratocumulus clusters contain more clouds per cluster, occupy a larger percentage of the total area, and have a larger percentage of clouds participating in clusters than the corresponding cumulus examples. To investigate clustering at intermediate spatial scales, the local dimensionality statistic is introduced. Results obtained from this statistic provide the first direct evidence for regularity among large (more than 900 m in diameter) clouds in stratocumulus and cumulus cloud fields, in support of the inhibition hypothesis of Ramirez and Bras (1990). Also, the size compensated point-to-cloud cumulative distribution function statistic is found to be necessary to obtain a consistent description of stratocumulus cloud distributions. A hypothesis regarding the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for cloud clustering is presented. It is suggested that cloud clusters often arise from 4 to 10 triggering events localized within regions less than 2 km in diameter and randomly distributed within the cloud field. As the size of the cloud surpasses the scale of the triggering region, the clustering signal weakens and the larger cloud locations become more random.

  20. Clustering, randomness, and regularity in cloud fields. 4. Stratocumulus cloud fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, J.; Chou, J.; Weger, R. C.; Welch, R. M.

    1994-07-01

    To complete the analysis of the spatial distribution of boundary layer cloudiness, the present study focuses on nine stratocumulus Landsat scenes. The results indicate many similarities between stratocumulus and cumulus spatial distributions. Most notably, at full spatial resolution all scenes exhibit a decidedly clustered distribution. The strength of the clustering signal decreases with increasing cloud size; the clusters themselves consist of a few clouds (less than 10), occupy a small percentage of the cloud field area (less than 5%), contain between 20% and 60% of the cloud field population, and are randomly located within the scene. In contrast, stratocumulus in almost every respect are more strongly clustered than are cumulus cloud fields. For instance, stratocumulus clusters contain more clouds per cluster, occupy a larger percentage of the total area, and have a larger percentage of clouds participating in clusters than the corresponding cumulus examples. To investigate clustering at intermediate spatial scales, the local dimensionality statistic is introduced. Results obtained from this statistic provide the first direct evidence for regularity among large (>900 m in diameter) clouds in stratocumulus and cumulus cloud fields, in support of the inhibition hypothesis of Ramirez and Bras (1990). Also, the size compensated point-to-cloud cumulative distribution function statistic is found to be necessary to obtain a consistent description of stratocumulus cloud distributions. A hypothesis regarding the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for cloud clustering is presented. It is suggested that cloud clusters often arise from 4 to 10 triggering events localized within regions less than 2 km in diameter and randomly distributed within the cloud field. As the size of the cloud surpasses the scale of the triggering region, the clustering signal weakens and the larger cloud locations become more random.

  1. Cloud blueprints for integrating and managing cloud federations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Papazoglou, M.; Heisel, M.

    2012-01-01

    Contemporary cloud technologies face insurmountable obstacles. They follow a pull-based, producer-centric trajectory to development where cloud consumers have to ‘squeeze and bolt’ applications onto cloud APIs. They also introduce a monolithic SaaS/PaaS/IaaS stack where a one-size-fits-all mentality

  2. Galaxy CloudMan: delivering cloud compute clusters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afgan, Enis; Baker, Dannon; Coraor, Nate; Chapman, Brad; Nekrutenko, Anton; Taylor, James

    2010-12-21

    Widespread adoption of high-throughput sequencing has greatly increased the scale and sophistication of computational infrastructure needed to perform genomic research. An alternative to building and maintaining local infrastructure is "cloud computing", which, in principle, offers on demand access to flexible computational infrastructure. However, cloud computing resources are not yet suitable for immediate "as is" use by experimental biologists. We present a cloud resource management system that makes it possible for individual researchers to compose and control an arbitrarily sized compute cluster on Amazon's EC2 cloud infrastructure without any informatics requirements. Within this system, an entire suite of biological tools packaged by the NERC Bio-Linux team (http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux) is available for immediate consumption. The provided solution makes it possible, using only a web browser, to create a completely configured compute cluster ready to perform analysis in less than five minutes. Moreover, we provide an automated method for building custom deployments of cloud resources. This approach promotes reproducibility of results and, if desired, allows individuals and labs to add or customize an otherwise available cloud system to better meet their needs. The expected knowledge and associated effort with deploying a compute cluster in the Amazon EC2 cloud is not trivial. The solution presented in this paper eliminates these barriers, making it possible for researchers to deploy exactly the amount of computing power they need, combined with a wealth of existing analysis software, to handle the ongoing data deluge.

  3. Cloud blueprint : A model-driven approach to configuring federated clouds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Papazoglou, M.; Abello, A.; Bellatreche, L.; Benatallah, B.

    2012-01-01

    Current cloud solutions are fraught with problems. They introduce a monolithic cloud stack that imposes vendor lock-in and donot permit developers to mix and match services freely from diverse cloud service tiers and configure them dynamically to address application needs. Cloud blueprinting is a

  4. A cloud-based data network approach for translational cancer research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xing, Wei; Tsoumakos, Dimitrios; Ghanem, Moustafa

    2015-01-01

    We develop a new model and associated technology for constructing and managing self-organizing data to support translational cancer research studies. We employ a semantic content network approach to address the challenges of managing cancer research data. Such data is heterogeneous, large, decentralized, growing and continually being updated. Moreover, the data originates from different information sources that may be partially overlapping, creating redundancies as well as contradictions and inconsistencies. Building on the advantages of elasticity of cloud computing, we deploy the cancer data networks on top of the CELAR Cloud platform to enable more effective processing and analysis of Big cancer data.

  5. Thin Cloud Detection Method by Linear Combination Model of Cloud Image

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, L.; Li, J.; Wang, Y.; Xiao, Y.; Zhang, W.; Zhang, S.

    2018-04-01

    The existing cloud detection methods in photogrammetry often extract the image features from remote sensing images directly, and then use them to classify images into cloud or other things. But when the cloud is thin and small, these methods will be inaccurate. In this paper, a linear combination model of cloud images is proposed, by using this model, the underlying surface information of remote sensing images can be removed. So the cloud detection result can become more accurate. Firstly, the automatic cloud detection program in this paper uses the linear combination model to split the cloud information and surface information in the transparent cloud images, then uses different image features to recognize the cloud parts. In consideration of the computational efficiency, AdaBoost Classifier was introduced to combine the different features to establish a cloud classifier. AdaBoost Classifier can select the most effective features from many normal features, so the calculation time is largely reduced. Finally, we selected a cloud detection method based on tree structure and a multiple feature detection method using SVM classifier to compare with the proposed method, the experimental data shows that the proposed cloud detection program in this paper has high accuracy and fast calculation speed.

  6. Corona-producing ice clouds: A case study of a cold mid-latitude cirrus layer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sassen, K.; Mace, G.G.; Hallett, J.; Poellot, M.R.

    1998-01-01

    A high (14.0-km), cold (-71.0thinsp degree C) cirrus cloud was studied by ground-based polarization lidar and millimeter radar and aircraft probes on the night of 19 April 1994 from the Cloud and Radiation Testbed site in northern Oklahoma. A rare cirrus cloud lunar corona was generated by this 1 - 2-km-deep cloud, thus providing an opportunity to measure the composition in situ, which had previously been assumed only on the basis of lidar depolarization data and simple diffraction theory for spheres. In this case, corona ring analysis indicated an effective particle diameter of ∼22 μm. A variety of in situ data corroborates the approximate ice-particle size derived from the passive retrieval method, especially near the cloud top, where impacted cloud samples show simple solid crystals. The homogeneous freezing of sulfuric acid droplets of stratospheric origin is assumed to be the dominant ice-particle nucleation mode acting in corona-producing cirrus clouds. It is speculated that this process results in a previously unrecognized mode of acid-contaminated ice-particle growth and that such small-particle cold cirrus clouds are potentially a radiatively distinct type of cloud. copyright 1998 Optical Society of America

  7. Essentials of cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Chandrasekaran, K

    2014-01-01

    ForewordPrefaceComputing ParadigmsLearning ObjectivesPreambleHigh-Performance ComputingParallel ComputingDistributed ComputingCluster ComputingGrid ComputingCloud ComputingBiocomputingMobile ComputingQuantum ComputingOptical ComputingNanocomputingNetwork ComputingSummaryReview PointsReview QuestionsFurther ReadingCloud Computing FundamentalsLearning ObjectivesPreambleMotivation for Cloud ComputingThe Need for Cloud ComputingDefining Cloud ComputingNIST Definition of Cloud ComputingCloud Computing Is a ServiceCloud Computing Is a Platform5-4-3 Principles of Cloud computingFive Essential Charact

  8. CLOUD PARAMETERIZATIONS, CLOUD PHYSICS, AND THEIR CONNECTIONS: AN OVERVIEW

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LIU, Y.; DAUM, P.H.; CHAI, S.K.; LIU, F.

    2002-01-01

    This paper consists of three parts. The first part is concerned with the parameterization of cloud microphysics in climate models. We demonstrate the crucial importance of spectral dispersion of the cloud droplet size distribution in determining radiative properties of clouds (e.g., effective radius), and underline the necessity of specifying spectral dispersion in the parameterization of cloud microphysics. It is argued that the inclusion of spectral dispersion makes the issue of cloud parameterization essentially equivalent to that of the droplet size distribution function, bringing cloud parameterization to the forefront of cloud physics. The second part is concerned with theoretical investigations into the spectral shape of droplet size distributions in cloud physics. After briefly reviewing the mainstream theories (including entrainment and mixing theories, and stochastic theories), we discuss their deficiencies and the need for a paradigm shift from reductionist approaches to systems approaches. A systems theory that has recently been formulated by utilizing ideas from statistical physics and information theory is discussed, along with the major results derived from it. It is shown that the systems formalism not only easily explains many puzzles that have been frustrating the mainstream theories, but also reveals such new phenomena as scale-dependence of cloud droplet size distributions. The third part is concerned with the potential applications of the systems theory to the specification of spectral dispersion in terms of predictable variables and scale-dependence under different fluctuating environments

  9. Secure cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Jajodia, Sushil; Samarati, Pierangela; Singhal, Anoop; Swarup, Vipin; Wang, Cliff

    2014-01-01

    This book presents a range of cloud computing security challenges and promising solution paths. The first two chapters focus on practical considerations of cloud computing. In Chapter 1, Chandramouli, Iorga, and Chokani describe the evolution of cloud computing and the current state of practice, followed by the challenges of cryptographic key management in the cloud. In Chapter 2, Chen and Sion present a dollar cost model of cloud computing and explore the economic viability of cloud computing with and without security mechanisms involving cryptographic mechanisms. The next two chapters addres

  10. Comparison of Cloud Properties from CALIPSO-CloudSat and Geostationary Satellite Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, L.; Minnis, P.; Chang, F.; Winker, D.; Sun-Mack, S.; Spangenberg, D.; Austin, R.

    2007-01-01

    Cloud properties are being derived in near-real time from geostationary satellite imager data for a variety of weather and climate applications and research. Assessment of the uncertainties in each of the derived cloud parameters is essential for confident use of the products. Determination of cloud amount, cloud top height, and cloud layering is especially important for using these real -time products for applications such as aircraft icing condition diagnosis and numerical weather prediction model assimilation. Furthermore, the distribution of clouds as a function of altitude has become a central component of efforts to evaluate climate model cloud simulations. Validation of those parameters has been difficult except over limited areas where ground-based active sensors, such as cloud radars or lidars, have been available on a regular basis. Retrievals of cloud properties are sensitive to the surface background, time of day, and the clouds themselves. Thus, it is essential to assess the geostationary satellite retrievals over a variety of locations. The availability of cloud radar data from CloudSat and lidar data from CALIPSO make it possible to perform those assessments over each geostationary domain at 0130 and 1330 LT. In this paper, CloudSat and CALIPSO data are matched with contemporaneous Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT), and Meteosat-8 data. Unlike comparisons with cloud products derived from A-Train imagers, this study considers comparisons of nadir active sensor data with off-nadir retrievals. These matched data are used to determine the uncertainties in cloud-top heights and cloud amounts derived from the geostationary satellite data using the Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy System (CERES) cloud retrieval algorithms. The CERES multi-layer cloud detection method is also evaluated to determine its accuracy and limitations in the off-nadir mode. The results will be useful for

  11. Role of orbital dynamics and cloud-cloud collisions in the formation of giant molecular clouds in global spiral structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roberts, W.W. Jr.; Stewart, G.R.

    1987-01-01

    The role of orbit crowding and cloud-cloud collisions in the formation of GMCs and their organization in global spiral structure is investigated. Both N-body simulations of the cloud system and a detailed analysis of individual particle orbits are used to develop a conceptual understanding of how individual clouds participate in the collective density response. Detailed comparisons are made between a representative cloud-particle simulation in which the cloud particles collide inelastically with one another and give birth to and subsequently interact with young star associations and stripped down simulations in which the cloud particles are allowed to follow ballistic orbits in the absence of cloud-cloud collisions or any star formation processes. Orbit crowding is then related to the behavior of individual particle trajectories in the galactic potential field. The conceptual picture of how GMCs are formed in the clumpy ISMs of spiral galaxies is formulated, and the results are compared in detail with those published by other authors. 68 references

  12. CLOUD COMPUTING SECURITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ştefan IOVAN

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing reprentes the software applications offered as a service online, but also the software and hardware components from the data center.In the case of wide offerd services for any type of client, we are dealing with a public cloud. In the other case, in wich a cloud is exclusively available for an organization and is not available to the open public, this is consider a private cloud [1]. There is also a third type, called hibrid in which case an user or an organization might use both services available in the public and private cloud. One of the main challenges of cloud computing are to build the trust and ofer information privacy in every aspect of service offerd by cloud computingle. The variety of existing standards, just like the lack of clarity in sustenability certificationis not a real help in building trust. Also appear some questions marks regarding the efficiency of traditionsecurity means that are applied in the cloud domain. Beside the economic and technology advantages offered by cloud, also are some advantages in security area if the information is migrated to cloud. Shared resources available in cloud includes the survey, use of the "best practices" and technology for advance security level, above all the solutions offered by the majority of medium and small businesses, big companies and even some guvermental organizations [2].

  13. Formation of massive, dense cores by cloud-cloud collisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takahira, Ken; Shima, Kazuhiro; Habe, Asao; Tasker, Elizabeth J.

    2018-05-01

    We performed sub-parsec (˜ 0.014 pc) scale simulations of cloud-cloud collisions of two idealized turbulent molecular clouds (MCs) with different masses in the range of (0.76-2.67) × 104 M_{⊙} and with collision speeds of 5-30 km s-1. Those parameters are larger than in Takahira, Tasker, and Habe (2014, ApJ, 792, 63), in which study the colliding system showed a partial gaseous arc morphology that supports the NANTEN observations of objects indicated to be colliding MCs using numerical simulations. Gas clumps with density greater than 10-20 g cm-3 were identified as pre-stellar cores and tracked through the simulation to investigate the effects of the mass of colliding clouds and the collision speeds on the resulting core population. Our results demonstrate that the smaller cloud property is more important for the results of cloud-cloud collisions. The mass function of formed cores can be approximated by a power-law relation with an index γ = -1.6 in slower cloud-cloud collisions (v ˜ 5 km s-1), and is in good agreement with observation of MCs. A faster relative speed increases the number of cores formed in the early stage of collisions and shortens the gas accretion phase of cores in the shocked region, leading to the suppression of core growth. The bending point appears in the high-mass part of the core mass function and the bending point mass decreases with increase in collision speed for the same combination of colliding clouds. The higher-mass part of the core mass function than the bending point mass can be approximated by a power law with γ = -2-3 that is similar to the power index of the massive part of the observed stellar initial mass function. We discuss implications of our results for the massive-star formation in our Galaxy.

  14. Origin and development of comets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kresak, L.

    1989-01-01

    The comets are the most primitive and probably also the oldest members of the solar system. Comet cores are brittle bodies of an irregular shape and of a size of 1 to 10 km whose main component is ice. Around 130 comets move along short-period paths whose aphelia are concentrated in the area of Jupiter. They are in the last stage of development. About 20 comets have periods of 20 to 200 years and feature higher motion stability. Roughly 180 comets have elliptical orbits of a period exceeding 200 years, 200 comets have parabolic and 120 comets have hyperbolic orbits. The most distant comets form the Oort cloud around the solar system consisting of about one billion comets. Comets originated roughly 4.6 thousand million years ago together with planets, probably inside the Oort cloud. (M.D.). 11 figs

  15. Cloud Collaboration: Cloud-Based Instruction for Business Writing Class

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Charlie; Yu, Wei-Chieh Wayne; Wang, Jenny

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing technologies, such as Google Docs, Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, and Microsoft Windows Live, have become increasingly appreciated to the next generation digital learning tools. Cloud computing technologies encourage students' active engagement, collaboration, and participation in their learning, facilitate group work, and support…

  16. ISM chemical abundances in two intermediate-velocity clouds in the line of sight to SN 1987A

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, Siobahn; Bohm-Vitense, Erika

    1988-01-01

    The earliest IUE high-resolution spectra of SN 1987A have been studied and reveal the presence of several clouds in the line of sight to the LMC. In particular, there are two clouds with radial velocities of about 130 km/s and about 180 km/s. These clouds' velocities are between those of Galactic clouds at 0-80 km/s and those of LMC gas at about 270 km/s. Chemical-abundance determinations may help to determine the origin and location of these clouds. Curve-of-growth analysis and 21-cm observations show that they may be underabundant in heavy elements by about a factor of 2 as compared to solar abundances. No depletion indicative of grain formation can be seen.

  17. Identification of clouds and aurorae in optical data images

    CERN Document Server

    Seviour, R; Honary, F

    2003-01-01

    In this paper we present an automatic image recognition technique used to identify clouds and aurorae in digital images, taken with a CCD all-sky imager. The image recognition algorithm uses image segmentation to generate a binary block object image. Object analysis is then performed on the binary block image, the results of which are used to assess whether clouds, aurorae and stars are present in the original image. The need for such an algorithm arises because the optical study of particle precipitation into the Earth's atmosphere by the Ionosphere and Radio Propagation Group at Lancaster generates vast data-sets, over 25 000 images/year, making manual classification of all the images impractical.

  18. The thinking of Cloud computing in the digital construction of the oil companies

    Science.gov (United States)

    CaoLei, Qizhilin; Dengsheng, Lei

    In order to speed up digital construction of the oil companies and enhance productivity and decision-support capabilities while avoiding the disadvantages from the waste of the original process of building digital and duplication of development and input. This paper presents a cloud-based models for the build in the digital construction of the oil companies that National oil companies though the private network will join the cloud data of the oil companies and service center equipment integrated into a whole cloud system, then according to the needs of various departments to prepare their own virtual service center, which can provide a strong service industry and computing power for the Oil companies.

  19. Comparison Between CCCM and CloudSat Radar-Lidar (RL) Cloud and Radiation Products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ham, Seung-Hee; Kato, Seiji; Rose, Fred G.; Sun-Mack, Sunny

    2015-01-01

    To enhance cloud properties, LaRC and CIRA developed each combination algorithm for obtained properties from passive, active and imager in A-satellite constellation. When comparing global cloud fraction each other, LaRC-produced CERES-CALIPSO-CloudSat-MODIS (CCCM) products larger low-level cloud fraction over tropic ocean, while CIRA-produced Radar-Lidar (RL) shows larger mid-level cloud fraction for high latitude region. The reason for different low-level cloud fraction is due to different filtering method of lidar-detected cloud layers. Meanwhile difference in mid-level clouds is occurred due to different priority of cloud boundaries from lidar and radar.

  20. APPLICABILITY ANALYSIS OF CLOTH SIMULATION FILTERING ALGORITHM FOR MOBILE LIDAR POINT CLOUD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Cai

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Classifying the original point clouds into ground and non-ground points is a key step in LiDAR (light detection and ranging data post-processing. Cloth simulation filtering (CSF algorithm, which based on a physical process, has been validated to be an accurate, automatic and easy-to-use algorithm for airborne LiDAR point cloud. As a new technique of three-dimensional data collection, the mobile laser scanning (MLS has been gradually applied in various fields, such as reconstruction of digital terrain models (DTM, 3D building modeling and forest inventory and management. Compared with airborne LiDAR point cloud, there are some different features (such as point density feature, distribution feature and complexity feature for mobile LiDAR point cloud. Some filtering algorithms for airborne LiDAR data were directly used in mobile LiDAR point cloud, but it did not give satisfactory results. In this paper, we explore the ability of the CSF algorithm for mobile LiDAR point cloud. Three samples with different shape of the terrain are selected to test the performance of this algorithm, which respectively yields total errors of 0.44 %, 0.77 % and1.20 %. Additionally, large area dataset is also tested to further validate the effectiveness of this algorithm, and results show that it can quickly and accurately separate point clouds into ground and non-ground points. In summary, this algorithm is efficient and reliable for mobile LiDAR point cloud.

  1. Continuous growth of cloud droplets in cumulus cloud

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gotoh, Toshiyuki; Suehiro, Tamotsu; Saito, Izumi

    2016-01-01

    A new method to seamlessly simulate the continuous growth of droplets advected by turbulent flow inside a cumulus cloud was developed from first principle. A cubic box ascending with a mean updraft inside a cumulus cloud was introduced and the updraft velocity was self-consistently determined in such a way that the mean turbulent velocity within the box vanished. All the degrees of freedom of the cloud droplets and turbulence fields were numerically integrated. The box ascended quickly inside the cumulus cloud due to the updraft and the mean radius of the droplets grew from 10 to 24 μ m for about 10 min. The turbulent flow tended to slow down the time evolutions of the updraft velocity, the box altitude and the mean cloud droplet radius. The size distribution of the cloud droplets in the updraft case was narrower than in the absence of the updraft. It was also found that the wavenumeber spectra of the variances of the temperature and water vapor mixing ratio were nearly constant in the low wavenumber range. The future development of the new method was argued. (paper)

  2. Hidden in the Clouds: New Ideas in Cloud Computing

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2013-01-01

    Abstract: Cloud computing has become a hot topic. But 'cloud' is no newer in 2013 than MapReduce was in 2005: We've been doing both for years. So why is cloud more relevant today than it ever has been? In this presentation, we will introduce the (current) central thesis of cloud computing, and explore how and why (or even whether) the concept has evolved. While we will cover a little light background, our primary focus will be on the consequences, corollaries and techniques introduced by some of the leading cloud developers and organizations. We each have a different deployment model, different applications and workloads, and many of us are still learning to efficiently exploit the platform services offered by a modern implementation. The discussion will offer the opportunity to share these experiences and help us all to realize the benefits of cloud computing to the fullest degree. Please bring questions and opinions, and be ready to share both!   Bio: S...

  3. Cloud Computing

    CERN Document Server

    Antonopoulos, Nick

    2010-01-01

    Cloud computing has recently emerged as a subject of substantial industrial and academic interest, though its meaning and scope is hotly debated. For some researchers, clouds are a natural evolution towards the full commercialisation of grid systems, while others dismiss the term as a mere re-branding of existing pay-per-use technologies. From either perspective, 'cloud' is now the label of choice for accountable pay-per-use access to third party applications and computational resources on a massive scale. Clouds support patterns of less predictable resource use for applications and services a

  4. The CLOUD experiment

    CERN Multimedia

    Maximilien Brice

    2006-01-01

    The Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets (CLOUD) experiment as shown by Jasper Kirkby (spokesperson). Kirkby shows a sketch to illustrate the possible link between galactic cosmic rays and cloud formations. The CLOUD experiment uses beams from the PS accelerator at CERN to simulate the effect of cosmic rays on cloud formations in the Earth's atmosphere. It is thought that cosmic ray intensity is linked to the amount of low cloud cover due to the formation of aerosols, which induce condensation.

  5. Clouds of Venus

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Knollenberg, R G [Particle Measuring Systems, Inc., 1855 South 57th Court, Boulder, Colorado 80301, U.S.A.; Hansen, J [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New York (USA). Goddard Inst. for Space Studies; Ragent, B [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moffett Field, Calif. (USA). Ames Research Center; Martonchik, J [Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, Calif. (USA); Tomasko, M [Arizona Univ., Tucson (USA)

    1977-05-01

    The current state of knowledge of the Venusian clouds is reviewed. The visible clouds of Venus are shown to be quite similar to low level terrestrial hazes of strong anthropogenic influence. Possible nucleation and particle growth mechanisms are presented. The Pioneer Venus experiments that emphasize cloud measurements are described and their expected findings are discussed in detail. The results of these experiments should define the cloud particle composition, microphysics, thermal and radiative heat budget, rough dynamical features and horizontal and vertical variations in these and other parameters. This information should be sufficient to initialize cloud models which can be used to explain the cloud formation, decay, and particle life cycle.

  6. Electron cloud density measurements in accelerator beam-pipe using resonant microwave excitation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sikora, John P., E-mail: jps13@cornell.edu [CLASSE, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States); Carlson, Benjamin T. [Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (United States); Duggins, Danielle O. [Gordon College, Wenham, MA 01984 (United States); Hammond, Kenneth C. [Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States); De Santis, Stefano [LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Tencate, Alister J. [Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209 (United States)

    2014-08-01

    An accelerator beam can generate low energy electrons in the beam-pipe, generally called electron cloud, that can produce instabilities in a positively charged beam. One method of measuring the electron cloud density is by coupling microwaves into and out of the beam-pipe and observing the response of the microwaves to the presence of the electron cloud. In the original technique, microwaves are transmitted through a section of beam-pipe and a change in EC density produces a change in the phase of the transmitted signal. This paper describes a variation on this technique in which the beam-pipe is resonantly excited with microwaves and the electron cloud density calculated from the change that it produces in the resonant frequency of the beam-pipe. The resonant technique has the advantage that measurements can be localized to sections of beam-pipe that are a meter or less in length with a greatly improved signal to noise ratio.

  7. ASTER cloud coverage reassessment using MODIS cloud mask products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tonooka, Hideyuki; Omagari, Kunjuro; Yamamoto, Hirokazu; Tachikawa, Tetsushi; Fujita, Masaru; Paitaer, Zaoreguli

    2010-10-01

    In the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER) Project, two kinds of algorithms are used for cloud assessment in Level-1 processing. The first algorithm based on the LANDSAT-5 TM Automatic Cloud Cover Assessment (ACCA) algorithm is used for a part of daytime scenes observed with only VNIR bands and all nighttime scenes, and the second algorithm based on the LANDSAT-7 ETM+ ACCA algorithm is used for most of daytime scenes observed with all spectral bands. However, the first algorithm does not work well for lack of some spectral bands sensitive to cloud detection, and the two algorithms have been less accurate over snow/ice covered areas since April 2008 when the SWIR subsystem developed troubles. In addition, they perform less well for some combinations of surface type and sun elevation angle. We, therefore, have developed the ASTER cloud coverage reassessment system using MODIS cloud mask (MOD35) products, and have reassessed cloud coverage for all ASTER archived scenes (>1.7 million scenes). All of the new cloud coverage data are included in Image Management System (IMS) databases of the ASTER Ground Data System (GDS) and NASA's Land Process Data Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) and used for ASTER product search by users, and cloud mask images are distributed to users through Internet. Daily upcoming scenes (about 400 scenes per day) are reassessed and inserted into the IMS databases in 5 to 7 days after each scene observation date. Some validation studies for the new cloud coverage data and some mission-related analyses using those data are also demonstrated in the present paper.

  8. Moving HammerCloud to CERN's private cloud

    CERN Document Server

    Barrand, Quentin

    2013-01-01

    HammerCloud is a testing framework for the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. Currently deployed on about 20 hand-managed machines, it was desirable to move it to the Agile Infrastructure, CERN's OpenStack-based private cloud.

  9. Cloud Robotics Platforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Busra Koken

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud robotics is a rapidly evolving field that allows robots to offload computation-intensive and storage-intensive jobs into the cloud. Robots are limited in terms of computational capacity, memory and storage. Cloud provides unlimited computation power, memory, storage and especially collaboration opportunity. Cloud-enabled robots are divided into two categories as standalone and networked robots. This article surveys cloud robotic platforms, standalone and networked robotic works such as grasping, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM and monitoring.

  10. Cloud ERP and Cloud Accounting Software in Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianina MIHAI

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, Cloud Computing becomes a more and more fashionable concept in the IT environment. There is no unanimous opinion on the definition of this concept, as it covers several versions of the newly emerged stage in the IT. But in fact, Cloud Computing should not suggest anything else than simplicity. Thus, in short, simple terms, Cloud Computing can be defined as a solution to use external IT resources (servers, storage media, applications and services, via Internet. Cloud computing is nothing more than the promise of an easy accessible technology. If the promise will eventually turn into something certain yet remains to be seen. In our opinion it is too early to make an assertion. In this article, our purpose is to find out what is the Romanian offer of ERP and Accounting software applications in Cloud and / or as services in SaaS version. Thus, we conducted an extensive study whose results we’ll present in the following.

  11. Security prospects through cloud computing by adopting multiple clouds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Meiko; Schwenk, Jörg; Bohli, Jens Matthias

    2011-01-01

    Clouds impose new security challenges, which are amongst the biggest obstacles when considering the usage of cloud services. This triggered a lot of research activities in this direction, resulting in a quantity of proposals targeting the various security threats. Besides the security issues coming...... with the cloud paradigm, it can also provide a new set of unique features which open the path towards novel security approaches, techniques and architectures. This paper initiates this discussion by contributing a concept which achieves security merits by making use of multiple distinct clouds at the same time....

  12. Radiative properties of clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Twomey, S.

    1993-01-01

    The climatic effects of condensation nuclei in the formation of cloud droplets and the subsequent role of the cloud droplets as contributors to the planetary short-wave albedo is emphasized. Microphysical properties of clouds, which can be greatly modified by the degree of mixing with cloud-free air from outside, are discussed. The effect of clouds on visible radiation is assessed through multiple scattering of the radiation. Cloudwater or ice absorbs more with increasing wavelength in the near-infrared region, with water vapor providing the stronger absorption over narrower wavelength bands. Cloud thermal infrared absorption can be solely related to liquid water content at least for shallow clouds and clouds in the early development state. Three-dimensional general circulation models have been used to study the climatic effect of clouds. It was found for such studies (which did not consider variations in cloud albedo) that the cooling effects due to the increase in planetary short-wave albedo from clouds were offset by heating effects due to thermal infrared absorption by the cloud. Two permanent direct effects of increased pollution are discussed in this chapter: (a) an increase of absorption in the visible and near infrared because of increased amounts of elemental carbon, which gives rise to a warming effect climatically, and (b) an increased optical thickness of clouds due to increasing cloud droplet number concentration caused by increasing cloud condensation nuclei number concentration, which gives rise to a cooling effect climatically. An increase in cloud albedo from 0.7 to 0.87 produces an appreciable climatic perturbation of cooling up to 2.5 K at the ground, using a hemispheric general circulation model. Effects of pollution on cloud thermal infrared absorption are negligible

  13. ACE-2 HILLCLOUD. An overview of the ACE-2 ground-based cloud experiment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bower, B.K.N.; Choularton, T.W.; Gallagher, M.W.

    2000-01-01

    the dependence of the cloud microphysics and chemistry on the characteristics of the aerosols and trace gases entering cloud, and to simultaneously study the influence of the physical and chemical processes occurring within the cloud on the size distribution, chemical and hygroscopic properties of the aerosol......) and higher aerosol mass loadings. Cloud droplet number concentrations N, increased from 50 cm-3 in background maritime air to >2500 cm-3 in aged polluted continental air, a concentration much higher than had previously been detected. Surprisingly, N was seen to vary almost linearly with aerosol number across...... were around 0.3 ppbv even in air originating over the ocean, another unexpected but important result for the region. NO2 was present in background concentrations of typically 15 pptv to 100 pptv and NO3. (the nitrate radical) was observed at night throughout. Calculations suggest NO3. losses were...

  14. CLOUD STORAGE SERVICES

    OpenAIRE

    Yan, Cheng

    2017-01-01

    Cloud computing is a hot topic in recent research and applications. Because it is widely used in various fields. Up to now, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and other famous co partnership have proposed their cloud computing application. Look upon cloud computing as one of the most important strategy in the future. Cloud storage is the lower layer of cloud computing system which supports the service of the other layers above it. At the same time, it is an effective way to store and manage heavy...

  15. CloudSat observations of cloud-type distribution over the Indian summer monsoon region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. V. Subrahmanyam

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The three-dimensional distribution of various cloud types over the Indian summer monsoon (ISM region using five years (2006–2010 of CloudSat observations during June-July-August-September months is discussed for the first time. As the radiative properties, latent heat released and microphysical properties of clouds differ largely depending on the cloud type, it becomes important to know what types of clouds occur over which region. In this regard, the present analysis establishes the three-dimensional distribution of frequency of occurrence of stratus (St, stratocumulus (Sc, nimbostratus (Ns, cumulus (Cu, altocumulus (Ac, altostratus (As, cirrus (Ci and deep convective (DC clouds over the ISM region. The results show that the various cloud types preferentially occur over some regions of the ISM, which are consistent during all the years of observations. It is found that the DC clouds frequently occur over northeast of Bay of Bengal (BoB, Ci clouds over a wide region of south BoB–Indian peninsula–equatorial Indian Ocean, and Sc clouds over the north Arabian Sea. Ac clouds preferentially occur over land, and a large amount of As clouds are found over BoB. The occurrence of both St and Ns clouds over the study region is much lower than all other cloud types.The interannual variability of all these clouds including their vertical distribution is discussed. It is envisaged that the present study opens up possibilities to quantify the feedback of individual cloud type in the maintenance of the ISM through radiative forcing and latent heat release.

  16. Origin of superelectrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fukuhara, M.

    1993-01-01

    The origin of superelectrons lies in the atomic nature. Superelectrons are derived from four special electron pair sets of 1s 2 , 2p 6 , 3d 10 , and 4f 14 , which can be represented as 1 S 0 of s-type spin-singlet pairing in the Russel-Saunders term symbol. Tc increases with the increase of the compressive pressure against these spherical electron clouds by the pinch effect due to excess oxygen in cuprate oxide superconductors and the outermost electrons in the superconducting elements, suggesting the increase of the attractive interaction between electrons. (orig.)

  17. Efficient proof of ownership for cloud storage systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Weiwei; Liu, Zhusong

    2017-08-01

    Cloud storage system through the deduplication technology to save disk space and bandwidth, but the use of this technology has appeared targeted security attacks: the attacker can deceive the server to obtain ownership of the file by get the hash value of original file. In order to solve the above security problems and the different security requirements of the files in the cloud storage system, an efficient and information-theoretical secure proof of ownership sceme is proposed to support the file rating. Through the K-means algorithm to implement file rating, and use random seed technology and pre-calculation method to achieve safe and efficient proof of ownership scheme. Finally, the scheme is information-theoretical secure, and achieve better performance in the most sensitive areas of client-side I/O and computation.

  18. Voyager and the origin of the solar system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Prentice, A.J.R. (Monash Univ., Clayton (Australia). Dept. of Mathematics)

    1983-03-01

    A theory for the origin of the solar system which is based on the original Laplacian nebular hypothesis is outlined. It uses ideas of supersonic convective turbulence and suggests that both planetary and regular satellite systems are formed through condensation from a concentric system of orbiting gas rings. These are shed by the primitive rotating clouds which contract gravitationally to form each central parent body. Predictions about the chemical compositions and masses of the satellite systems of Jupiter and Saturn have been confirmed by the Voyager missions.

  19. Voyager and the origin of the solar system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prentice, A.J.R.

    1983-01-01

    A theory for the origin of the solar system which is based on the original Laplacian nebular hypothesis is outlined. It uses ideas of supersonic convective turbulence and suggests that both planetary and regular satellite systems are formed through condensation from a concentric system of orbiting gas rings. These are shed by the primitive rotating clouds which contract gravitationally to form each central parent body. Predictions about the chemical compositions and masses of the satellite systems of Jupiter and Saturn have been confirmed by the Voyager missions

  20. VMware vCloud security

    CERN Document Server

    Sarkar, Prasenjit

    2013-01-01

    VMware vCloud Security provides the reader with in depth knowledge and practical exercises sufficient to implement a secured private cloud using VMware vCloud Director and vCloud Networking and Security.This book is primarily for technical professionals with system administration and security administration skills with significant VMware vCloud experience who want to learn about advanced concepts of vCloud security and compliance.

  1. Cloud-Based RFID Mutual Authentication Protocol without Leaking Location Privacy to the Cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Dong, Qingkuan; Tong, Jiaqing; Chen, Yuan

    2015-01-01

    With the rapid developments of the IoT (Internet of Things) and the cloud computing, cloud-based RFID systems attract more attention. Users can reduce their cost of deploying and maintaining the RFID system by purchasing cloud services. However, the security threats of cloud-based RFID systems are more serious than those of traditional RFID systems. In cloud-based RFID systems, the connection between the reader and the cloud database is not secure and cloud service provider is not trusted. Th...

  2. Linkage of anthropogenic aerosol to clouds and climate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hudson, J.G.

    1992-01-01

    This progress report describes the monitoring being done to validate a linkage of anthropogenic aerosol to clouds and climate. Equipment and findings are reported. The equipment construction called for in the original proposal has now been competed. These instruments are the high temperature processor, the data acquisition system for the direct Royco optical particle counter (OPC), and modifications to the formvar replicator. The main field effort during the past year has been the shipboard experiment SEAHUNT (Shiptrail Evolution Above High Updraft Naval Targets). There were also some laboratory and local ambient particle measurements and a surface field program on and near the California coast. The shipboard project was not anticipated in the original proposal but the laboratory and surface measurements were along the lines suggested in the original proposal

  3. The cloud radiation impact from optics simulation and airborne observation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melnikova, Irina; Kuznetsov, Anatoly; Gatebe, Charles

    2017-02-01

    The analytical approach of inverse asymptotic formulas of the radiative transfer theory is used for solving inverse problems of cloud optics. The method has advantages because it does not impose strict constraints, but it is tied to the desired solution. Observations are accomplished in extended stratus cloudiness, above a homogeneous ocean surface. Data from NASA`s Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) during two airborne experiments (SAFARI-2000 and ARCTAS-2008) were analyzed. The analytical method of inverse asymptotic formulas was used to retrieve cloud optical parameters (optical thickness, single scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter of the phase function) and ground albedo in all 8 spectral channels independently. The method is free from a priori restrictions and there is no links to parameters, and it has been applied to data set of different origin and geometry of observations. Results obtained from different airborne, satellite and ground radiative experiments appeared consistence and showed common features of values of cloud parameters and its spectral dependence (Vasiluev, Melnikova, 2004; Gatebe et al., 2014). Optical parameters, retrieved here, are used for calculation of radiative divergence, reflected and transmitted irradiance and heating rates in cloudy atmosphere, that agree with previous observational data.

  4. Cloud Computing Bible

    CERN Document Server

    Sosinsky, Barrie

    2010-01-01

    The complete reference guide to the hot technology of cloud computingIts potential for lowering IT costs makes cloud computing a major force for both IT vendors and users; it is expected to gain momentum rapidly with the launch of Office Web Apps later this year. Because cloud computing involves various technologies, protocols, platforms, and infrastructure elements, this comprehensive reference is just what you need if you'll be using or implementing cloud computing.Cloud computing offers significant cost savings by eliminating upfront expenses for hardware and software; its growing popularit

  5. Integrated cloud-aerosol-radiation product using CERES, MODIS, CALIPSO, and CloudSat data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun-Mack, Sunny; Minnis, Patrick; Chen, Yan; Gibson, Sharon; Yi, Yuhong; Trepte, Qing; Wielicki, Bruce; Kato, Seiji; Winker, Dave; Stephens, Graeme; Partain, Philip

    2007-10-01

    This paper documents the development of the first integrated data set of global vertical profiles of clouds, aerosols, and radiation using the combined NASA A-Train data from the Aqua Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), and CloudSat. As part of this effort, cloud data from the CALIPSO lidar and the CloudSat radar are merged with the integrated column cloud properties from the CERES-MODIS analyses. The active and passive datasets are compared to determine commonalities and differences in order to facilitate the development of a 3-dimensional cloud and aerosol dataset that will then be integrated into the CERES broadband radiance footprint. Preliminary results from the comparisons for April 2007 reveal that the CERES-MODIS global cloud amounts are, on average, 0.14 less and 0.15 greater than those from CALIPSO and CloudSat, respectively. These new data will provide unprecedented ability to test and improve global cloud and aerosol models, to investigate aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing, and to validate the accuracy of global aerosol, cloud, and radiation data sets especially in polar regions and for multi-layered cloud conditions.

  6. IBM SmartCloud essentials

    CERN Document Server

    Schouten, Edwin

    2013-01-01

    A practical, user-friendly guide that provides an introduction to cloud computing using IBM SmartCloud, along with a thorough understanding of resource management in a cloud environment.This book is great for anyone who wants to get a grasp of what cloud computing is and what IBM SmartCloud has to offer. If you are an IT specialist, IT architect, system administrator, or a developer who wants to thoroughly understand the cloud computing resource model, this book is ideal for you. No prior knowledge of cloud computing is expected.

  7. Cloud Computing Governance Lifecycle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soňa Karkošková

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Externally provisioned cloud services enable flexible and on-demand sourcing of IT resources. Cloud computing introduces new challenges such as need of business process redefinition, establishment of specialized governance and management, organizational structures and relationships with external providers and managing new types of risk arising from dependency on external providers. There is a general consensus that cloud computing in addition to challenges brings many benefits but it is unclear how to achieve them. Cloud computing governance helps to create business value through obtain benefits from use of cloud computing services while optimizing investment and risk. Challenge, which organizations are facing in relation to governing of cloud services, is how to design and implement cloud computing governance to gain expected benefits. This paper aims to provide guidance on implementation activities of proposed Cloud computing governance lifecycle from cloud consumer perspective. Proposed model is based on SOA Governance Framework and consists of lifecycle for implementation and continuous improvement of cloud computing governance model.

  8. Observations of the interstellar ice grain feature in the Taurus molecular clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whittet, D.C.B.; Longmore, A.J.; Baines, D.W.T.; Evans, A.

    1984-01-01

    Although water ice was originally proposed as a major constituent of the interstellar grain population, the advent of infrared astronomy has shown that the expected absorption due to O-H stretching vibrations at 3 μm is illusive. Observations have in fact revealed that the carrier of this feature is apparently restricted to regions deep within dense molecular clouds. However, the exact carrier of this feature is still controversial, and many questions remain as to the conditions required for its appearance. The Taurus molecular clouds were selected for observations, in the form of a preliminary survey in the 2-4 μm window. It is concluded that the carrier of the 3μm absorption feature appears to reside in the general cloud medium and is probably amorphous water ice. (author)

  9. Continued rise of the cloud advances and trends in cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Mahmood, Zaigham

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing is no-longer a novel paradigm, but instead an increasingly robust and established technology, yet new developments continue to emerge in this area. Continued Rise of the Cloud: Advances and Trends in Cloud Computing captures the state of the art in cloud technologies, infrastructures, and service delivery and deployment models. The book provides guidance and case studies on the development of cloud-based services and infrastructures from an international selection of expert researchers and practitioners. A careful analysis is provided of relevant theoretical frameworks, prac

  10. On the relationship between low cloud variability and lower tropospheric stability in the Southeast Pacific

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Sun

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we examine marine low cloud cover variability in the Southeast Pacific and its association with lower-tropospheric stability (LTS across a spectrum of timescales. On both daily and interannual timescales, LTS and low cloud amount are very well correlated in austral summer (DJF. Meanwhile in winter (JJA, when ambient LTS increases, the LTS–low cloud relationship substantially weakens. The DJF LTS–low cloud relationship also weakens in years with unusually large ambient LTS values. These are generally strong El Niño years, in which DJF LTS values are comparable to those typically found in JJA. Thus the LTS–low cloud relationship is strongly modulated by the seasonal cycle and the ENSO phenomenon. We also investigate the origin of LTS anomalies closely associated with low cloud variability during austral summer. We find that the ocean and atmosphere are independently involved in generating anomalies in LTS and hence variability in the Southeast Pacific low cloud deck. This highlights the importance of the physical (as opposed to chemical component of the climate system in generating internal variability in low cloud cover. It also illustrates the coupled nature of the climate system in this region, and raises the possibility of cloud feedbacks related to LTS. We conclude by addressing the implications of the LTS–low cloud relationship in the Southeast Pacific for low cloud feedbacks in anthropogenic climate change.

  11. Uncover the Cloud for Geospatial Sciences and Applications to Adopt Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, C.; Huang, Q.; Xia, J.; Liu, K.; Li, J.; Xu, C.; Sun, M.; Bambacus, M.; Xu, Y.; Fay, D.

    2012-12-01

    Cloud computing is emerging as the future infrastructure for providing computing resources to support and enable scientific research, engineering development, and application construction, as well as work force education. On the other hand, there is a lot of doubt about the readiness of cloud computing to support a variety of scientific research, development and educations. This research is a project funded by NASA SMD to investigate through holistic studies how ready is the cloud computing to support geosciences. Four applications with different computing characteristics including data, computing, concurrent, and spatiotemporal intensities are taken to test the readiness of cloud computing to support geosciences. Three popular and representative cloud platforms including Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, and NASA Nebula as well as a traditional cluster are utilized in the study. Results illustrates that cloud is ready to some degree but more research needs to be done to fully implemented the cloud benefit as advertised by many vendors and defined by NIST. Specifically, 1) most cloud platform could help stand up new computing instances, a new computer, in a few minutes as envisioned, therefore, is ready to support most computing needs in an on demand fashion; 2) the load balance and elasticity, a defining characteristic, is ready in some cloud platforms, such as Amazon EC2, to support bigger jobs, e.g., needs response in minutes, while some are not ready to support the elasticity and load balance well. All cloud platform needs further research and development to support real time application at subminute level; 3) the user interface and functionality of cloud platforms vary a lot and some of them are very professional and well supported/documented, such as Amazon EC2, some of them needs significant improvement for the general public to adopt cloud computing without professional training or knowledge about computing infrastructure; 4) the security is a big concern in

  12. Cloud Computing Law

    CERN Document Server

    Millard, Christopher

    2013-01-01

    This book is about the legal implications of cloud computing. In essence, ‘the cloud’ is a way of delivering computing resources as a utility service via the internet. It is evolving very rapidly with substantial investments being made in infrastructure, platforms and applications, all delivered ‘as a service’. The demand for cloud resources is enormous, driven by such developments as the deployment on a vast scale of mobile apps and the rapid emergence of ‘Big Data’. Part I of this book explains what cloud computing is and how it works. Part II analyses contractual relationships between cloud service providers and their customers, as well as the complex roles of intermediaries. Drawing on primary research conducted by the Cloud Legal Project at Queen Mary University of London, cloud contracts are analysed in detail, including the appropriateness and enforceability of ‘take it or leave it’ terms of service, as well as the scope for negotiating cloud deals. Specific arrangements for public sect...

  13. Tropical High Cloud Fraction Controlled by Cloud Lifetime Rather Than Clear-sky Convergence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seeley, J.; Jeevanjee, N.; Romps, D. M.

    2016-12-01

    Observations and simulations show a peak in cloud fraction below the tropopause. This peak is usually attributed to a roughly co-located peak in radiatively-driven clear-sky convergence, which is presumed to force convective detrainment and thus promote large cloud fraction. Using simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium forced by various radiative cooling profiles, we refute this mechanism by showing that an upper-tropospheric peak in cloud fraction persists even in simulations with no peak in clear-sky convergence. Instead, cloud fraction profiles seem to be controlled by cloud lifetimes — i.e., how long it takes for clouds to dissipate after they have detrained. A simple model of cloud evaporation shows that the small saturation deficit in the upper troposphere greatly extends cloud lifetimes there, while the large saturation deficit in the lower troposphere causes condensate to evaporate quickly. Since cloud mass flux must go to zero at the tropopause, a peak in cloud fraction emerges at a "sweet spot" below the tropopause where cloud lifetimes are long and there is still sufficient mass flux to be detrained.

  14. Cloud Computing: A study of cloud architecture and its patterns

    OpenAIRE

    Mandeep Handa,; Shriya Sharma

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–server in the early 1980s. Cloud computing can be defined as accessing third party software and services on web and paying as per usage. It facilitates scalability and virtualized resources over Internet as a service providing cost effective and scalable solution to customers. Cloud computing has...

  15. Quantifying Diurnal Cloud Radiative Effects by Cloud Type in the Tropical Western Pacific

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burleyson, Casey D.; Long, Charles N.; Comstock, Jennifer M.

    2015-06-01

    Cloud radiative effects are examined using long-term datasets collected at the three Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facilities in the tropical western Pacific. We quantify the surface radiation budget, cloud populations, and cloud radiative effects by partitioning the data by cloud type, time of day, and as a function of large scale modes of variability such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase and wet/dry seasons at Darwin. The novel facet of our analysis is that we break aggregate cloud radiative effects down by cloud type across the diurnal cycle. The Nauru cloud populations and subsequently the surface radiation budget are strongly impacted by ENSO variability whereas the cloud populations over Manus only shift slightly in response to changes in ENSO phase. The Darwin site exhibits large seasonal monsoon related variations. We show that while deeper convective clouds have a strong conditional influence on the radiation reaching the surface, their limited frequency reduces their aggregate radiative impact. The largest source of shortwave cloud radiative effects at all three sites comes from low clouds. We use the observations to demonstrate that potential model biases in the amplitude of the diurnal cycle and mean cloud frequency would lead to larger errors in the surface energy budget compared to biases in the timing of the diurnal cycle of cloud frequency. Our results provide solid benchmarks to evaluate model simulations of cloud radiative effects in the tropics.

  16. A QoS aware services mashup model for cloud computing applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yee Ming Chen

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: With the popularity of cloud computing, cloud services have become to be application programming platform where users can create new applications mashup(composing the functionality offered byothers.By composing of distributed, cloud services dynamicallyto provide more complex tasks, services mashup provides an attractive way for building large-scale Internetapplications.Oneof the challenging issues of cloud services mashup is how to find service paths to route the service instances provider through whilemeeting the applications’ resource requirements so that the QoS constraints are satisfied. However, QoS aware service routing problem istypically NP-hard.The purpose of this paper is to propose a QoS Aware Services Mashup(QASM model to solve this problem more effectively.Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, we focus on the QoS aware services selection problem in cloud services mashup, for example, given the user service composition requirements and their QoS constraint descriptions, how to select the required serviceinstances and route the data flows through these instances so that the QoS requirements are satisfied. We design a heuristic algorithm to find service paths to route the data flows through whilemeeting the applications’ resource requirements and specific QoS constraints.Findings: This study propose a QoS Aware Services Mashup(QASM model to solve this problem more effectively. Simulations show that QASM can achieve desired QoS assurances as well as load balancing in cloud services environment.Originality/value: This paperpresent a QASM model for providing high performance distributedapplications in the cloud computing systems.

  17. Molecular clouds near supernova remnants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wootten, H.A.

    1978-01-01

    The physical properties of molecular clouds near supernova remnants were investigated. Various properties of the structure and kinematics of these clouds are used to establish their physical association with well-known remmnants. An infrared survey of the most massive clouds revealed embedded objects, probably stars whose formation was induced by the supernova blast wave. In order to understand the relationship between these and other molecular clouds, a control group of clouds was also observed. Excitation models for dense regions of all the clouds are constructed to evaluate molecular abundances in these regions. Those clouds that have embedded stars have lower molecular abundances than the clouds that do not. A cloud near the W28 supernova remnant also has low abundances. Molecular abundances are used to measure an important parameter, the electron density, which is not directly observable. In some clouds extensive deuterium fractionation is observed which confirms electron density measurements in those clouds. Where large deuterium fractionation is observed, the ionization rate in the cloud interior can also be measured. The electron density and ionization rate in the cloud near W28 are higher than in most clouds. The molecular abundances and electron densities are functions of the chemical and dynamical state of evolution of the cloud. Those clouds with lowest abundances are probably the youngest clouds. As low-abundance clouds, some clouds near supernova remnants may have been recently swept from the local interstellar material. Supernova remnants provide sites for star formation in ambient clouds by compressing them, and they sweep new clouds from more diffuse local matter

  18. The structure and origin of magnetic clouds in the solar wind

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Bothmer

    Full Text Available Plasma and magnetic field data from the Helios 1/2 spacecraft have been used to investigate the structure of magnetic clouds (MCs in the inner heliosphere. 46 MCs were identified in the Helios data for the period 1974–1981 between 0.3 and 1 AU. 85% of the MCs were associated with fast-forward interplanetary shock waves, supporting the close association between MCs and SMEs (solar mass ejections. Seven MCs were identified as direct consequences of Helios-directed SMEs, and the passage of MCs agreed with that of interplanetary plasma clouds (IPCs identified as white-light brightness enhancements in the Helios photometer data. The total (plasma and magnetic field pressure in MCs was higher and the plasma-β lower than in the surrounding solar wind. Minimum variance analysis (MVA showed that MCs can best be described as large-scale quasi-cylindrical magnetic flux tubes. The axes of the flux tubes usually had a small inclination to the ecliptic plane, with their azimuthal direction close to the east-west direction. The large-scale flux tube model for MCs was validated by the analysis of multi-spacecraft observations. MCs were observed over a range of up to ~60° in solar longitude in the ecliptic having the same magnetic configuration. The Helios observations further showed that over-expansion is a common feature of MCs. From a combined study of Helios, Voyager and IMP data we found that the radial diameter of MCs increases between 0.3 and 4.2 AU proportional to the distance, R, from the Sun as R0.8 (R in AU. The density decrease inside MCs was found to be proportional to R–2.4, thus being stronger compared to the average solar wind. Four different magnetic configurations, as expected from the flux-tube concept, for MCs have been observed in situ by the Helios probes. MCs with left- and right-handed magnetic helicity occurred with about equal frequencies during 1974–1981, but surprisingly, the majority (74% of the MCs had

  19. AIRS-CloudSat cloud mask, radar reflectivities, and cloud classification matchups V3.2

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This is AIRS-CloudSat collocated subset, in NetCDF 4 format. These data contain collocated: AIRS Level 1b radiances spectra, CloudSat radar reflectivities, and MODIS...

  20. Cloud Computing (1/2)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    Cloud computing, the recent years buzzword for distributed computing, continues to attract and keep the interest of both the computing and business world. These lectures aim at explaining "What is Cloud Computing?" identifying and analyzing it's characteristics, models, and applications. The lectures will explore different "Cloud definitions" given by different authors and use them to introduce the particular concepts. The main cloud models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), cloud types (public, private, hybrid), cloud standards and security concerns will be presented. The borders between Cloud Computing and Grid Computing, Server Virtualization, Utility Computing will be discussed and analyzed.

  1. Cloud Computing (2/2)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2012-01-01

    Cloud computing, the recent years buzzword for distributed computing, continues to attract and keep the interest of both the computing and business world. These lectures aim at explaining "What is Cloud Computing?" identifying and analyzing it's characteristics, models, and applications. The lectures will explore different "Cloud definitions" given by different authors and use them to introduce the particular concepts. The main cloud models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), cloud types (public, private, hybrid), cloud standards and security concerns will be presented. The borders between Cloud Computing and Grid Computing, Server Virtualization, Utility Computing will be discussed and analyzed.

  2. Marine cloud brightening

    OpenAIRE

    Latham, John; Bower, Keith; Choularton, Tom; Coe, Hugh; Connolly, Paul; Cooper, Gary; Craft, Tim; Foster, Jack; Gadian, Alan; Galbraith, Lee; Iacovides, Hector; Johnston, David; Launder, Brian; Leslie, Brian; Meyer, John

    2012-01-01

    The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could—subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identi...

  3. Cloud4Psi: cloud computing for 3D protein structure similarity searching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mrozek, Dariusz; Małysiak-Mrozek, Bożena; Kłapciński, Artur

    2014-10-01

    Popular methods for 3D protein structure similarity searching, especially those that generate high-quality alignments such as Combinatorial Extension (CE) and Flexible structure Alignment by Chaining Aligned fragment pairs allowing Twists (FATCAT) are still time consuming. As a consequence, performing similarity searching against large repositories of structural data requires increased computational resources that are not always available. Cloud computing provides huge amounts of computational power that can be provisioned on a pay-as-you-go basis. We have developed the cloud-based system that allows scaling of the similarity searching process vertically and horizontally. Cloud4Psi (Cloud for Protein Similarity) was tested in the Microsoft Azure cloud environment and provided good, almost linearly proportional acceleration when scaled out onto many computational units. Cloud4Psi is available as Software as a Service for testing purposes at: http://cloud4psi.cloudapp.net/. For source code and software availability, please visit the Cloud4Psi project home page at http://zti.polsl.pl/dmrozek/science/cloud4psi.htm. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  4. CloudTPS: Scalable Transactions for Web Applications in the Cloud

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhou, W.; Pierre, G.E.O.; Chi, C.-H.

    2010-01-01

    NoSQL Cloud data services provide scalability and high availability properties for web applications but at the same time they sacrifice data consistency. However, many applications cannot afford any data inconsistency. CloudTPS is a scalable transaction manager to allow cloud database services to

  5. Lost in Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maluf, David A.; Shetye, Sandeep D.; Chilukuri, Sri; Sturken, Ian

    2012-01-01

    Cloud computing can reduce cost significantly because businesses can share computing resources. In recent years Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) have used Cloud effectively for cost saving and for sharing IT expenses. With the success of SMBs, many perceive that the larger enterprises ought to move into Cloud environment as well. Government agency s stove-piped environments are being considered as candidates for potential use of Cloud either as an enterprise entity or pockets of small communities. Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than as a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network. Underneath the offered services, there exists a modern infrastructure cost of which is often spread across its services or its investors. As NASA is considered as an Enterprise class organization, like other enterprises, a shift has been occurring in perceiving its IT services as candidates for Cloud services. This paper discusses market trends in cloud computing from an enterprise angle and then addresses the topic of Cloud Computing for NASA in two possible forms. First, in the form of a public Cloud to support it as an enterprise, as well as to share it with the commercial and public at large. Second, as a private Cloud wherein the infrastructure is operated solely for NASA, whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally. The paper addresses the strengths and weaknesses of both paradigms of public and private Clouds, in both internally and externally operated settings. The content of the paper is from a NASA perspective but is applicable to any large enterprise with thousands of employees and contractors.

  6. Large-scale gas dynamical processes affecting the origin and evolution of gaseous galactic halos

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapiro, Paul R.

    1991-01-01

    Observations of galactic halo gas are consistent with an interpretation in terms of the galactic fountain model in which supernova heated gas in the galactic disk escapes into the halo, radiatively cools and forms clouds which fall back to the disk. The results of a new study of several large-scale gas dynamical effects which are expected to occur in such a model for the origin and evolution of galactic halo gas will be summarized, including the following: (1) nonequilibrium absorption line and emission spectrum diagnostics for radiatively cooling halo gas in our own galaxy, as well the implications of such absorption line diagnostics for the origin of quasar absorption lines in galactic halo clouds of high redshift galaxies; (2) numerical MHD simulations and analytical analysis of large-scale explosions ad superbubbles in the galactic disk and halo; (3) numerical MHD simulations of halo cloud formation by thermal instability, with and without magnetic field; and (4) the effect of the galactic fountain on the galactic dynamo.

  7. RenderSelect: a Cloud Broker Framework for Cloud Renderfarm Services

    OpenAIRE

    Ruby, Annette J; Aisha, Banu W; Subash, Chandran P

    2016-01-01

    In the 3D studios the animation scene files undergo a process called as rendering, where the 3D wire frame models are converted into 3D photorealistic images. As the rendering process is both a computationally intensive and a time consuming task, the cloud services based rendering in cloud render farms is gaining popularity among the animators. Though cloud render farms offer many benefits, the animators hesitate to move from their traditional offline rendering to cloud services based render ...

  8. The Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) contribution to CMIP6.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Webb, Mark J.; Andrews, Timothy; Bodas-Salcedo, Alejandro; Bony, Sandrine; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Chadwick, Robin; Chepfer, Helene; Douville, Herve; Good, Peter; Kay, Jennifer E.; hide

    2017-01-01

    The primary objective of CFMIP is to inform future assessments of cloud feedbacks through improved understanding of cloud-climate feedback mechanisms and better evaluation of cloud processes and cloud feedbacks in climate models. However, the CFMIP approach is also increasingly being used to understand other aspects of climate change, and so a second objective has now been introduced, to improve understanding of circulation, regional-scale precipitation, and non-linear changes. CFMIP is supporting ongoing model inter-comparison activities by coordinating a hierarchy of targeted experiments for CMIP6, along with a set of cloud-related output diagnostics. CFMIP contributes primarily to addressing the CMIP6 questions 'How does the Earth system respond to forcing?' and 'What are the origins and consequences of systematic model biases?' and supports the activities of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity. A compact set of Tier 1 experiments is proposed for CMIP6 to address this question: (1) what are the physical mechanisms underlying the range of cloud feedbacks and cloud adjustments predicted by climate models, and which models have the most credible cloud feedbacks? Additional Tier 2 experiments are proposed to address the following questions. (2) Are cloud feedbacks consistent for climate cooling and warming, and if not, why? (3) How do cloud-radiative effects impact the structure, the strength and the variability of the general atmospheric circulation in present and future climates? (4) How do responses in the climate system due to changes in solar forcing differ from changes due to CO2, and is the response sensitive to the sign of the forcing? (5) To what extent is regional climate change per CO2 doubling state-dependent (non-linear), and why? (6) Are climate feedbacks during the 20th century different to those acting on long-term climate change and climate sensitivity? (7) How do regional climate responses (e.g. in precipitation

  9. Changes in Stratiform Clouds of Mesoscale Convective Complex Introduced by Dust Aerosols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, B.; Min, Q.-L.; Li, R.

    2010-01-01

    Aerosols influence the earth s climate through direct, indirect, and semi-direct effects. There are large uncertainties in quantifying these effects due to limited measurements and observations of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. As a major terrestrial source of atmospheric aerosols, dusts may serve as a significant climate forcing for the changing climate because of its effect on solar and thermal radiation as well as on clouds and precipitation processes. Latest satellites measurements enable us to determine dust aerosol loadings and cloud distributions and can potentially be used to reduce the uncertainties in the estimations of aerosol effects on climate. This study uses sensors on various satellites to investigate the impact of mineral dust on cloud microphysical and precipitation processes in mesoscale convective complex (MCC). A trans-Atlantic dust outbreak of Saharan origin occurring in early March 2004 is considered. For the observed MCCs under a given convective strength, small hydrometeors were found more prevalent in the dusty stratiform regions than in those regions that were dust free. Evidence of abundant cloud ice particles in the dust regions, particularly at altitudes where heterogeneous nucleation of mineral dust prevails, further supports the observed changes of clouds and precipitation. The consequences of the microphysical effects of the dust aerosols were to shift the size spectrum of precipitation-sized hydrometeors from heavy precipitation to light precipitation and ultimately to suppress precipitation and increase the lifecycle of cloud systems, especially over stratiform areas.

  10. A Framework to Improve Communication and Reliability Between Cloud Consumer and Provider in the Cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Vivek Sridhar

    2014-01-01

    Cloud services consumers demand reliable methods for choosing appropriate cloud service provider for their requirements. Number of cloud consumer is increasing day by day and so cloud providers, hence requirement for a common platform for interacting between cloud provider and cloud consumer is also on the raise. This paper introduces Cloud Providers Market Platform Dashboard. This will act as not only just cloud provider discoverability but also provide timely report to consumer on cloud ser...

  11. Supernova Driving. IV. The Star-formation Rate of Molecular Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padoan, Paolo; Haugbølle, Troels; Nordlund, Åke; Frimann, Søren

    2017-05-01

    We compute the star-formation rate (SFR) in molecular clouds (MCs) that originate ab initio in a new, higher-resolution simulation of supernova-driven turbulence. Because of the large number of well-resolved clouds with self-consistent boundary and initial conditions, we obtain a large range of cloud physical parameters with realistic statistical distributions, which is an unprecedented sample of star-forming regions to test SFR models and to interpret observational surveys. We confirm the dependence of the SFR per free-fall time, SFRff, on the virial parameter, α vir, found in previous simulations, and compare a revised version of our turbulent fragmentation model with the numerical results. The dependences on Mach number, { M }, gas to magnetic pressure ratio, β, and compressive to solenoidal power ratio, χ at fixed α vir are not well constrained, because of random scatter due to time and cloud-to-cloud variations in SFRff. We find that SFRff in MCs can take any value in the range of 0 ≤ SFRff ≲ 0.2, and its probability distribution peaks at a value of SFRff ≈ 0.025, consistent with observations. The values of SFRff and the scatter in the SFRff-α vir relation are consistent with recent measurements in nearby MCs and in clouds near the Galactic center. Although not explicitly modeled by the theory, the scatter is consistent with the physical assumptions of our revised model and may also result in part from a lack of statistical equilibrium of the turbulence, due to the transient nature of MCs.

  12. Comets and the origin and evolution of life

    CERN Document Server

    McKay, Christopher P

    2006-01-01

    Nine years after the publication of Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life, one of the pioneering books in Astrobiology, this second edition revisits the role comets may have played in the origins and evolution of life. Recent analyses of Antarctic micrometeorites and ancient rocks in Australia and South Africa, the continuing progress in discovering complex organic macromolecules in comets, protostars and interstellar clouds, new insights into organic synthesis in comets, and numerical simulations of comet impacts on the Earth and other members of the solar system yield a spectacular wea

  13. Moving towards Cloud Security

    OpenAIRE

    Edit Szilvia Rubóczki; Zoltán Rajnai

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing hosts and delivers many different services via Internet. There are a lot of reasons why people opt for using cloud resources. Cloud development is increasing fast while a lot of related services drop behind, for example the mass awareness of cloud security. However the new generation upload videos and pictures without reason to a cloud storage, but only few know about data privacy, data management and the proprietary of stored data in the cloud. In an enterprise environment th...

  14. Cloud Computing Value Chains: Understanding Businesses and Value Creation in the Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammed, Ashraf Bany; Altmann, Jörn; Hwang, Junseok

    Based on the promising developments in Cloud Computing technologies in recent years, commercial computing resource services (e.g. Amazon EC2) or software-as-a-service offerings (e.g. Salesforce. com) came into existence. However, the relatively weak business exploitation, participation, and adoption of other Cloud Computing services remain the main challenges. The vague value structures seem to be hindering business adoption and the creation of sustainable business models around its technology. Using an extensive analyze of existing Cloud business models, Cloud services, stakeholder relations, market configurations and value structures, this Chapter develops a reference model for value chains in the Cloud. Although this model is theoretically based on porter's value chain theory, the proposed Cloud value chain model is upgraded to fit the diversity of business service scenarios in the Cloud computing markets. Using this model, different service scenarios are explained. Our findings suggest new services, business opportunities, and policy practices for realizing more adoption and value creation paths in the Cloud.

  15. Cloud vertical structure, precipitation, and cloud radiative effects over Tibetan Plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Y.; Yan, Y.; Lu, J.

    2017-12-01

    The vertical structure of clouds and its connection with precipitation and cloud radiative effects (CRE) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are analyzed and compared with its neighboring land and tropical oceans based on CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) products and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation data. Unique characteristics of cloud vertical structure and CRE over the TP are found. The cloud amount shows seasonal variation over the TP, which presents a single peak (located in 7-11 km) during January to April and two peaks (located in 5-8 km and 11-17 km separately) after mid-June, and then resumes to one peak (located in 5-10 km) after mid-August. Topography-induced restriction on moisture supply leads to a compression effect on clouds, i.e., the reduction in both cloud thickness and number of cloud layers, over the TP. The topography-induced compression effect is also shown in the range in the variation of cloud thickness and cloud-top height corresponding to different precipitation intensity, which is much smaller over the TP than its neighboring regions. In summer, cloud ice particles over the TP are mostly located at lower altitude (5-10 km) with richer variety of sizes and aggregation in no rain conditions compared to other regions. Ice water content becomes abundant and the number concentration tends to be dense at higher levels when precipitation is enhanced. The longwave CRE in the atmosphere over the TP is a net cooling effect. The vertical structure of CRE over the TP is unique compared to other regions: there exists a strong cooling layer of net CRE at the altitude of 8 km, from June to the beginning of October; the net radiative heating layer above the surface is shallower but stronger underneath 7 km and with a stronger seasonal variation over the TP.

  16. The Magellanic clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    As the two galaxies nearest to our own, the Magellanic Clouds hold a special place in studies of the extragalactic distance scale, of stellar evolution and the structure of galaxies. In recent years, results from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and elsewhere have shown that it is possible to begin understanding the three dimensional structure of the Clouds. Studies of Magellanic Cloud Cepheids have continued, both to investigate the three-dimensional structure of the Clouds and to learn more about Cepheids and their use as extragalactic distance indicators. Other research undertaken at SAAO includes studies on Nova LMC 1988 no 2 and red variables in the Magellanic Clouds

  17. Cloud Computing Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anamaria Şiclovan

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing was and it will be a new way of providing Internet services and computers. This calculation approach is based on many existing services, such as the Internet, grid computing, Web services. Cloud computing as a system aims to provide on demand services more acceptable as price and infrastructure. It is exactly the transition from computer to a service offered to the consumers as a product delivered online. This paper is meant to describe the quality of cloud computing services, analyzing the advantages and characteristics offered by it. It is a theoretical paper.Keywords: Cloud computing, QoS, quality of cloud computing

  18. Cloud Infrastructure Security

    OpenAIRE

    Velev , Dimiter; Zlateva , Plamena

    2010-01-01

    Part 4: Security for Clouds; International audience; Cloud computing can help companies accomplish more by eliminating the physical bonds between an IT infrastructure and its users. Users can purchase services from a cloud environment that could allow them to save money and focus on their core business. At the same time certain concerns have emerged as potential barriers to rapid adoption of cloud services such as security, privacy and reliability. Usually the information security professiona...

  19. Cloud security mechanisms

    OpenAIRE

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing has brought great benefits in cost and flexibility for provisioning services. The greatest challenge of cloud computing remains however the question of security. The current standard tools in access control mechanisms and cryptography can only partly solve the security challenges of cloud infrastructures. In the recent years of research in security and cryptography, novel mechanisms, protocols and algorithms have emerged that offer new ways to create secure services atop cloud...

  20. Spectral Dependence of MODIS Cloud Droplet Effective Radius Retrievals for Marine Boundary Layer Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhibo; Platnick, Steven E.; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Cho, Hyoun-Myoung

    2014-01-01

    Low-level warm marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds cover large regions of Earth's surface. They have a significant role in Earth's radiative energy balance and hydrological cycle. Despite the fundamental role of low-level warm water clouds in climate, our understanding of these clouds is still limited. In particular, connections between their properties (e.g. cloud fraction, cloud water path, and cloud droplet size) and environmental factors such as aerosol loading and meteorological conditions continue to be uncertain or unknown. Modeling these clouds in climate models remains a challenging problem. As a result, the influence of aerosols on these clouds in the past and future, and the potential impacts of these clouds on global warming remain open questions leading to substantial uncertainty in climate projections. To improve our understanding of these clouds, we need continuous observations of cloud properties on both a global scale and over a long enough timescale for climate studies. At present, satellite-based remote sensing is the only means of providing such observations.

  1. Risk in the Clouds?: Security Issues Facing Government Use of Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyld, David C.

    Cloud computing is poised to become one of the most important and fundamental shifts in how computing is consumed and used. Forecasts show that government will play a lead role in adopting cloud computing - for data storage, applications, and processing power, as IT executives seek to maximize their returns on limited procurement budgets in these challenging economic times. After an overview of the cloud computing concept, this article explores the security issues facing public sector use of cloud computing and looks to the risk and benefits of shifting to cloud-based models. It concludes with an analysis of the challenges that lie ahead for government use of cloud resources.

  2. GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD FORMATION IN DISK GALAXIES: CHARACTERIZING SIMULATED VERSUS OBSERVED CLOUD CATALOGS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Benincasa, Samantha M.; Pudritz, Ralph E.; Wadsley, James [Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1 (Canada); Tasker, Elizabeth J. [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810 (Japan)

    2013-10-10

    We present the results of a study of simulated giant molecular clouds (GMCs) formed in a Milky Way-type galactic disk with a flat rotation curve. This simulation, which does not include star formation or feedback, produces clouds with masses ranging between 10{sup 4} M{sub ☉} and 10{sup 7} M{sub ☉}. We compare our simulated cloud population to two observational surveys: the Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey and the BIMA All-Disk Survey of M33. An analysis of the global cloud properties as well as a comparison of Larson's scaling relations is carried out. We find that simulated cloud properties agree well with the observed cloud properties, with the closest agreement occurring between the clouds at comparable resolution in M33. Our clouds are highly filamentary—a property that derives both from their formation due to gravitational instability in the sheared galactic environment, as well as to cloud-cloud gravitational encounters. We also find that the rate at which potentially star-forming gas accumulates within dense regions—wherein n{sub thresh} ≥ 10{sup 4} cm{sup –3}—is 3% per 10 Myr, in clouds of roughly 10{sup 6} M{sub ☉}. This suggests that star formation rates in observed clouds are related to the rates at which gas can be accumulated into dense subregions within GMCs via filamentary flows. The most internally well-resolved clouds are chosen for listing in a catalog of simulated GMCs—the first of its kind. The cataloged clouds are available as an extracted data set from the global simulation.

  3. Comparison of Monthly Mean Cloud Fraction and Cloud Optical depth Determined from Surface Cloud Radar, TOVS, AVHRR, and MODIS over Barrow, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uttal, Taneil; Frisch, Shelby; Wang, Xuan-Ji; Key, Jeff; Schweiger, Axel; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Minnis, Patrick

    2005-01-01

    A one year comparison is made of mean monthly values of cloud fraction and cloud optical depth over Barrow, Alaska (71 deg 19.378 min North, 156 deg 36.934 min West) between 35 GHz radar-based retrievals, the TOVS Pathfinder Path-P product, the AVHRR APP-X product, and a MODIS based cloud retrieval product from the CERES-Team. The data sets represent largely disparate spatial and temporal scales, however, in this paper, the focus is to provide a preliminary analysis of how the mean monthly values derived from these different data sets compare, and determine how they can best be used separately, and in combination to provide reliable estimates of long-term trends of changing cloud properties. The radar and satellite data sets described here incorporate Arctic specific modifications that account for cloud detection challenges specific to the Arctic environment. The year 2000 was chosen for this initial comparison because the cloud radar data was particularly continuous and reliable that year, and all of the satellite retrievals of interest were also available for the year 2000. Cloud fraction was chosen as a comparison variable as accurate detection of cloud is the primary product that is necessary for any other cloud property retrievals. Cloud optical depth was additionally selected as it is likely the single cloud property that is most closely correlated to cloud influences on surface radiation budgets.

  4. Factors influencing the organizational adoption of cloud computing: a survey among cloud workers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark Stieninger

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing presents an opportunity for organizations to leverage affordable, scalable, and agile technologies. However, even with the demonstrated value of cloud computing, organizations have been hesitant to adopt such technologies. Based on a multi-theoretical research model, this paper provides an empirical study targeted to better understand the adoption of cloud services. An online survey addressing the factors derived from literature for three specific popular cloud application types (cloud storage, cloud mail and cloud office was undertaken. The research model was analyzed by using variance-based structural equation modelling. Results show that the factors of compatibility, relative advantage, security and trust, as well as, a lower level of complexity lead to a more positive attitude towards cloud adoption. Complexity, compatibility, image and security and trust have direct and indirect effects on relative advantage. These factors further explain a large part of the attitude towards cloud adoption but not of its usage.

  5. Star formation induced by cloud-cloud collisions and galactic giant molecular cloud evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Masato I. N.; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro; Fukui, Yasuo

    2018-05-01

    Recent millimeter/submillimeter observations towards nearby galaxies have started to map the whole disk and to identify giant molecular clouds (GMCs) even in the regions between galactic spiral structures. Observed variations of GMC mass functions in different galactic environments indicates that massive GMCs preferentially reside along galactic spiral structures whereas inter-arm regions have many small GMCs. Based on the phase transition dynamics from magnetized warm neutral medium to molecular clouds, Kobayashi et al. (2017, ApJ, 836, 175) proposes a semi-analytical evolutionary description for GMC mass functions including a cloud-cloud collision (CCC) process. Their results show that CCC is less dominant in shaping the mass function of GMCs than the accretion of dense H I gas driven by the propagation of supersonic shock waves. However, their formulation does not take into account the possible enhancement of star formation by CCC. Millimeter/submillimeter observations within the Milky Way indicate the importance of CCC in the formation of star clusters and massive stars. In this article, we reformulate the time-evolution equation largely modified from Kobayashi et al. (2017, ApJ, 836, 175) so that we additionally compute star formation subsequently taking place in CCC clouds. Our results suggest that, although CCC events between smaller clouds are more frequent than the ones between massive GMCs, CCC-driven star formation is mostly driven by massive GMCs ≳ 10^{5.5} M_{⊙} (where M⊙ is the solar mass). The resultant cumulative CCC-driven star formation may amount to a few 10 percent of the total star formation in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.

  6. Hybrid cloud for dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Hurwitz, Judith; Halper, Fern; Kirsch, Dan

    2012-01-01

    Understand the cloud and implement a cloud strategy for your business Cloud computing enables companies to save money by leasing storage space and accessing technology services through the Internet instead of buying and maintaining equipment and support services. Because it has its own unique set of challenges, cloud computing requires careful explanation. This easy-to-follow guide shows IT managers and support staff just what cloud computing is, how to deliver and manage cloud computing services, how to choose a service provider, and how to go about implementation. It also covers security and

  7. The role of clouds and oceans in global greenhouse warming. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoffert, M.I.

    1996-10-01

    This research focuses on assessing connections between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and global climatic change. it has been supported since the early 1990s in part by the DOE ``Quantitative Links`` Program (QLP). A three-year effort was originally proposed to the QLP to investigate effects f global cloudiness on global climate and its implications for cloud feedback; and to continue the development and application of climate/ocean models, with emphasis on coupled effects of greenhouse warming and feedbacks by clouds and oceans. It is well-known that cloud and ocean processes are major sources of uncertainty in the ability to predict climatic change from humankind`s greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions. And it has always been the objective to develop timely and useful analytical tools for addressing real world policy issues stemming from anthropogenic climate change.

  8. Cloud Robotics Model

    OpenAIRE

    Mester, Gyula

    2015-01-01

    Cloud Robotics was born from the merger of service robotics and cloud technologies. It allows robots to benefit from the powerful computational, storage, and communications resources of modern data centres. Cloud robotics allows robots to take advantage of the rapid increase in data transfer rates to offload tasks without hard real time requirements. Cloud Robotics has rapidly gained momentum with initiatives by companies such as Google, Willow Garage and Gostai as well as more than a dozen a...

  9. Quantitative Measures of Immersion in Cloud and the Biogeography of Cloud Forests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, R. O.; Nair, U. S.; Ray, D.; Regmi, A.; Pounds, J. A.; Welch, R. M.

    2010-01-01

    Sites described as tropical montane cloud forests differ greatly, in part because observers tend to differ in their opinion as to what constitutes frequent and prolonged immersion in cloud. This definitional difficulty interferes with hydrologic analyses, assessments of environmental impacts on ecosystems, and biogeographical analyses of cloud forest communities and species. Quantitative measurements of cloud immersion can be obtained on site, but the observations are necessarily spatially limited, although well-placed observers can examine 10 50 km of a mountain range under rainless conditions. Regional analyses, however, require observations at a broader scale. This chapter discusses remote sensing and modeling approaches that can provide quantitative measures of the spatiotemporal patterns of cloud cover and cloud immersion in tropical mountain ranges. These approaches integrate remote sensing tools of various spatial resolutions and frequencies of observation, digital elevation models, regional atmospheric models, and ground-based observations to provide measures of cloud cover, cloud base height, and the intersection of cloud and terrain. This combined approach was applied to the Monteverde region of northern Costa Rica to illustrate how the proportion of time the forest is immersed in cloud may vary spatially and temporally. The observed spatial variation was largely due to patterns of airflow over the mountains. The temporal variation reflected the diurnal rise and fall of the orographic cloud base, which was influenced in turn by synoptic weather conditions, the seasonal movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the north-easterly trade winds. Knowledge of the proportion of the time that sites are immersed in clouds should facilitate ecological comparisons and biogeographical analyses, as well as land use planning and hydrologic assessments in areas where intensive on-site work is not feasible.

  10. Cloud fraction and cloud base measurements from scanning Doppler lidar during WFIP-2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, T.; Long, C.; Lantz, K. O.; Choukulkar, A.; Pichugina, Y. L.; McCarty, B.; Banta, R. M.; Brewer, A.; Marquis, M.

    2017-12-01

    The second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP-2) consisted of an 18-month field deployment of a variety of instrumentation with the principle objective of validating and improving NWP forecasts for wind energy applications in complex terrain. As a part of the set of instrumentation, several scanning Doppler lidars were installed across the study domain to primarily measure profiles of the mean wind and turbulence at high-resolution within the planetary boundary layer. In addition to these measurements, Doppler lidar observations can be used to directly quantify the cloud fraction and cloud base, since clouds appear as a high backscatter return. These supplementary measurements of clouds can then be used to validate cloud cover and other properties in NWP output. Herein, statistics of the cloud fraction and cloud base height from the duration of WFIP-2 are presented. Additionally, these cloud fraction estimates from Doppler lidar are compared with similar measurements from a Total Sky Imager and Radiative Flux Analysis (RadFlux) retrievals at the Wasco site. During mostly cloudy to overcast conditions, estimates of the cloud radiating temperature from the RadFlux methodology are also compared with Doppler lidar measured cloud base height.

  11. Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zheng, Youtong; Hashimshoni, Eyal; Pöhlker, Mira L.; Jefferson, Anne; Pöhlker, Christopher; Yu, Xing; Zhu, Yannian; Liu, Guihua; Yue, Zhiguo; Fischman, Baruch; Li, Zhanqing; Giguzin, David; Goren, Tom; Artaxo, Paulo; Pöschl, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities (Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. Our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation (S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud base drop concentrations (Ndb), which is the same as CCN(S). Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at Oklahoma, at Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. The limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25° restricts the satellite coverage to ∼25% of the world area in a single day. PMID:26944081

  12. Cloud computing basics

    CERN Document Server

    Srinivasan, S

    2014-01-01

    Cloud Computing Basics covers the main aspects of this fast moving technology so that both practitioners and students will be able to understand cloud computing. The author highlights the key aspects of this technology that a potential user might want to investigate before deciding to adopt this service. This book explains how cloud services can be used to augment existing services such as storage, backup and recovery. Addressing the details on how cloud security works and what the users must be prepared for when they move their data to the cloud. Also this book discusses how businesses could prepare for compliance with the laws as well as industry standards such as the Payment Card Industry.

  13. Moving towards Cloud Security

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edit Szilvia Rubóczki

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing hosts and delivers many different services via Internet. There are a lot of reasons why people opt for using cloud resources. Cloud development is increasing fast while a lot of related services drop behind, for example the mass awareness of cloud security. However the new generation upload videos and pictures without reason to a cloud storage, but only few know about data privacy, data management and the proprietary of stored data in the cloud. In an enterprise environment the users have to know the rule of cloud usage, however they have little knowledge about traditional IT security. It is important to measure the level of their knowledge, and evolve the training system to develop the security awareness. The article proves the importance of suggesting new metrics and algorithms for measuring security awareness of corporate users and employees to include the requirements of emerging cloud security.

  14. Cloud Usage Patterns : A Formalism for Description of Cloud Usage Scenarios

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Milenkoski, Aleksandar; Iosup, Alexandru; Kounev, Samuel; Sachs, Kai; Rygielski, Piotr; Ding, Jason; Cirne, Walfredo; Rosenberg, Florian

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing is becoming an increasingly lucrative branch of the existing information and communication technologies (ICT). Enabling a debate about cloud usage scenarios can help with attracting new customers, sharing best-practices, and designing new cloud services. In contrast to previous

  15. Mobile Clouds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fitzek, Frank; Katz, Marcos

    A mobile cloud is a cooperative arrangement of dynamically connected communication nodes sharing opportunistic resources. In this book, authors provide a comprehensive and motivating overview of this rapidly emerging technology. The book explores how distributed resources can be shared by mobile...... users in very different ways and for various purposes. The book provides many stimulating examples of resource-sharing applications. Enabling technologies for mobile clouds are also discussed, highlighting the key role of network coding. Mobile clouds have the potential to enhance communications...... performance, improve utilization of resources and create flexible platforms to share resources in very novel ways. Energy efficient aspects of mobile clouds are discussed in detail, showing how being cooperative can bring mobile users significant energy saving. The book presents and discusses multiple...

  16. pCloud: A Cloud-based Power Market Simulation Environment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rudkevich, Aleksandr; Goldis, Evgeniy

    2012-12-02

    This research conducted by the Newton Energy Group, LLC (NEG) is dedicated to the development of pCloud: a Cloud-based Power Market Simulation Environment. pCloud is offering power industry stakeholders the capability to model electricity markets and is organized around the Software as a Service (SaaS) concept -- a software application delivery model in which software is centrally hosted and provided to many users via the internet. During the Phase I of this project NEG developed a prototype design for pCloud as a SaaS-based commercial service offering, system architecture supporting that design, ensured feasibility of key architecture's elements, formed technological partnerships and negotiated commercial agreements with partners, conducted market research and other related activities and secured funding for continue development of pCloud between the end of Phase I and beginning of Phase II, if awarded. Based on the results of Phase I activities, NEG has established that the development of a cloud-based power market simulation environment within the Windows Azure platform is technologically feasible, can be accomplished within the budget and timeframe available through the Phase II SBIR award with additional external funding. NEG believes that pCloud has the potential to become a game-changing technology for the modeling and analysis of electricity markets. This potential is due to the following critical advantages of pCloud over its competition: - Standardized access to advanced and proven power market simulators offered by third parties. - Automated parallelization of simulations and dynamic provisioning of computing resources on the cloud. This combination of automation and scalability dramatically reduces turn-around time while offering the capability to increase the number of analyzed scenarios by a factor of 10, 100 or even 1000. - Access to ready-to-use data and to cloud-based resources leading to a reduction in software, hardware, and IT costs

  17. Cloud computing strategies

    CERN Document Server

    Chorafas, Dimitris N

    2011-01-01

    A guide to managing cloud projects, Cloud Computing Strategies provides the understanding required to evaluate the technology and determine how it can be best applied to improve business and enhance your overall corporate strategy. Based on extensive research, it examines the opportunities and challenges that loom in the cloud. It explains exactly what cloud computing is, what it has to offer, and calls attention to the important issues management needs to consider before passing the point of no return regarding financial commitments.

  18. ATLAS Cloud R&D

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panitkin, Sergey; Barreiro Megino, Fernando; Caballero Bejar, Jose; Benjamin, Doug; Di Girolamo, Alessandro; Gable, Ian; Hendrix, Val; Hover, John; Kucharczyk, Katarzyna; Medrano Llamas, Ramon; Love, Peter; Ohman, Henrik; Paterson, Michael; Sobie, Randall; Taylor, Ryan; Walker, Rodney; Zaytsev, Alexander; Atlas Collaboration

    2014-06-01

    The computing model of the ATLAS experiment was designed around the concept of grid computing and, since the start of data taking, this model has proven very successful. However, new cloud computing technologies bring attractive features to improve the operations and elasticity of scientific distributed computing. ATLAS sees grid and cloud computing as complementary technologies that will coexist at different levels of resource abstraction, and two years ago created an R&D working group to investigate the different integration scenarios. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D has been able to demonstrate the feasibility of offloading work from grid to cloud sites and, as of today, is able to integrate transparently various cloud resources into the PanDA workload management system. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D is operating various PanDA queues on private and public resources and has provided several hundred thousand CPU days to the experiment. As a result, the ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D group has gained a significant insight into the cloud computing landscape and has identified points that still need to be addressed in order to fully utilize this technology. This contribution will explain the cloud integration models that are being evaluated and will discuss ATLAS' learning during the collaboration with leading commercial and academic cloud providers.

  19. THE CALIFORNIA MOLECULAR CLOUD

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lada, Charles J.; Lombardi, Marco; Alves, Joao F.

    2009-01-01

    We present an analysis of wide-field infrared extinction maps of a region in Perseus just north of the Taurus-Auriga dark cloud complex. From this analysis we have identified a massive, nearby, but previously unrecognized, giant molecular cloud (GMC). Both a uniform foreground star density and measurements of the cloud's velocity field from CO observations indicate that this cloud is likely a coherent structure at a single distance. From comparison of foreground star counts with Galactic models, we derive a distance of 450 ± 23 pc to the cloud. At this distance the cloud extends over roughly 80 pc and has a mass of ∼ 10 5 M sun , rivaling the Orion (A) molecular cloud as the largest and most massive GMC in the solar neighborhood. Although surprisingly similar in mass and size to the more famous Orion molecular cloud (OMC) the newly recognized cloud displays significantly less star formation activity with more than an order of magnitude fewer young stellar objects than found in the OMC, suggesting that both the level of star formation and perhaps the star formation rate in this cloud are an order of magnitude or more lower than in the OMC. Analysis of extinction maps of both clouds shows that the new cloud contains only 10% the amount of high extinction (A K > 1.0 mag) material as is found in the OMC. This, in turn, suggests that the level of star formation activity and perhaps the star formation rate in these two clouds may be directly proportional to the total amount of high extinction material and presumably high density gas within them and that there might be a density threshold for star formation on the order of n(H 2 ) ∼ a few x 10 4 cm -3 .

  20. Lightning channels emerging from the top of thunderstorm clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Velde, Oscar; Montanyà, Joan; Soula, Serge; Pineda, Nicolau

    2013-04-01

    In recent years, research of transient luminous events is shifting from the rather common elves and sprites high above thunderclouds to the much less frequently observed phenomena issued by the storm cloud itself: gigantic jets (GJ) connecting to the ionosphere, and high-energy terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) recorded at spacecraft. These phenomena both are observed more often at tropical latitudes, and a link may or may not exist between the two. It is likely that both share the requirement of high-altitude leaders of negative polarity, which in the case of a GJ escapes from the cloud top and transforms into a long streamer discharge. While this should be easier at lower air densities (higher altitude), previous studies showed that GJs need not be produced by storms with the highest tops. TGFs have still unclear origins, but may be related to production in negative leaders or other regions with strong vertically directed electric fields by runaway electron mechnisms. In December 2009, a gigantic jet was observed in the Mediterranean Sea region. During the same night, a nearby storm produced repeatedly multiple leaders piercing through the cloud top, without any sign of streamers reaching higher altitudes (unlike jets or starters). Similar observations of upward cloud-to-air lightning have been obtained recently by low-light cameras over storms near the Catalonian coast in different seasons. The production conditions are currently being investigated, with a focus on optically determined altitudes of lightning and evolution of storm tops (and their temperature level). The initial impression is that cloud flashes escape into the air above during stages when the growing convective cloud top is very close to the main charge production region. Upward cloud-to-air lightning has also been mapped by the Ebro Lightning Mapping Array, exhibiting inverse bolt-from-the blue characteristics, and as a by-product of a bolt-from-the-blue lightning strike to ground, recorded

  1. On Cloud-based Oversubscription

    OpenAIRE

    Householder, Rachel; Arnold, Scott; Green, Robert

    2014-01-01

    Rising trends in the number of customers turning to the cloud for their computing needs has made effective resource allocation imperative for cloud service providers. In order to maximize profits and reduce waste, providers have started to explore the role of oversubscribing cloud resources. However, the benefits of cloud-based oversubscription are not without inherent risks. This paper attempts to unveil the incentives, risks, and techniques behind oversubscription in a cloud infrastructure....

  2. Dynamics of Clouds and Mesoscale Circulations over the Maritime Continent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Y.; Wang, S.; Xian, P.; Reid, J. S.; Nachamkin, J.

    2010-12-01

    In recent decades Southeast Asia (SEA) has seen rapid economic growth as well as increased biomass burning, resulting in high air pollution levels and reduced air qual-ity. At the same time clouds often prevent accurate air-quality monitoring and analysis using satellite observations. The Seven SouthEast Asian Studies (7SEAS) field campaign currently underway over SEA provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the com-plex interplay between aerosol and clouds. 7SEAS is a comprehensive interdisciplinary atmospheric sciences program through international partnership of NASA, NRL, ONR and seven local institutions including those from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. While the original goal of 7SEAS is to iso-late the impacts of aerosol particles on weather and the environment, it is recognized that better understanding of SEA meteorological conditions, especially those associated with cloud formation and evolution, is critical to the success of the campaign. In this study we attempt to gain more insight into the dynamic and physical processes associated with low level clouds and atmospheric circulation at the regional scale over SEA, using the Navy’s Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS® ), a regional forecast model in operation at FNMOC since 1998. This effort comprises two main components. First, multiple-years of COAMPS operational forecasts over SEA are analyzed for basic climatology of atmospheric fea-tures. Second, mesoscale circulation and cloud properties are simulated at relatively higher resolution (15-km) for selected periods in the Gulf of Tonkin and adjacent coastal areas. Simulation results are compared to MODIS cloud observations and local sound-ings obtained during 7SEAS for model verifications. Atmospheric boundary layer proc-esses are examined in relation to spatial and temporal variations of cloud fields. The cur-rent work serves as an important step toward improving our

  3. Intercomparison of model simulations of mixed-phase clouds observed during the ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment. Part II: Multi-layered cloud

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Morrison, H; McCoy, R B; Klein, S A; Xie, S; Luo, Y; Avramov, A; Chen, M; Cole, J; Falk, M; Foster, M; Genio, A D; Harrington, J; Hoose, C; Khairoutdinov, M; Larson, V; Liu, X; McFarquhar, G; Poellot, M; Shipway, B; Shupe, M; Sud, Y; Turner, D; Veron, D; Walker, G; Wang, Z; Wolf, A; Xu, K; Yang, F; Zhang, G

    2008-02-27

    Results are presented from an intercomparison of single-column and cloud-resolving model simulations of a deep, multi-layered, mixed-phase cloud system observed during the ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment. This cloud system was associated with strong surface turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes as cold air flowed over the open Arctic Ocean, combined with a low pressure system that supplied moisture at mid-level. The simulations, performed by 13 single-column and 4 cloud-resolving models, generally overestimate the liquid water path and strongly underestimate the ice water path, although there is a large spread among the models. This finding is in contrast with results for the single-layer, low-level mixed-phase stratocumulus case in Part I of this study, as well as previous studies of shallow mixed-phase Arctic clouds, that showed an underprediction of liquid water path. The overestimate of liquid water path and underestimate of ice water path occur primarily when deeper mixed-phase clouds extending into the mid-troposphere were observed. These results suggest important differences in the ability of models to simulate Arctic mixed-phase clouds that are deep and multi-layered versus shallow and single-layered. In general, models with a more sophisticated, two-moment treatment of the cloud microphysics produce a somewhat smaller liquid water path that is closer to observations. The cloud-resolving models tend to produce a larger cloud fraction than the single-column models. The liquid water path and especially the cloud fraction have a large impact on the cloud radiative forcing at the surface, which is dominated by the longwave flux for this case.

  4. CloudSat-Constrained Cloud Ice Water Path and Cloud Top Height Retrievals from MHS 157 and 183.3 GHz Radiances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, J.; Wu, D. L.

    2014-01-01

    Ice water path (IWP) and cloud top height (ht) are two of the key variables in determining cloud radiative and thermodynamical properties in climate models. Large uncertainty remains among IWP measurements from satellite sensors, in large part due to the assumptions made for cloud microphysics in these retrievals. In this study, we develop a fast algorithm to retrieve IWP from the 157, 183.3+/-3 and 190.3 GHz radiances of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) such that the MHS cloud ice retrieval is consistent with CloudSat IWP measurements. This retrieval is obtained by constraining the empirical forward models between collocated and coincident measurements of CloudSat IWP and MHS cloud-induced radiance depression (Tcir) at these channels. The empirical forward model is represented by a lookup table (LUT) of Tcir-IWP relationships as a function of ht and the frequency channel.With ht simultaneously retrieved, the IWP is found to be more accurate. The useful range of the MHS IWP retrieval is between 0.5 and 10 kg/sq m, and agrees well with CloudSat in terms of the normalized probability density function (PDF). Compared to the empirical model, current operational radiative transfer models (RTMs) still have significant uncertainties in characterizing the observed Tcir-IWP relationships. Therefore, the empirical LUT method developed here remains an effective approach to retrieving ice cloud properties from the MHS-like microwave channels.

  5. TUNNEL POINT CLOUD FILTERING METHOD BASED ON ELLIPTIC CYLINDRICAL MODEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Zhu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The large number of bolts and screws that attached to the subway shield ring plates, along with the great amount of accessories of metal stents and electrical equipments mounted on the tunnel walls, make the laser point cloud data include lots of non-tunnel section points (hereinafter referred to as non-points, therefore affecting the accuracy for modeling and deformation monitoring. This paper proposed a filtering method for the point cloud based on the elliptic cylindrical model. The original laser point cloud data was firstly projected onto a horizontal plane, and a searching algorithm was given to extract the edging points of both sides, which were used further to fit the tunnel central axis. Along the axis the point cloud was segmented regionally, and then fitted as smooth elliptic cylindrical surface by means of iteration. This processing enabled the automatic filtering of those inner wall non-points. Experiments of two groups showed coincident results, that the elliptic cylindrical model based method could effectively filter out the non-points, and meet the accuracy requirements for subway deformation monitoring. The method provides a new mode for the periodic monitoring of tunnel sections all-around deformation in subways routine operation and maintenance.

  6. Cloud Computing for radiologists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kharat, Amit T; Safvi, Amjad; Thind, Ss; Singh, Amarjit

    2012-07-01

    Cloud computing is a concept wherein a computer grid is created using the Internet with the sole purpose of utilizing shared resources such as computer software, hardware, on a pay-per-use model. Using Cloud computing, radiology users can efficiently manage multimodality imaging units by using the latest software and hardware without paying huge upfront costs. Cloud computing systems usually work on public, private, hybrid, or community models. Using the various components of a Cloud, such as applications, client, infrastructure, storage, services, and processing power, Cloud computing can help imaging units rapidly scale and descale operations and avoid huge spending on maintenance of costly applications and storage. Cloud computing allows flexibility in imaging. It sets free radiology from the confines of a hospital and creates a virtual mobile office. The downsides to Cloud computing involve security and privacy issues which need to be addressed to ensure the success of Cloud computing in the future.

  7. Cloud Computing for radiologists

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kharat, Amit T; Safvi, Amjad; Thind, SS; Singh, Amarjit

    2012-01-01

    Cloud computing is a concept wherein a computer grid is created using the Internet with the sole purpose of utilizing shared resources such as computer software, hardware, on a pay-per-use model. Using Cloud computing, radiology users can efficiently manage multimodality imaging units by using the latest software and hardware without paying huge upfront costs. Cloud computing systems usually work on public, private, hybrid, or community models. Using the various components of a Cloud, such as applications, client, infrastructure, storage, services, and processing power, Cloud computing can help imaging units rapidly scale and descale operations and avoid huge spending on maintenance of costly applications and storage. Cloud computing allows flexibility in imaging. It sets free radiology from the confines of a hospital and creates a virtual mobile office. The downsides to Cloud computing involve security and privacy issues which need to be addressed to ensure the success of Cloud computing in the future

  8. Cloud computing for radiologists

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amit T Kharat

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is a concept wherein a computer grid is created using the Internet with the sole purpose of utilizing shared resources such as computer software, hardware, on a pay-per-use model. Using Cloud computing, radiology users can efficiently manage multimodality imaging units by using the latest software and hardware without paying huge upfront costs. Cloud computing systems usually work on public, private, hybrid, or community models. Using the various components of a Cloud, such as applications, client, infrastructure, storage, services, and processing power, Cloud computing can help imaging units rapidly scale and descale operations and avoid huge spending on maintenance of costly applications and storage. Cloud computing allows flexibility in imaging. It sets free radiology from the confines of a hospital and creates a virtual mobile office. The downsides to Cloud computing involve security and privacy issues which need to be addressed to ensure the success of Cloud computing in the future.

  9. Supporting reputation based trust management enhancing security layer for cloud service models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karthiga, R.; Vanitha, M.; Sumaiya Thaseen, I.; Mangaiyarkarasi, R.

    2017-11-01

    In the existing system trust between cloud providers and consumers is inadequate to establish the service level agreement though the consumer’s response is good cause to assess the overall reliability of cloud services. Investigators recognized the significance of trust can be managed and security can be provided based on feedback collected from participant. In this work a face recognition system that helps to identify the user effectively. So we use an image comparison algorithm where the user face is captured during registration time and get stored in database. With that original image we compare it with the sample image that is already stored in database. If both the image get matched then the users are identified effectively. When the confidential data are subcontracted to the cloud, data holders will become worried about the confidentiality of their data in the cloud. Encrypting the data before subcontracting has been regarded as the important resources of keeping user data privacy beside the cloud server. So in order to keep the data secure we use an AES algorithm. Symmetric-key algorithms practice a shared key concept, keeping data secret requires keeping this key secret. So only the user with private key can decrypt data.

  10. Cloud detection, classification and motion estimation using geostationary satellite imagery for cloud cover forecast

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Escrig, H.; Batlles, F.J.; Alonso, J.; Baena, F.M.; Bosch, J.L.; Salbidegoitia, I.B.; Burgaleta, J.I.

    2013-01-01

    Considering that clouds are the greatest causes to solar radiation blocking, short term cloud forecasting can help power plant operation and therefore improve benefits. Cloud detection, classification and motion vector determination are key to forecasting sun obstruction by clouds. Geostationary satellites provide cloud information covering wide areas, allowing cloud forecast to be performed for several hours in advance. Herein, the methodology developed and tested in this study is based on multispectral tests and binary cross correlations followed by coherence and quality control tests over resulting motion vectors. Monthly synthetic surface albedo image and a method to reject erroneous correlation vectors were developed. Cloud classification in terms of opacity and height of cloud top is also performed. A whole-sky camera has been used for validation, showing over 85% of agreement between the camera and the satellite derived cloud cover, whereas error in motion vectors is below 15%. - Highlights: ► A methodology for detection, classification and movement of clouds is presented. ► METEOSAT satellite images are used to obtain a cloud mask. ► The prediction of cloudiness is estimated with 90% in overcast conditions. ► Results for partially covered sky conditions showed a 75% accuracy. ► Motion vectors are estimated from the clouds with a success probability of 86%

  11. CloudMC: a cloud computing application for Monte Carlo simulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miras, H; Jiménez, R; Miras, C; Gomà, C

    2013-04-21

    This work presents CloudMC, a cloud computing application-developed in Windows Azure®, the platform of the Microsoft® cloud-for the parallelization of Monte Carlo simulations in a dynamic virtual cluster. CloudMC is a web application designed to be independent of the Monte Carlo code in which the simulations are based-the simulations just need to be of the form: input files → executable → output files. To study the performance of CloudMC in Windows Azure®, Monte Carlo simulations with penelope were performed on different instance (virtual machine) sizes, and for different number of instances. The instance size was found to have no effect on the simulation runtime. It was also found that the decrease in time with the number of instances followed Amdahl's law, with a slight deviation due to the increase in the fraction of non-parallelizable time with increasing number of instances. A simulation that would have required 30 h of CPU on a single instance was completed in 48.6 min when executed on 64 instances in parallel (speedup of 37 ×). Furthermore, the use of cloud computing for parallel computing offers some advantages over conventional clusters: high accessibility, scalability and pay per usage. Therefore, it is strongly believed that cloud computing will play an important role in making Monte Carlo dose calculation a reality in future clinical practice.

  12. Implementation on Landsat Data of a Simple Cloud Mask Algorithm Developed for MODIS Land Bands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oreopoulos, Lazaros; Wilson, Michael J.; Varnai, Tamas

    2010-01-01

    This letter assesses the performance on Landsat-7 images of a modified version of a cloud masking algorithm originally developed for clear-sky compositing of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images at northern mid-latitudes. While data from recent Landsat missions include measurements at thermal wavelengths, and such measurements are also planned for the next mission, thermal tests are not included in the suggested algorithm in its present form to maintain greater versatility and ease of use. To evaluate the masking algorithm we take advantage of the availability of manual (visual) cloud masks developed at USGS for the collection of Landsat scenes used here. As part of our evaluation we also include the Automated Cloud Cover Assesment (ACCA) algorithm that includes thermal tests and is used operationally by the Landsat-7 mission to provide scene cloud fractions, but no cloud masks. We show that the suggested algorithm can perform about as well as ACCA both in terms of scene cloud fraction and pixel-level cloud identification. Specifically, we find that the algorithm gives an error of 1.3% for the scene cloud fraction of 156 scenes, and a root mean square error of 7.2%, while it agrees with the manual mask for 93% of the pixels, figures very similar to those from ACCA (1.2%, 7.1%, 93.7%).

  13. Security Problems in Cloud Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rola Motawie

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Cloud is a pool of computing resources which are distributed among cloud users. Cloud computing has many benefits like scalability, flexibility, cost savings, reliability, maintenance and mobile accessibility. Since cloud-computing technology is growing day by day, it comes with many security problems. Securing the data in the cloud environment is most critical challenges which act as a barrier when implementing the cloud. There are many new concepts that cloud introduces, such as resource sharing, multi-tenancy, and outsourcing, create new challenges for the security community. In this work, we provide a comparable study of cloud computing privacy and security concerns. We identify and classify known security threats, cloud vulnerabilities, and attacks.

  14. Cloud Computing Explained

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metz, Rosalyn

    2010-01-01

    While many talk about the cloud, few actually understand it. Three organizations' definitions come to the forefront when defining the cloud: Gartner, Forrester, and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). Although both Gartner and Forrester provide definitions of cloud computing, the NIST definition is concise and uses…

  15. CloudSafetyNet: Detecting Data Leakage between Cloud Tenants

    OpenAIRE

    Pietzuch, PR; Priebe, C; Muthukumaran, D; O'Keeffe, D; Eyers, D; Shand, B; Kapitza, R

    2014-01-01

    01.12.14 KB. Ok to add accepted version to spiral. Copyright ? 2014 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM).When tenants deploy applications under the control of third-party cloud providers, they must trust the providers security mechanisms for inter-tenant isolation, resource sharing and access control. Despite a providers best efforts, accidental data leakage may occur due to misconfigurations or bugs in the cloud platform. Especially in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) clouds...

  16. Modeling of Cloud/Radiation Processes for Cirrus Cloud Formation

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Liou, K

    1997-01-01

    This technical report includes five reprints and pre-prints of papers associated with the modeling of cirrus cloud and radiation processes as well as remote sensing of cloud optical and microphysical...

  17. All-Sky Cataloging and Analysis of Interstellar Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hojaev, Alisher S.

    2015-08-01

    Recent quick instrumental progress provides possibilities to careful study the interstellar medium (ISM) in the Galaxy and in the nearest galaxies (M31, LMC, SMC, etc.). Significant enough baryon mass of the galactic and extragalactic ISM is concentrated in the clouds with molecular content in the densest parts. The molecular clouds (MoC) are closely related to cold dust-gas clouds, particularly HI ones and should play a key-role in the star forming processes as well as in the dynamics of the Galaxy. These arguments show the importance of counting and surveying of the MoC populations. In order to attempt to solve at least some problems of the physics and evolution of the MoC system in the Galaxy (as well as in other galaxies), its impact on the dynamics and evolution of the Galaxy itself, and to extend the results to the MoC systems in other galaxies we drafted a consolidated composite catalog of molecular and dust-gas clouds based on the recent data. Online data banks and services such as VizieR, SIMBAD at CDS as well as original publications were used. In our Galaxy there are about 200 large molecular clouds, more than 2500 smaller cold dark clouds (including clumps and cores this value exceeds approximately 5000 objects) observed in 11 kpc Solar neighborhood. The general catalog has been divided into 3 sub-catalogs: 1)large and giant MoC; 2) MoC with moderate masses and sizes; 3) small MoC including the clumps and cores. All main catalogs and subcatalogs contain the coordinates, sizes, distances, masses and other physical parameters (density, temperature, radial velocity, etc.) that are available for the different clouds. Statistical and correlation analyses of the data has been performed, the spatial distribution is drawn and the total number is estimated, the dynamic model of formation and evolution of MoC system is proposed. Our results are compared and discussed with data of other investigations as well as the ways to complete and improve the catalog data

  18. THE MASS-SIZE RELATION FROM CLOUDS TO CORES. II. SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD CLOUDS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kauffmann, J.; Shetty, R.; Goodman, A. A.; Pillai, T.; Myers, P. C.

    2010-01-01

    We measure the mass and size of cloud fragments in several molecular clouds continuously over a wide range of spatial scales (0.05 ∼ 2 , is not well suited to describe the derived mass-size data. Solar neighborhood clouds not forming massive stars (∼ sun ; Pipe Nebula, Taurus, Perseus, and Ophiuchus) obey m(r) ≤ 870 M sun (r/pc) 1.33 . In contrast to this, clouds forming massive stars (Orion A, G10.15 - 0.34, G11.11 - 0.12) do exceed the aforementioned relation. Thus, this limiting mass-size relation may approximate a threshold for the formation of massive stars. Across all clouds, cluster-forming cloud fragments are found to be-at given radius-more massive than fragments devoid of clusters. The cluster-bearing fragments are found to roughly obey a mass-size law m ∝ r 1.27 (where the exponent is highly uncertain in any given cloud, but is certainly smaller than 1.5).

  19. Searchable Encryption in Cloud Storage

    OpenAIRE

    Ren-Junn Hwang; Chung-Chien Lu; Jain-Shing Wu

    2014-01-01

    Cloud outsource storage is one of important services in cloud computing. Cloud users upload data to cloud servers to reduce the cost of managing data and maintaining hardware and software. To ensure data confidentiality, users can encrypt their files before uploading them to a cloud system. However, retrieving the target file from the encrypted files exactly is difficult for cloud server. This study proposes a protocol for performing multikeyword searches for encrypted cloud data by applying ...

  20. A closer look at Arctic ozone loss and polar stratospheric clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. R. P. Harris

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The empirical relationship found between column-integrated Arctic ozone loss and the potential volume of polar stratospheric clouds inferred from meteorological analyses is recalculated in a self-consistent manner using the ERA Interim reanalyses. The relationship is found to hold at different altitudes as well as in the column. The use of a PSC formation threshold based on temperature dependent cold aerosol formation makes little difference to the original, empirical relationship. Analysis of the photochemistry leading to the ozone loss shows that activation is limited by the photolysis of nitric acid. This step produces nitrogen dioxide which is converted to chlorine nitrate which in turn reacts with hydrogen chloride on any polar stratospheric clouds to form active chlorine. The rate-limiting step is the photolysis of nitric acid: this occurs at the same rate every year and so the interannual variation in the ozone loss is caused by the extent and persistence of the polar stratospheric clouds. In early spring the ozone loss rate increases as the solar insolation increases the photolysis of the chlorine monoxide dimer in the near ultraviolet. However the length of the ozone loss period is determined by the photolysis of nitric acid which also occurs in the near ultraviolet. As a result of these compensating effects, the amount of the ozone loss is principally limited by the extent of original activation rather than its timing. In addition a number of factors, including the vertical changes in pressure and total inorganic chlorine as well as denitrification and renitrification, offset each other. As a result the extent of original activation is the most important factor influencing ozone loss. These results indicate that relatively simple parameterisations of Arctic ozone loss could be developed for use in coupled chemistry climate models.

  1. Gemini Follow-up of Two Massive H I Clouds Discovered with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madrid, Juan P.; Lee-Waddell, Karen; Serra, Paolo; Koribalski, Bärbel S.; Schirmer, Mischa; Spekkens, Kristine; Wang, Jing

    2018-02-01

    Using the Gemini Multi Object Spectrograph (GMOS) we search for optical counterparts of two massive (∼109 M ⊙) neutral hydrogen clouds near the spiral galaxy IC 5270, located in the outskirts of the IC 1459 group. These two H I clouds were recently discovered using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Two low surface brightness optical counterparts to one of these H I clouds are identified in the new Gemini data that reaches down to magnitudes of ∼27.5 mag in the g-band. The observed H I mass-to-light ratio derived with these new data, {M}{{H}{{I}}}/{L}g=242, is among the highest reported to date. We are also able to rule out that the two H I clouds are dwarf companions of IC 5270. Tidal interactions and ram pressure stripping are plausible explanations for the physical origin of these two clouds.

  2. A stochastic cloud model for cloud and ozone retrievals from UV measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Efremenko, Dmitry S.; Schüssler, Olena; Doicu, Adrian; Loyola, Diego

    2016-01-01

    The new generation of satellite instruments provides measurements in and around the Oxygen A-band on a global basis and with a relatively high spatial resolution. These data are commonly used for the determination of cloud properties. A stochastic model and radiative transfer model, previously developed by the authors, is used as the forward model component in retrievals of cloud parameters and ozone total and partial columns. The cloud retrieval algorithm combines local and global optimization routines, and yields a retrieval accuracy of about 1% and a fast computational time. Retrieved parameters are the cloud optical thickness and the cloud-top height. It was found that the use of the independent pixel approximation instead of the stochastic cloud model leads to large errors in the retrieved cloud parameters, as well as, in the retrieved ozone height resolved partial columns. The latter can be reduced by using the stochastic cloud model to compute the optimal value of the regularization parameter in the framework of Tikhonov regularization. - Highlights: • A stochastic radiative transfer model for retrieving clouds/ozone is designed. • Errors of independent pixel approximation (IPA) for O3 total column are small. • The error of IPA for ozone profile retrieval may become large. • The use of stochastic model reduces the error of ozone profile retrieval.

  3. An Integrated Cloud-Aerosol-Radiation Product Using CERES, MODIS, CALIPSO and CloudSat Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun-Mack, S.; Gibson, S.; Chen, Y.; Wielicki, B.; Minnis, P.

    2006-12-01

    The goal of this paper is to provide the first integrated data set of global vertical profiles of aerosols, clouds, and radiation using the combined NASA A-Train data from Aqua CERES and MODIS, CALIPSO, and CloudSat. All of these instruments are flying in formation as part of the Aqua Train, or A-Train. This paper will present the preliminary results of merging aerosol and cloud data from the CALIPSO active lidar, cloud data from CloudSat, integrated column aerosol and cloud data from the MODIS CERES analyses, and surface and top-of-atmosphere broadband radiation fluxes from CERES. These new data will provide unprecedented ability to test and improve global cloud and aerosol models, to investigate aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing, and to validate the accuracy of global aerosol, cloud, and radiation data sets especially in polar regions and for multi-layered cloud conditions.

  4. Clouds vertical properties over the Northern Hemisphere monsoon regions from CloudSat-CALIPSO measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Subrata Kumar; Golhait, R. B.; Uma, K. N.

    2017-01-01

    The CloudSat spaceborne radar and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) space-borne lidar measurements, provide opportunities to understand the intriguing behavior of the vertical structure of monsoon clouds. The combined CloudSat-CALIPSO data products have been used for the summer season (June-August) of 2006-2010 to present the statistics of cloud macrophysical (such as cloud occurrence frequency, distribution of cloud top and base heights, geometrical thickness and cloud types base on occurrence height), and microphysical (such as ice water content, ice water path, and ice effective radius) properties of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) monsoon region. The monsoon regions considered in this work are the North American (NAM), North African (NAF), Indian (IND), East Asian (EAS), and Western North Pacific (WNP). The total cloud fraction over the IND (mostly multiple-layered cloud) appeared to be more frequent as compared to the other monsoon regions. Three distinctive modes of cloud top height distribution are observed over all the monsoon regions. The high-level cloud fraction is comparatively high over the WNP and IND. The ice water content and ice water path over the IND are maximum compared to the other monsoon regions. We found that the ice water content has little variations over the NAM, NAF, IND, and WNP as compared to their macrophysical properties and thus give an impression that the regional differences in dynamics and thermodynamics properties primarily cause changes in the cloud frequency or coverage and only secondary in the cloud ice properties. The background atmospheric dynamics using wind and relative humidity from the ERA-Interim reanalysis data have also been investigated which helps in understanding the variability of the cloud properties over the different monsoon regions.

  5. AIRS-AMSU variables-CloudSat cloud mask, radar reflectivities, and cloud classification matchups V3.2

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This is AIRS-CloudSat collocated subset, in NetCDF 4 format. These data contain collocated: AIRS/AMSU retrievals at AMSU footprints, CloudSat radar reflectivities,...

  6. A Location-Based Interactive Model of Internet of Things and Cloud (IoT-Cloud) for Mobile Cloud Computing Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinh, Thanh; Kim, Younghan; Lee, Hyukjoon

    2017-03-01

    This paper presents a location-based interactive model of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud integration (IoT-cloud) for mobile cloud computing applications, in comparison with the periodic sensing model. In the latter, sensing collections are performed without awareness of sensing demands. Sensors are required to report their sensing data periodically regardless of whether or not there are demands for their sensing services. This leads to unnecessary energy loss due to redundant transmission. In the proposed model, IoT-cloud provides sensing services on demand based on interest and location of mobile users. By taking advantages of the cloud as a coordinator, sensing scheduling of sensors is controlled by the cloud, which knows when and where mobile users request for sensing services. Therefore, when there is no demand, sensors are put into an inactive mode to save energy. Through extensive analysis and experimental results, we show that the location-based model achieves a significant improvement in terms of network lifetime compared to the periodic model.

  7. Retrieval of Cloud Properties for Partially Cloud-Filled Pixels During CRYSTAL-FACE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, L.; Minnis, P.; Smith, W. L.; Khaiyer, M. M.; Heck, P. W.; Sun-Mack, S.; Uttal, T.; Comstock, J.

    2003-12-01

    Partially cloud-filled pixels can be a significant problem for remote sensing of cloud properties. Generally, the optical depth and effective particle sizes are often too small or too large, respectively, when derived from radiances that are assumed to be overcast but contain radiation from both clear and cloud areas within the satellite imager field of view. This study presents a method for reducing the impact of such partially cloud field pixels by estimating the cloud fraction within each pixel using higher resolution visible (VIS, 0.65mm) imager data. Although the nominal resolution for most channels on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra are 4 and 1 km, respectively, both instruments also take VIS channel data at 1 km and 0.25 km, respectively. Thus, it may be possible to obtain an improved estimate of cloud fraction within the lower resolution pixels by using the information contained in the higher resolution VIS data. GOES and MODIS multi-spectral data, taken during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers - Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE), are analyzed with the algorithm used for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) and the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) to derive cloud amount, temperature, height, phase, effective particle size, optical depth, and water path. Normally, the algorithm assumes that each pixel is either entirely clear or cloudy. In this study, a threshold method is applied to the higher resolution VIS data to estimate the partial cloud fraction within each low-resolution pixel. The cloud properties are then derived from the observed low-resolution radiances using the cloud cover estimate to properly extract the radiances due only to the cloudy part of the scene. This approach is applied to both GOES and MODIS data to estimate the improvement in the retrievals for each

  8. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN CLOUD

    OpenAIRE

    Celina M. Olszak

    2014-01-01

    . The paper reviews and critiques current research on Business Intelligence (BI) in cloud. This review highlights that organizations face various challenges using BI cloud. The research objectives for this study are a conceptualization of the BI cloud issue, as well as an investigation of some benefits and risks from BI cloud. The study was based mainly on a critical analysis of literature and some reports on BI cloud using. The results of this research can be used by IT and business leaders ...

  9. A GCM study of organic matter in marine aerosol and its potential contribution to cloud drop activation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. J. Roelofs

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available With the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM we investigate the potential influence of organic aerosol originating from the ocean on aerosol mass and chemical composition and the droplet concentration and size of marine clouds. We present sensitivity simulations in which the uptake of organic matter in the marine aerosol is prescribed for each aerosol mode with varying organic mass and mixing state, and with a geographical distribution and seasonality similar to the oceanic emission of dimethyl sulfide. Measurements of aerosol mass, aerosol chemical composition and cloud drop effective radius are used to assess the representativity of the model initializations. Good agreement with the measurements is obtained when organic matter is added to the Aitken, accumulation and coarse modes simultaneously. Representing marine organics in the model leads to higher cloud drop number concentrations and thus smaller cloud drop effective radii, and this improves the agreement with measurements. The mixing state of the organics and the other aerosol matter, i.e. internal or external depending on the formation process of aerosol organics, is an important factor for this. We estimate that globally about 75 Tg C yr−1 of organic matter from marine origin enters the aerosol phase, with comparable contributions from primary emissions and secondary organic aerosol formation.

  10. Considerations for Cloud Security Operations

    OpenAIRE

    Cusick, James

    2016-01-01

    Information Security in Cloud Computing environments is explored. Cloud Computing is presented, security needs are discussed, and mitigation approaches are listed. Topics covered include Information Security, Cloud Computing, Private Cloud, Public Cloud, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, ISO 27001, OWASP, Secure SDLC.

  11. The Geospatial Data Cloud: An Implementation of Applying Cloud Computing in Geosciences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuezhi Wang

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The rapid growth in the volume of remote sensing data and its increasing computational requirements bring huge challenges for researchers as traditional systems cannot adequately satisfy the huge demand for service. Cloud computing has the advantage of high scalability and reliability, which can provide firm technical support. This paper proposes a highly scalable geospatial cloud platform named the Geospatial Data Cloud, which is constructed based on cloud computing. The architecture of the platform is first introduced, and then two subsystems, the cloud-based data management platform and the cloud-based data processing platform, are described.  ––– This paper was presented at the First Scientific Data Conference on Scientific Research, Big Data, and Data Science, organized by CODATA-China and held in Beijing on 24-25 February, 2014.

  12. Evolution of Cloud Storage as Cloud Computing Infrastructure Service

    OpenAIRE

    Rajan, Arokia Paul; Shanmugapriyaa

    2013-01-01

    Enterprises are driving towards less cost, more availability, agility, managed risk - all of which is accelerated towards Cloud Computing. Cloud is not a particular product, but a way of delivering IT services that are consumable on demand, elastic to scale up and down as needed, and follow a pay-for-usage model. Out of the three common types of cloud computing service models, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a service model that provides servers, computing power, network bandwidth and S...

  13. Exploring the Effects of Cloud Vertical Structure on Cloud Microphysical Retrievals based on Polarized Reflectances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, D. J.; Zhang, Z.; Platnick, S. E.; Ackerman, A. S.; Cornet, C.; Baum, B. A.

    2013-12-01

    A polarized cloud reflectance simulator was developed by coupling an LES cloud model with a polarized radiative transfer model to assess the capabilities of polarimetric cloud retrievals. With future remote sensing campaigns like NASA's Aerosols/Clouds/Ecosystems (ACE) planning to feature advanced polarimetric instruments it is important for the cloud remote sensing community to understand the retrievable information available and the related systematic/methodical limitations. The cloud retrieval simulator we have developed allows us to probe these important questions in a realistically relevant test bed. Our simulator utilizes a polarized adding-doubling radiative transfer model and an LES cloud field from a DHARMA simulation (Ackerman et al. 2004) with cloud properties based on the stratocumulus clouds observed during the DYCOMS-II field campaign. In this study we will focus on how the vertical structure of cloud microphysics can influence polarized cloud effective radius retrievals. Numerous previous studies have explored how retrievals based on total reflectance are affected by cloud vertical structure (Platnick 2000, Chang and Li 2002) but no such studies about the effects of vertical structure on polarized retrievals exist. Unlike the total cloud reflectance, which is predominantly multiply scattered light, the polarized reflectance is primarily the result of singly scattered photons. Thus the polarized reflectance is sensitive to only the uppermost region of the cloud (tau~influencer on the microphysical development of cloud droplets, can be potentially studied with polarimetric retrievals.

  14. Using Radar, Lidar, and Radiometer measurements to Classify Cloud Type and Study Middle-Level Cloud Properties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Zhien

    2010-06-29

    The project is mainly focused on the characterization of cloud macrophysical and microphysical properties, especially for mixed-phased clouds and middle level ice clouds by combining radar, lidar, and radiometer measurements available from the ACRF sites. First, an advanced mixed-phase cloud retrieval algorithm will be developed to cover all mixed-phase clouds observed at the ACRF NSA site. The algorithm will be applied to the ACRF NSA observations to generate a long-term arctic mixed-phase cloud product for model validations and arctic mixed-phase cloud processes studies. To improve the representation of arctic mixed-phase clouds in GCMs, an advanced understanding of mixed-phase cloud processes is needed. By combining retrieved mixed-phase cloud microphysical properties with in situ data and large-scale meteorological data, the project aim to better understand the generations of ice crystals in supercooled water clouds, the maintenance mechanisms of the arctic mixed-phase clouds, and their connections with large-scale dynamics. The project will try to develop a new retrieval algorithm to study more complex mixed-phase clouds observed at the ACRF SGP site. Compared with optically thin ice clouds, optically thick middle level ice clouds are less studied because of limited available tools. The project will develop a new two wavelength radar technique for optically thick ice cloud study at SGP site by combining the MMCR with the W-band radar measurements. With this new algorithm, the SGP site will have a better capability to study all ice clouds. Another area of the proposal is to generate long-term cloud type classification product for the multiple ACRF sites. The cloud type classification product will not only facilitates the generation of the integrated cloud product by applying different retrieval algorithms to different types of clouds operationally, but will also support other research to better understand cloud properties and to validate model simulations. The

  15. Nonlinear evolutions of bosonic clouds around black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okawa, Hirotada

    2015-01-01

    Black holes are a laboratory not only for testing the theory of gravity but also for exploring the properties of fundamental fields. Fundamental fields around a supermassive black hole give rise to extremely long-lived quasi-bound states which can in principle extract the energy and angular momentum from the black hole. To investigate the final state of such a system, the backreaction onto the spacetime becomes important because of the nonlinearity of the Einstein equation. In this paper, we review the numerical method to trace the evolution of massive scalar fields in the vicinity of black holes, how such a system originates from scalar clouds initially in the absence of black holes or from the capture of scalar clouds by a black hole, and the evolution of quasi-bound states around both a non-rotating black hole and a rotating black hole including the backreaction. (paper)

  16. Traffic modelling for Big Data backed telecom cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Via Baraldés, Anna

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this project is to provide traffic models based on new services characteristics. Specifically, we focus on modelling the traffic between origin-destination node pairs (also known as OD pairs) in a telecom network. Two use cases are distinguished: i) traffic generation in the context of simulation, and ii) traffic modelling for prediction in the context of big-data backed telecom cloud systems. To this aim, several machine learning and statistical models and technics are studi...

  17. The Community Cloud Atlas - Building an Informed Cloud Watching Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guy, N.; Rowe, A.

    2014-12-01

    The sky is dynamic, from long lasting cloud systems to ethereal, fleeting formations. After years of observing the sky and growing our personal collections of cloud photos, we decided to take to social media to share pictures, as well as build and educate a community of cloud enthusiasts. We began a Facebook page, the Community Cloud Atlas, described as "...the place to show off your pictures of the sky, identify clouds, and to discuss how specific cloud types form and what they can tell you about current and future weather." Our main goal has been to encourage others to share their pictures, while we describe the scenes from a meteorological perspective and reach out to the general public to facilitate a deeper understanding of the sky. Nearly 16 months later, we have over 1400 "likes," spanning 45 countries with ages ranging from 13 to over 65. We have a consistent stream of submissions; so many that we decided to start a corresponding blog to better organize the photos, provide more detailed explanations, and reach a bigger audience. Feedback from users has been positive in support of not only sharing cloud pictures, but also to "learn the science as well as admiring" the clouds. As one community member stated, "This is not 'just' a place to share some lovely pictures." We have attempted to blend our social media presence with providing an educational resource, and we are encouraged by the response we have received. Our Atlas has been informally implemented into classrooms, ranging from a 6th grade science class to Meteorology courses at universities. NOVA's recent Cloud Lab also made use of our Atlas as a supply of categorized pictures. Our ongoing goal is to not only continue to increase understanding and appreciation of the sky among the public, but to provide an increasingly useful tool for educators. We continue to explore different social media options to interact with the public and provide easier content submission, as well as software options for

  18. Using MODIS Cloud Regimes to Sort Diagnostic Signals of Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oreopoulos, Lazaros; Cho, Nayeong; Lee, Dongmin

    2017-05-27

    Coincident multi-year measurements of aerosol, cloud, precipitation and radiation at near-global scales are analyzed to diagnose their apparent relationships as suggestive of interactions previously proposed based on theoretical, observational, and model constructs. Specifically, we examine whether differences in aerosol loading in separate observations go along with consistently different precipitation, cloud properties, and cloud radiative effects. Our analysis uses a cloud regime (CR) framework to dissect and sort the results. The CRs come from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor and are defined as distinct groups of cloud systems with similar co-variations of cloud top pressure and cloud optical thickness. Aerosol optical depth used as proxy for aerosol loading comes from two sources, MODIS observations, and the MERRA-2 re-analysis, and its variability is defined with respect to local seasonal climatologies. The choice of aerosol dataset impacts our results substantially. We also find that the responses of the marine and continental component of a CR are frequently quite disparate. Overall, CRs dominated by warm clouds tend to exhibit less ambiguous signals, but also have more uncertainty with regard to precipitation changes. Finally, we find weak, but occasionally systematic co-variations of select meteorological indicators and aerosol, which serves as a sober reminder that ascribing changes in cloud and cloud-affected variables solely to aerosol variations is precarious.

  19. Greening the Cloud

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Hoed, Robert; Hoekstra, Eric; Procaccianti, G.; Lago, P.; Grosso, Paola; Taal, Arie; Grosskop, Kay; van Bergen, Esther

    The cloud has become an essential part of our daily lives. We use it to store our documents (Dropbox), to stream our music and lms (Spotify and Net ix) and without giving it any thought, we use it to work on documents in the cloud (Google Docs). The cloud forms a massive storage and processing

  20. Benchmarking Cloud Storage Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Xing

    2014-01-01

    With the rise of cloud computing, many cloud storage systems like Dropbox, Google Drive and Mega have been built to provide decentralized and reliable file storage. It is thus of prime importance to know their features, performance, and the best way to make use of them. In this context, we introduce BenchCloud, a tool designed as part of this thesis to conveniently and efficiently benchmark any cloud storage system. First, we provide a study of six commonly-used cloud storage systems to ident...

  1. Cloud Computing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krogh, Simon

    2013-01-01

    with technological changes, the paradigmatic pendulum has swung between increased centralization on one side and a focus on distributed computing that pushes IT power out to end users on the other. With the introduction of outsourcing and cloud computing, centralization in large data centers is again dominating...... the IT scene. In line with the views presented by Nicolas Carr in 2003 (Carr, 2003), it is a popular assumption that cloud computing will be the next utility (like water, electricity and gas) (Buyya, Yeo, Venugopal, Broberg, & Brandic, 2009). However, this assumption disregards the fact that most IT production......), for instance, in establishing and maintaining trust between the involved parties (Sabherwal, 1999). So far, research in cloud computing has neglected this perspective and focused entirely on aspects relating to technology, economy, security and legal questions. While the core technologies of cloud computing (e...

  2. Impact of different cloud deployments on real-time video applications for mobile video cloud users

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Kashif A.; Wang, Qi; Luo, Chunbo; Wang, Xinheng; Grecos, Christos

    2015-02-01

    The latest trend to access mobile cloud services through wireless network connectivity has amplified globally among both entrepreneurs and home end users. Although existing public cloud service vendors such as Google, Microsoft Azure etc. are providing on-demand cloud services with affordable cost for mobile users, there are still a number of challenges to achieve high-quality mobile cloud based video applications, especially due to the bandwidth-constrained and errorprone mobile network connectivity, which is the communication bottleneck for end-to-end video delivery. In addition, existing accessible clouds networking architectures are different in term of their implementation, services, resources, storage, pricing, support and so on, and these differences have varied impact on the performance of cloud-based real-time video applications. Nevertheless, these challenges and impacts have not been thoroughly investigated in the literature. In our previous work, we have implemented a mobile cloud network model that integrates localized and decentralized cloudlets (mini-clouds) and wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we deploy a real-time framework consisting of various existing Internet cloud networking architectures (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Eucalyptus Cloud) and a cloudlet based on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud over wireless mesh networking technology for mobile cloud end users. It is noted that the increasing trend to access real-time video streaming over HTTP/HTTPS is gaining popularity among both research and industrial communities to leverage the existing web services and HTTP infrastructure in the Internet. To study the performance under different deployments using different public and private cloud service providers, we employ real-time video streaming over the HTTP/HTTPS standard, and conduct experimental evaluation and in-depth comparative analysis of the impact of different deployments on the quality of service for mobile video cloud users. Empirical

  3. Selected Translated Abstracts of Russian-Language Climate-Change Publications, II. Clouds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ravina, C.B.

    1994-01-01

    This report presents abstracts (translated into English) of important Russian-language literature concerning clouds as they relate to climate change. In addition to the bibliographic citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Russian. Author and title indexes are included, to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest.

  4. Cloud-edge mixing: Direct numerical simulation and observations in Indian Monsoon clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Bipin; Bera, Sudarsan; Prabha, Thara V.; Grabowski, Wojceich W.

    2017-03-01

    A direct numerical simulation (DNS) with the decaying turbulence setup has been carried out to study cloud-edge mixing and its impact on the droplet size distribution (DSD) applying thermodynamic conditions observed in monsoon convective clouds over Indian subcontinent during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement EXperiment (CAIPEEX). Evaporation at the cloud-edges initiates mixing at small scale and gradually introduces larger-scale fluctuations of the temperature, moisture, and vertical velocity due to droplet evaporation. Our focus is on early evolution of simulated fields that show intriguing similarities to the CAIPEEX cloud observations. A strong dilution at the cloud edge, accompanied by significant spatial variations of the droplet concentration, mean radius, and spectral width, are found in both the DNS and in observations. In DNS, fluctuations of the mean radius and spectral width come from the impact of small-scale turbulence on the motion and evaporation of inertial droplets. These fluctuations decrease with the increase of the volume over which DNS data are averaged, as one might expect. In cloud observations, these fluctuations also come from other processes, such as entrainment/mixing below the observation level, secondary CCN activation, or variations of CCN activation at the cloud base. Despite large differences in the spatial and temporal scales, the mixing diagram often used in entrainment/mixing studies with aircraft data is remarkably similar for both DNS and cloud observations. We argue that the similarity questions applicability of heuristic ideas based on mixing between two air parcels (that the mixing diagram is designed to properly represent) to the evolution of microphysical properties during turbulent mixing between a cloud and its environment.

  5. Giant molecular cloud scaling relations: the role of the cloud definition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khoperskov, S. A.; Vasiliev, E. O.; Ladeyschikov, D. A.; Sobolev, A. M.; Khoperskov, A. V.

    2016-01-01

    We investigate the physical properties of molecular clouds in disc galaxies with different morphologies: a galaxy without prominent structure, a spiral barred galaxy and a galaxy with flocculent structure. Our N-body/hydrodynamical simulations take into account non-equilibrium H2 and CO chemical kinetics, self-gravity, star formation and feedback processes. For the simulated galaxies, the scaling relations of giant molecular clouds, or so-called Larson's relations, are studied for two types of cloud definition (or extraction method): the first is based on total column density position-position (PP) data sets and the second is indicated by the CO (1-0) line emission used in position-position-velocity (PPV) data. We find that the cloud populations obtained using both cloud extraction methods generally have similar physical parameters, except that for the CO data the mass spectrum of clouds has a tail with low-mass objects M ˜ 103-104 M⊙. Owing toa varying column density threshold, the power-law indices in the scaling relations are significantly changed. In contrast, the relations are invariant to the CO brightness temperature threshold. Finally, we find that the mass spectra of clouds for PPV data are almost insensitive to the galactic morphology, whereas the spectra for PP data demonstrate significant variation.

  6. On CLOUD nine

    CERN Multimedia

    2009-01-01

    The team from the CLOUD experiment - the world’s first experiment using a high-energy particle accelerator to study the climate - were on cloud nine after the arrival of their new three-metre diameter cloud chamber. This marks the end of three years’ R&D and design, and the start of preparations for data taking later this year.

  7. Do Clouds Compute? A Framework for Estimating the Value of Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klems, Markus; Nimis, Jens; Tai, Stefan

    On-demand provisioning of scalable and reliable compute services, along with a cost model that charges consumers based on actual service usage, has been an objective in distributed computing research and industry for a while. Cloud Computing promises to deliver on this objective: consumers are able to rent infrastructure in the Cloud as needed, deploy applications and store data, and access them via Web protocols on a pay-per-use basis. The acceptance of Cloud Computing, however, depends on the ability for Cloud Computing providers and consumers to implement a model for business value co-creation. Therefore, a systematic approach to measure costs and benefits of Cloud Computing is needed. In this paper, we discuss the need for valuation of Cloud Computing, identify key components, and structure these components in a framework. The framework assists decision makers in estimating Cloud Computing costs and to compare these costs to conventional IT solutions. We demonstrate by means of representative use cases how our framework can be applied to real world scenarios.

  8. Aerosol-Cloud Interactions and Cloud Microphysical Properties in the Asir Region of Saudi Arabia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kucera, P. A.; Axisa, D.; Burger, R. P.; Li, R.; Collins, D. R.; Freney, E. J.; Buseck, P. R.

    2009-12-01

    In recent advertent and inadvertent weather modification studies, a considerable effort has been made to understand the impact of varying aerosol properties and concentration on cloud properties. Significant uncertainties exist with aerosol-cloud interactions for which complex microphysical processes link the aerosol and cloud properties. Under almost all environmental conditions, increased aerosol concentrations within polluted air masses will enhance cloud droplet concentration relative to that in unperturbed regions. The interaction between dust particles and clouds are significant, yet the conditions in which dust particles become cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are uncertain. In order to quantify this aerosol effect on clouds and precipitation, a field campaign was launched in the Asir region, located adjacent to the Red Sea in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia. Ground measurements of aerosol size distributions, hygroscopic growth factors, CCN concentrations as well as aircraft measurements of cloud hydrometeor size distributions were observed in the Asir region in August 2009. The presentation will include a summary of the analysis and results with a focus on aerosol-cloud interactions and cloud microphysical properties observed during the convective season in the Asir region.

  9. Observational evidence for the aerosol impact on ice cloud properties regulated by cloud/aerosol types

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, B.; Gu, Y.; Liou, K. N.; Jiang, J. H.; Li, Q.; Liu, X.; Huang, L.; Wang, Y.; Su, H.

    2017-12-01

    The interactions between aerosols and ice clouds (consisting only of ice) represent one of the largest uncertainties in global radiative forcing from pre-industrial time to the present. The observational evidence for the aerosol impact on ice cloud properties has been quite limited and showed conflicting results, partly because previous observational studies did not consider the distinct features of different ice cloud and aerosol types. Using 9-year satellite observations, we find that, for ice clouds generated from deep convection, cloud thickness, cloud optical thickness (COT), and ice cloud fraction increase and decrease with small-to-moderate and high aerosol loadings, respectively. For in-situ formed ice clouds, however, the preceding cloud properties increase monotonically and more sharply with aerosol loadings. The case is more complicated for ice crystal effective radius (Rei). For both convection-generated and in-situ ice clouds, the responses of Rei to aerosol loadings are modulated by water vapor amount in conjunction with several other meteorological parameters, but the sensitivities of Rei to aerosols under the same water vapor amount differ remarkably between the two ice cloud types. As a result, overall Rei slightly increases with aerosol loading for convection-generated ice clouds, but decreases for in-situ ice clouds. When aerosols are decomposed into different types, an increase in the loading of smoke aerosols generally leads to a decrease in COT of convection-generated ice clouds, while the reverse is true for dust and anthropogenic pollution. In contrast, an increase in the loading of any aerosol type can significantly enhance COT of in-situ ice clouds. The modulation of the aerosol impacts by cloud/aerosol types is demonstrated and reproduced by simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Adequate and accurate representations of the impact of different cloud/aerosol types in climate models are crucial for reducing the

  10. Research on cloud computing solutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liudvikas Kaklauskas

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing can be defined as a new style of computing in which dynamically scala-ble and often virtualized resources are provided as a services over the Internet. Advantages of the cloud computing technology include cost savings, high availability, and easy scalability. Voas and Zhang adapted six phases of computing paradigms, from dummy termi-nals/mainframes, to PCs, networking computing, to grid and cloud computing. There are four types of cloud computing: public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and community. The most common and well-known deployment model is Public Cloud. A Private Cloud is suited for sensitive data, where the customer is dependent on a certain degree of security.According to the different types of services offered, cloud computing can be considered to consist of three layers (services models: IaaS (infrastructure as a service, PaaS (platform as a service, SaaS (software as a service. Main cloud computing solutions: web applications, data hosting, virtualization, database clusters and terminal services. The advantage of cloud com-puting is the ability to virtualize and share resources among different applications with the objective for better server utilization and without a clustering solution, a service may fail at the moment the server crashes.DOI: 10.15181/csat.v2i2.914

  11. Can CFMIP2 models reproduce the leading modes of cloud vertical structure in the CALIPSO-GOCCP observations?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Fang; Yang, Song

    2018-02-01

    Using principal component (PC) analysis, three leading modes of cloud vertical structure (CVS) are revealed by the GCM-Oriented CALIPSO Cloud Product (GOCCP), i.e. tropical high, subtropical anticyclonic and extratropical cyclonic cloud modes (THCM, SACM and ECCM, respectively). THCM mainly reflect the contrast between tropical high clouds and clouds in middle/high latitudes. SACM is closely associated with middle-high clouds in tropical convective cores, few-cloud regimes in subtropical anticyclonic clouds and stratocumulus over subtropical eastern oceans. ECCM mainly corresponds to clouds along extratropical cyclonic regions. Models of phase 2 of Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP2) well reproduce the THCM, but SACM and ECCM are generally poorly simulated compared to GOCCP. Standardized PCs corresponding to CVS modes are generally captured, whereas original PCs (OPCs) are consistently underestimated (overestimated) for THCM (SACM and ECCM) by CFMIP2 models. The effects of CVS modes on relative cloud radiative forcing (RSCRF/RLCRF) (RSCRF being calculated at the surface while RLCRF at the top of atmosphere) are studied in terms of principal component regression method. Results show that CFMIP2 models tend to overestimate (underestimated or simulate the opposite sign) RSCRF/RLCRF radiative effects (REs) of ECCM (THCM and SACM) in unit global mean OPC compared to observations. These RE biases may be attributed to two factors, one of which is underestimation (overestimation) of low/middle clouds (high clouds) (also known as stronger (weaker) REs in unit low/middle (high) clouds) in simulated global mean cloud profiles, the other is eigenvector biases in CVS modes (especially for SACM and ECCM). It is suggested that much more attention should be paid on improvement of CVS, especially cloud parameterization associated with particular physical processes (e.g. downwelling regimes with the Hadley circulation, extratropical storm tracks and others), which

  12. SciCloud: A Scientific Cloud and Management Platform for Smart City Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Xiufeng; Nielsen, Per Sieverts; Heller, Alfred

    2017-01-01

    private scientific cloud, SciCloud, to tackle these grand challenges. SciCloud provides on-demand computing resource provisions, a scalable data management platform and an in-place data analytics environment to support the scientific research using smart city data....

  13. Enhanced K-means clustering with encryption on cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Iqjot; Dwivedi, Prerna; Gupta, Taru; Shynu, P. G.

    2017-11-01

    This paper tries to solve the problem of storing and managing big files over cloud by implementing hashing on Hadoop in big-data and ensure security while uploading and downloading files. Cloud computing is a term that emphasis on sharing data and facilitates to share infrastructure and resources.[10] Hadoop is an open source software that gives us access to store and manage big files according to our needs on cloud. K-means clustering algorithm is an algorithm used to calculate distance between the centroid of the cluster and the data points. Hashing is a algorithm in which we are storing and retrieving data with hash keys. The hashing algorithm is called as hash function which is used to portray the original data and later to fetch the data stored at the specific key. [17] Encryption is a process to transform electronic data into non readable form known as cipher text. Decryption is the opposite process of encryption, it transforms the cipher text into plain text that the end user can read and understand well. For encryption and decryption we are using Symmetric key cryptographic algorithm. In symmetric key cryptography are using DES algorithm for a secure storage of the files. [3

  14. ATLAS WORLD-cloud and networking in PanDA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barreiro Megino, F.; De, K.; Di Girolamo, A.; Maeno, T.; Walker, R.; ATLAS Collaboration

    2017-10-01

    The ATLAS computing model was originally designed as static clouds (usually national or geographical groupings of sites) around the Tier 1 centres, which confined tasks and most of the data traffic. Since those early days, the sites’ network bandwidth has increased at 0(1000) and the difference in functionalities between Tier 1s and Tier 2s has reduced. After years of manual, intermediate solutions, we have now ramped up to full usage of World-cloud, the latest step in the PanDA Workload Management System to increase resource utilization on the ATLAS Grid, for all workflows (MC production, data (re)processing, etc.). We have based the development on two new site concepts. Nuclei sites are the Tier 1s and large Tier 2s, where tasks will be assigned and the output aggregated, and satellites are the sites that will execute the jobs and send the output to their nucleus. PanDA dynamically pairs nuclei and satellite sites for each task based on the input data availability, capability matching, site load and network connectivity. This contribution will introduce the conceptual changes for World-cloud, the development necessary in PanDA, an insight into the network model and the first half-year of operational experience.

  15. Security Architecture of Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    V.KRISHNA REDDY; Dr. L.S.S.REDDY

    2011-01-01

    The Cloud Computing offers service over internet with dynamically scalable resources. Cloud Computing services provides benefits to the users in terms of cost and ease of use. Cloud Computing services need to address the security during the transmission of sensitive data and critical applications to shared and public cloud environments. The cloud environments are scaling large for data processing and storage needs. Cloud computing environment have various advantages as well as disadvantages o...

  16. BlueSky Cloud Framework: An E-Learning Framework Embracing Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Bo; Zheng, Qinghua; Qiao, Mu; Shu, Jian; Yang, Jie

    Currently, E-Learning has grown into a widely accepted way of learning. With the huge growth of users, services, education contents and resources, E-Learning systems are facing challenges of optimizing resource allocations, dealing with dynamic concurrency demands, handling rapid storage growth requirements and cost controlling. In this paper, an E-Learning framework based on cloud computing is presented, namely BlueSky cloud framework. Particularly, the architecture and core components of BlueSky cloud framework are introduced. In BlueSky cloud framework, physical machines are virtualized, and allocated on demand for E-Learning systems. Moreover, BlueSky cloud framework combines with traditional middleware functions (such as load balancing and data caching) to serve for E-Learning systems as a general architecture. It delivers reliable, scalable and cost-efficient services to E-Learning systems, and E-Learning organizations can establish systems through these services in a simple way. BlueSky cloud framework solves the challenges faced by E-Learning, and improves the performance, availability and scalability of E-Learning systems.

  17. A multi-satellite analysis of the direct radiative effects of absorbing aerosols above clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Y. Y.; Christopher, S. A.

    2015-12-01

    Radiative effects of absorbing aerosols above liquid water clouds in the southeast Atlantic as a function of fire sources are investigated using A-Train data coupled with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP). Both the VIIRS Active Fire product and the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Thermal Anomalies product (MYD14) are used to identify the biomass burning fire origin in southern Africa. The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) are used to assess the aerosol type, aerosol altitude, and cloud altitude. We use back trajectory information, wind data, and the Fire Locating and Modeling of Burning Emissions (FLAMBE) product to infer the transportation of aerosols from the fire source to the CALIOP swath in the southeast Atlantic during austral winter.

  18. ATLAS Cloud R&D

    CERN Document Server

    Panitkin, S; The ATLAS collaboration; Caballero Bejar, J; Benjamin, D; DiGirolamo, A; Gable, I; Hendrix, V; Hover, J; Kucharczuk, K; Medrano LLamas, R; Love, P; Ohman, H; Paterson, M; Sobie, R; Taylor, R; Walker, R; Zaytsev, A

    2014-01-01

    The computing model of the ATLAS experiment was designed around the concept of grid computing and, since the start of data taking, this model has proven very successful. However, new cloud computing technologies bring attractive features to improve the operations and elasticity of scientific distributed computing. ATLAS sees grid and cloud computing as complementary technologies that will coexist at different levels of resource abstraction, and two years ago created an R&D working group to investigate the different integration scenarios. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D has been able to demonstrate the feasibility of offloading work from grid to cloud sites and, as of today, is able to integrate transparently various cloud resources into the PanDA workload management system. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D is operating various PanDA queues on private and public resources and has provided several hundred thousand CPU days to the experiment. As a result, the ATLAS Cloud Computing R&D group has gained...

  19. A Location-Based Interactive Model of Internet of Things and Cloud (IoT-Cloud for Mobile Cloud Computing Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thanh Dinh

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a location-based interactive model of Internet of Things (IoT and cloud integration (IoT-cloud for mobile cloud computing applications, in comparison with the periodic sensing model. In the latter, sensing collections are performed without awareness of sensing demands. Sensors are required to report their sensing data periodically regardless of whether or not there are demands for their sensing services. This leads to unnecessary energy loss due to redundant transmission. In the proposed model, IoT-cloud provides sensing services on demand based on interest and location of mobile users. By taking advantages of the cloud as a coordinator, sensing scheduling of sensors is controlled by the cloud, which knows when and where mobile users request for sensing services. Therefore, when there is no demand, sensors are put into an inactive mode to save energy. Through extensive analysis and experimental results, we show that the location-based model achieves a significant improvement in terms of network lifetime compared to the periodic model.

  20. The photoevaporation of interstellar clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bertoldi, F.

    1989-01-01

    The dynamics of the photoevaporation of interstellar clouds and its consequences for the structure and evolution of H II regions are studied. An approximate analytical solution for the evolution of photoevaporating clouds is derived under the realistic assumption of axisymmetry. The effects of magnetic fields are taken into account in an approximate way. The evolution of a neutral cloud subjected to the ionizing radiation of an OB star has two distinct stages. When a cloud is first exposed to the radiation, the increase in pressure due to the ionization at the surface of the cloud leads to a radiation-driven implosion: an ionization front drives a shock into the cloud, ionizes part of it and compresses the remaining into a dense globule. The initial implosion is followed by an equilibrium cometary stage, in which the cloud maintains a semistationary comet-shaped configuration; it slowly evaporates while accelerating away from the ionizing star until the cloud has been completely ionized, reaches the edge of the H II region, or dies. Expressions are derived for the cloud mass-loss rate and acceleration. To investigate the effect of the cloud photoevaporation on the structure of H II regions, the evolution of an ensemble of clouds of a given mass distribution is studied. It is shown that the compressive effect of the ionizing radiation can induce star formation in clouds that were initially gravitationally stable, both for thermally and magnetically supported clouds

  1. Cloud Computing for Geosciences--GeoCloud for standardized geospatial service platforms (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nebert, D. D.; Huang, Q.; Yang, C.

    2013-12-01

    The 21st century geoscience faces challenges of Big Data, spike computing requirements (e.g., when natural disaster happens), and sharing resources through cyberinfrastructure across different organizations (Yang et al., 2011). With flexibility and cost-efficiency of computing resources a primary concern, cloud computing emerges as a promising solution to provide core capabilities to address these challenges. Many governmental and federal agencies are adopting cloud technologies to cut costs and to make federal IT operations more efficient (Huang et al., 2010). However, it is still difficult for geoscientists to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing to facilitate the scientific research and discoveries. This presentation reports using GeoCloud to illustrate the process and strategies used in building a common platform for geoscience communities to enable the sharing, integration of geospatial data, information and knowledge across different domains. GeoCloud is an annual incubator project coordinated by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) in collaboration with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Health and Human Services. It is designed as a staging environment to test and document the deployment of a common GeoCloud community platform that can be implemented by multiple agencies. With these standardized virtual geospatial servers, a variety of government geospatial applications can be quickly migrated to the cloud. In order to achieve this objective, multiple projects are nominated each year by federal agencies as existing public-facing geospatial data services. From the initial candidate projects, a set of common operating system and software requirements was identified as the baseline for platform as a service (PaaS) packages. Based on these developed common platform packages, each project deploys and monitors its web application, develops best practices, and documents cost and performance information. This

  2. Security in hybrid cloud computing

    OpenAIRE

    Koudelka, Ondřej

    2016-01-01

    This bachelor thesis deals with the area of hybrid cloud computing, specifically with its security. The major aim of the thesis is to analyze and compare the chosen hybrid cloud providers. For the minor aim this thesis compares the security challenges of hybrid cloud as opponent to other deployment models. In order to accomplish said aims, this thesis defines the terms cloud computing and hybrid cloud computing in its theoretical part. Furthermore the security challenges for cloud computing a...

  3. Research on cloud computing solutions

    OpenAIRE

    Liudvikas Kaklauskas; Vaida Zdanytė

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing can be defined as a new style of computing in which dynamically scala-ble and often virtualized resources are provided as a services over the Internet. Advantages of the cloud computing technology include cost savings, high availability, and easy scalability. Voas and Zhang adapted six phases of computing paradigms, from dummy termi-nals/mainframes, to PCs, networking computing, to grid and cloud computing. There are four types of cloud computing: public cloud, private cloud, ...

  4. Security Architecture and Protocol for Trust Verifications Regarding the Integrity of Files Stored in Cloud Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Pinheiro

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is considered an interesting paradigm due to its scalability, availability and virtually unlimited storage capacity. However, it is challenging to organize a cloud storage service (CSS that is safe from the client point-of-view and to implement this CSS in public clouds since it is not advisable to blindly consider this configuration as fully trustworthy. Ideally, owners of large amounts of data should trust their data to be in the cloud for a long period of time, without the burden of keeping copies of the original data, nor of accessing the whole content for verifications regarding data preservation. Due to these requirements, integrity, availability, privacy and trust are still challenging issues for the adoption of cloud storage services, especially when losing or leaking information can bring significant damage, be it legal or business-related. With such concerns in mind, this paper proposes an architecture for periodically monitoring both the information stored in the cloud and the service provider behavior. The architecture operates with a proposed protocol based on trust and encryption concepts to ensure cloud data integrity without compromising confidentiality and without overloading storage services. Extensive tests and simulations of the proposed architecture and protocol validate their functional behavior and performance.

  5. Security Architecture and Protocol for Trust Verifications Regarding the Integrity of Files Stored in Cloud Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinheiro, Alexandre; Dias Canedo, Edna; de Sousa Junior, Rafael Timoteo; de Oliveira Albuquerque, Robson; García Villalba, Luis Javier; Kim, Tai-Hoon

    2018-03-02

    Cloud computing is considered an interesting paradigm due to its scalability, availability and virtually unlimited storage capacity. However, it is challenging to organize a cloud storage service (CSS) that is safe from the client point-of-view and to implement this CSS in public clouds since it is not advisable to blindly consider this configuration as fully trustworthy. Ideally, owners of large amounts of data should trust their data to be in the cloud for a long period of time, without the burden of keeping copies of the original data, nor of accessing the whole content for verifications regarding data preservation. Due to these requirements, integrity, availability, privacy and trust are still challenging issues for the adoption of cloud storage services, especially when losing or leaking information can bring significant damage, be it legal or business-related. With such concerns in mind, this paper proposes an architecture for periodically monitoring both the information stored in the cloud and the service provider behavior. The architecture operates with a proposed protocol based on trust and encryption concepts to ensure cloud data integrity without compromising confidentiality and without overloading storage services. Extensive tests and simulations of the proposed architecture and protocol validate their functional behavior and performance.

  6. Retrieval of Aerosol Optical Depth Above Clouds from OMI Observations: Sensitivity Analysis, Case Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, O.; Jethva, H.; Bhartia, P. K.

    2012-01-01

    A large fraction of the atmospheric aerosol load reaching the free troposphere is frequently located above low clouds. Most commonly observed aerosols above clouds are carbonaceous particles generally associated with biomass burning and boreal forest fires, and mineral aerosols originated in arid and semi-arid regions and transported across large distances, often above clouds. Because these aerosols absorb solar radiation, their role in the radiative transfer balance of the earth atmosphere system is especially important. The generally negative (cooling) top of the atmosphere direct effect of absorbing aerosols, may turn into warming when the light-absorbing particles are located above clouds. The actual effect depends on the aerosol load and the single scattering albedo, and on the geometric cloud fraction. In spite of its potential significance, the role of aerosols above clouds is not adequately accounted for in the assessment of aerosol radiative forcing effects due to the lack of measurements. In this paper we discuss the basis of a simple technique that uses near-UV observations to simultaneously derive the optical depth of both the aerosol layer and the underlying cloud for overcast conditions. The two-parameter retrieval method described here makes use of the UV aerosol index and reflectance measurements at 388 nm. A detailed sensitivity analysis indicates that the measured radiances depend mainly on the aerosol absorption exponent and aerosol-cloud separation. The technique was applied to above-cloud aerosol events over the Southern Atlantic Ocean yielding realistic results as indicated by indirect evaluation methods. An error analysis indicates that for typical overcast cloudy conditions and aerosol loads, the aerosol optical depth can be retrieved with an accuracy of approximately 54% whereas the cloud optical depth can be derived within 17% of the true value.

  7. Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations of Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Triggered by Strong Aerosol Emissions in the Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, H.; Kravitz, B.; Rasch, P. J.; Morrison, H.; Solomon, A.

    2014-12-01

    Previous process-oriented modeling studies have highlighted the dependence of effectiveness of cloud brightening by aerosols on cloud regimes in warm marine boundary layer. Cloud microphysical processes in clouds that contain ice, and hence the mechanisms that drive aerosol-cloud interactions, are more complicated than in warm clouds. Interactions between ice particles and liquid drops add additional levels of complexity to aerosol effects. A cloud-resolving model is used to study aerosol-cloud interactions in the Arctic triggered by strong aerosol emissions, through either geoengineering injection or concentrated sources such as shipping and fires. An updated cloud microphysical scheme with prognostic aerosol and cloud particle numbers is employed. Model simulations are performed in pure super-cooled liquid and mixed-phase clouds, separately, with or without an injection of aerosols into either a clean or a more polluted Arctic boundary layer. Vertical mixing and cloud scavenging of particles injected from the surface is still quite efficient in the less turbulent cold environment. Overall, the injection of aerosols into the Arctic boundary layer can delay the collapse of the boundary layer and increase low-cloud albedo. The pure liquid clouds are more susceptible to the increase in aerosol number concentration than the mixed-phase clouds. Rain production processes are more effectively suppressed by aerosol injection, whereas ice precipitation (snow) is affected less; thus the effectiveness of brightening mixed-phase clouds is lower than for liquid-only clouds. Aerosol injection into a clean boundary layer results in a greater cloud albedo increase than injection into a polluted one, consistent with current knowledge about aerosol-cloud interactions. Unlike previous studies investigating warm clouds, the impact of dynamical feedback due to precipitation changes is small. According to these results, which are dependent upon the representation of ice nucleation

  8. Efficient Resource Management in Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Rushikesh Shingade; Amit Patil; Shivam Suryawanshi; M. Venkatesan

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing, one of the widely used technology to provide cloud services for users who are charged for receiving services. In the aspect of a maximum number of resources, evaluating the performance of Cloud resource management policies are difficult to optimize efficiently. There are different simulation toolkits available for simulation and modelling the Cloud computing environment like GridSim CloudAnalyst, CloudSim, GreenCloud, CloudAuction etc. In proposed Efficient Resource Manage...

  9. Cloud Computing

    CERN Document Server

    Baun, Christian; Nimis, Jens; Tai, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    Cloud computing is a buzz-word in today's information technology (IT) that nobody can escape. But what is really behind it? There are many interpretations of this term, but no standardized or even uniform definition. Instead, as a result of the multi-faceted viewpoints and the diverse interests expressed by the various stakeholders, cloud computing is perceived as a rather fuzzy concept. With this book, the authors deliver an overview of cloud computing architecture, services, and applications. Their aim is to bring readers up to date on this technology and thus to provide a common basis for d

  10. Blue skies for CLOUD

    CERN Multimedia

    2006-01-01

    Through the recently approved CLOUD experiment, CERN will soon be contributing to climate research. Tests are being performed on the first prototype of CLOUD, an experiment designed to assess cosmic radiation influence on cloud formation.

  11. USGEO DMWG Cloud Computing Recommendations

    Science.gov (United States)

    de la Beaujardiere, J.; McInerney, M.; Frame, M. T.; Summers, C.

    2017-12-01

    The US Group on Earth Observations (USGEO) Data Management Working Group (DMWG) has been developing Cloud Computing Recommendations for Earth Observations. This inter-agency report is currently in draft form; DMWG hopes to have released the report as a public Request for Information (RFI) by the time of AGU. The recommendations are geared toward organizations that have already decided to use the Cloud for some of their activities (i.e., the focus is not on "why you should use the Cloud," but rather "If you plan to use the Cloud, consider these suggestions.") The report comprises Introductory Material, including Definitions, Potential Cloud Benefits, and Potential Cloud Disadvantages, followed by Recommendations in several areas: Assessing When to Use the Cloud, Transferring Data to the Cloud, Data and Metadata Contents, Developing Applications in the Cloud, Cost Minimization, Security Considerations, Monitoring and Metrics, Agency Support, and Earth Observations-specific recommendations. This talk will summarize the recommendations and invite comment on the RFI.

  12. Cloud GIS Based Watershed Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bediroğlu, G.; Colak, H. E.

    2017-11-01

    In this study, we generated a Cloud GIS based watershed management system with using Cloud Computing architecture. Cloud GIS is used as SAAS (Software as a Service) and DAAS (Data as a Service). We applied GIS analysis on cloud in terms of testing SAAS and deployed GIS datasets on cloud in terms of DAAS. We used Hybrid cloud computing model in manner of using ready web based mapping services hosted on cloud (World Topology, Satellite Imageries). We uploaded to system after creating geodatabases including Hydrology (Rivers, Lakes), Soil Maps, Climate Maps, Rain Maps, Geology and Land Use. Watershed of study area has been determined on cloud using ready-hosted topology maps. After uploading all the datasets to systems, we have applied various GIS analysis and queries. Results shown that Cloud GIS technology brings velocity and efficiency for watershed management studies. Besides this, system can be easily implemented for similar land analysis and management studies.

  13. Simulating mixed-phase Arctic stratus clouds: sensitivity to ice initiation mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. McFarquhar

    2009-07-01

    of ice phase initiation due to freezing of supercooled water in both saturated and subsaturated (w.r.t. water environments is as important as primary ice crystal origination from water vapor. We also find that the BFP is a process mainly responsible for the rates of glaciation of simulated clouds. These glaciation rates cannot be adequately represented by a water-ice saturation adjustment scheme that only depends on temperature and liquid and solid hydrometeors' contents as is widely used in bulk microphysics schemes and are better represented by processes that also account for supersaturation changes as the hydrometeors grow.

  14. Simulating mixed-phase Arctic stratus clouds: sensitivity to ice initiation mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sednev, I.; Menon, S.; McFarquhar, G.

    2009-07-01

    due to freezing of supercooled water in both saturated and subsaturated (w.r.t. water) environments is as important as primary ice crystal origination from water vapor. We also find that the BFP is a process mainly responsible for the rates of glaciation of simulated clouds. These glaciation rates cannot be adequately represented by a water-ice saturation adjustment scheme that only depends on temperature and liquid and solid hydrometeors' contents as is widely used in bulk microphysics schemes and are better represented by processes that also account for supersaturation changes as the hydrometeors grow.

  15. Development of methods for inferring cloud thickness and cloud-base height from satellite radiance data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, William L., Jr.; Minnis, Patrick; Alvarez, Joseph M.; Uttal, Taneil; Intrieri, Janet M.; Ackerman, Thomas P.; Clothiaux, Eugene

    1993-01-01

    Cloud-top height is a major factor determining the outgoing longwave flux at the top of the atmosphere. The downwelling radiation from the cloud strongly affects the cooling rate within the atmosphere and the longwave radiation incident at the surface. Thus, determination of cloud-base temperature is important for proper calculation of fluxes below the cloud. Cloud-base altitude is also an important factor in aircraft operations. Cloud-top height or temperature can be derived in a straightforward manner using satellite-based infrared data. Cloud-base temperature, however, is not observable from the satellite, but is related to the height, phase, and optical depth of the cloud in addition to other variables. This study uses surface and satellite data taken during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Phase-2 Intensive Field Observation (IFO) period (13 Nov. - 7 Dec. 1991, to improve techniques for deriving cloud-base height from conventional satellite data.

  16. Assessing the impact of the Kuroshio Current on vertical cloud structure using CloudSat data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Yamauchi

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available This study analyzed CloudSat satellite data to determine how the warm ocean Kuroshio Current affects the vertical structure of clouds. Rainfall intensity around the middle troposphere (6 km in height over the Kuroshio was greater than that over surrounding areas. The drizzle clouds over the Kuroshio have a higher frequency of occurrence of geometrically thin (0.5–3 km clouds and thicker (7–10 km clouds compared to those around the Kuroshio. Moreover, the frequency of occurrence of precipitating clouds with a geometric thickness of 7 to 10 km increased over the Kuroshio. Stronger updrafts over the Kuroshio maintain large droplets higher in the upper part of the cloud layer, and the maximum radar reflectivity within a cloud layer in non-precipitating and drizzle clouds over the Kuroshio is higher than that around the Kuroshio.

  17. Enterprise Cloud Adoption - Cloud Maturity Assessment Model

    OpenAIRE

    Conway, Gerry; Doherty, Eileen; Carcary, Marian; Crowley, Catherine

    2017-01-01

    The introduction and use of cloud computing by an organization has the promise of significant benefits that include reduced costs, improved services, and a pay-per-use model. Organizations that successfully harness these benefits will potentially have a distinct competitive edge, due to their increased agility and flexibility to rapidly respond to an ever changing and complex business environment. However, as cloud technology is a relatively new ph...

  18. TRIGGERING COLLAPSE OF THE PRESOLAR DENSE CLOUD CORE AND INJECTING SHORT-LIVED RADIOISOTOPES WITH A SHOCK WAVE. II. VARIED SHOCK WAVE AND CLOUD CORE PARAMETERS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boss, Alan P.; Keiser, Sandra A., E-mail: boss@dtm.ciw.edu, E-mail: keiser@dtm.ciw.edu [Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015-1305 (United States)

    2013-06-10

    A variety of stellar sources have been proposed for the origin of the short-lived radioisotopes that existed at the time of the formation of the earliest solar system solids, including Type II supernovae (SNe), asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and super-AGB stars, and Wolf-Rayet star winds. Our previous adaptive mesh hydrodynamics models with the FLASH2.5 code have shown which combinations of shock wave parameters are able to simultaneously trigger the gravitational collapse of a target dense cloud core and inject significant amounts of shock wave gas and dust, showing that thin SN shocks may be uniquely suited for the task. However, recent meteoritical studies have weakened the case for a direct SN injection to the presolar cloud, motivating us to re-examine a wider range of shock wave and cloud core parameters, including rotation, in order to better estimate the injection efficiencies for a variety of stellar sources. We find that SN shocks remain as the most promising stellar source, though planetary nebulae resulting from AGB star evolution cannot be conclusively ruled out. Wolf-Rayet (WR) star winds, however, are likely to lead to cloud core shredding, rather than to collapse. Injection efficiencies can be increased when the cloud is rotating about an axis aligned with the direction of the shock wave, by as much as a factor of {approx}10. The amount of gas and dust accreted from the post-shock wind can exceed that injected from the shock wave, with implications for the isotopic abundances expected for a SN source.

  19. Squeezed between shells? The origin of the Lupus I molecular cloud. II. APEX CO and GASS H I observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaczkowski, B.; Roccatagliata, V.; Flaischlen, S.; Kröll, D.; Krause, M. G. H.; Burkert, A.; Diehl, R.; Fierlinger, K.; Ngoumou, J.; Preibisch, T.

    2017-12-01

    Context. Lupus I cloud is found between the Upper Scorpius (USco) and Upper Centaurus-Lupus (UCL) subgroups of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association, where the expanding USco H I shell appears to interact with a bubble currently driven by the winds of the remaining B stars of UCL. Aims: We investigate whether the Lupus I molecular could have formed in a colliding flow, and in particular, how the kinematics of the cloud might have been influenced by the larger scale gas dynamics. Methods: We performed APEX 13CO(2-1)and C18O(2-1) line observations of three distinct parts of Lupus I that provide kinematic information on the cloud at high angular and spectral resolution. We compare those results to the atomic hydrogen data from the GASS H I survey and our dust emission results presented in the previous paper. Based on the velocity information, we present a geometric model for the interaction zone between the USco shell and the UCL wind bubble. Results: We present evidence that the molecular gas of Lupus Iis tightly linked to the atomic material of the USco shell. The CO emission in Lupus Iis found mainly at velocities between vLSR = 3-6 km s-1, which is in the same range as the H I velocities. Thus, the molecular cloud is co-moving with the expanding USco atomic H I shell. The gas in the cloud shows a complex kinematic structure with several line-of-sight components that overlay each other. The nonthermal velocity dispersion is in the transonic regime in all parts of the cloud and could be injected by external compression. Our observations and the derived geometric model agree with a scenario in which Lupus Iis located in the interaction zone between the USco shell and the UCL wind bubble. Conclusions: The kinematics observations are consistent with a scenario in which the Lupus Icloud formed via shell instabilities. The particular location of Lupus I between USco and UCL suggests that counterpressure from the UCL wind bubble and pre-existing density enhancements

  20. PMDP: A Framework for Preserving Multiparty Data Privacy in Cloud Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji Li

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The amount of Internet data is significantly increasing due to the development of network technology, inducing the appearance of big data. Experiments have shown that deep mining and analysis on large datasets would introduce great benefits. Although cloud computing supports data analysis in an outsourced and cost-effective way, it brings serious privacy issues when sending the original data to cloud servers. Meanwhile, the returned analysis result suffers from malicious inference attacks and also discloses user privacy. In this paper, to conquer the above privacy issues, we propose a general framework for Preserving Multiparty Data Privacy (PMDP for short in cloud computing. The PMDP framework can protect numeric data computing and publishing with the assistance of untrusted cloud servers and achieve delegation of storage simultaneously. Our framework is built upon several cryptography primitives (e.g., secure multiparty computation and differential privacy mechanism, which guarantees its security against semihonest participants without collusion. We further instantiate PMDP with specific algorithms and demonstrate its security, efficiency, and advantages by presenting security analysis and performance discussion. Moreover, we propose a security enhanced framework sPMDP to resist malicious inside participants and outside adversaries. We illustrate that both PMDP and sPMDP are reliable and scale well and thus are desirable for practical applications.

  1. Cloud cover typing from environmental satellite imagery. Discriminating cloud structure with Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Logan, T. L.; Huning, J. R.; Glackin, D. L.

    1983-01-01

    The use of two dimensional Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) subjected to pattern recognition technology for the identification and classification of low altitude stratus cloud structure from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imagery was examined. The development of a scene independent pattern recognition methodology, unconstrained by conventional cloud morphological classifications was emphasized. A technique for extracting cloud shape, direction, and size attributes from GOES visual imagery was developed. These attributes were combined with two statistical attributes (cloud mean brightness, cloud standard deviation), and interrogated using unsupervised clustering amd maximum likelihood classification techniques. Results indicate that: (1) the key cloud discrimination attributes are mean brightness, direction, shape, and minimum size; (2) cloud structure can be differentiated at given pixel scales; (3) cloud type may be identifiable at coarser scales; (4) there are positive indications of scene independence which would permit development of a cloud signature bank; (5) edge enhancement of GOES imagery does not appreciably improve cloud classification over the use of raw data; and (6) the GOES imagery must be apodized before generation of FFTs.

  2. Towards Indonesian Cloud Campus

    OpenAIRE

    Thamrin, Taqwan; Lukman, Iing; Wahyuningsih, Dina Ika

    2013-01-01

    Nowadays, Cloud Computing is most discussed term in business and academic environment.Cloud campus has many benefits such as accessing the file storages, e-mails, databases,educational resources, research applications and tools anywhere for faculty, administrators,staff, students and other users in university, on demand. Furthermore, cloud campus reduces universities’ IT complexity and cost.This paper discuss the implementation of Indonesian cloud campus and various opportunies and benefits...

  3. A physically based algorithm for non-blackbody correction of the cloud top temperature for the convective clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, C.; Luo, Z. J.; Chen, X.; Zeng, X.; Tao, W.; Huang, X.

    2012-12-01

    Cloud top temperature is a key parameter to retrieval in the remote sensing of convective clouds. Passive remote sensing cannot directly measure the temperature at the cloud tops. Here we explore a synergistic way of estimating cloud top temperature by making use of the simultaneous passive and active remote sensing of clouds (in this case, CloudSat and MODIS). Weighting function of the MODIS 11μm band is explicitly calculated by feeding cloud hydrometer profiles from CloudSat retrievals and temperature and humidity profiles based on ECMWF ERA-interim reanalysis into a radiation transfer model. Among 19,699 tropical deep convective clouds observed by the CloudSat in 2008, the averaged effective emission level (EEL, where the weighting function attains its maximum) is at optical depth 0.91 with a standard deviation of 0.33. Furthermore, the vertical gradient of CloudSat radar reflectivity, an indicator of the fuzziness of convective cloud top, is linearly proportional to, d_{CTH-EEL}, the distance between the EEL of 11μm channel and cloud top height (CTH) determined by the CloudSat when d_{CTH-EEL}<0.6km. Beyond 0.6km, the distance has little sensitivity to the vertical gradient of CloudSat radar reflectivity. Based on these findings, we derive a formula between the fuzziness in the cloud top region, which is measurable by CloudSat, and the MODIS 11μm brightness temperature assuming that the difference between effective emission temperature and the 11μm brightness temperature is proportional to the cloud top fuzziness. This formula is verified using the simulated deep convective cloud profiles by the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model. We further discuss the application of this formula in estimating cloud top buoyancy as well as the error characteristics of the radiative calculation within such deep-convective clouds.

  4. Infrared polarimetry of dark clouds. Pt. 1. Magnetic field structure in Heiles Cloud 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tamura, Motohide; Nagata, Tetsuya; Sato, Shuji; Tanaka, Masuo

    1987-01-15

    The K-band polarization of 18 stars toward Heiles Cloud 2 in the Taurus dark cloud complex has been measured to investigate the structure of the magnetic field in this cloud. The observed polarization vectors are well aligned, with a mean position angle of approx. 50/sup 0/, which is perpendicular to the direction of the elongation of the cloud. This indicates that Heiles Cloud 2 has formed by contraction along the magnetic field, resulting in the flattened shape.

  5. Mobile Cloud Learning for Higher Education: A Case Study of Moodle in the Cloud

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minjuan Wang

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Mobile cloud learning, a combination of mobile learning and cloud computing, is a relatively new concept that holds considerable promise for future development and delivery in the education sectors. Cloud computing helps mobile learning overcome obstacles related to mobile computing. The main focus of this paper is to explore how cloud computing changes traditional mobile learning. A case study of the usage of Moodle in the cloud via mobile learning in Khalifa University was conducted.

  6. Bifurcation of ensemble oscillations and acoustic emissions from early stage cavitation clouds in focused ultrasound

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerold, Bjoern; Prentice, Paul; Rachmilevitch, Itay

    2013-01-01

    The acoustic emissions from single cavitation clouds at an early stage of development in 0.521 MHz focused ultrasound of varying intensity, are detected and directly correlated to high-speed microscopic observations, recorded at 1 × 10 6 frames per second. At lower intensities, a stable regime of cloud response is identified whereby bubble-ensembles exhibit oscillations at half the driving frequency, which is also detected in the acoustic emission spectra. Higher intensities generate clouds that develop more rapidly, with increased nonlinearity evidenced by a bifurcation in the frequency of ensemble response, and in the acoustic emissions. A single bubble oscillation model is subject to equivalent ultrasound conditions and fitted to features in the hydrophone and high-speed spectral data, allowing an effective quiescent radius to be inferred for the clouds that evolve at each intensity. The approach indicates that the acoustic emissions originate from the ensemble dynamics and that the cloud acts as a single bubble of equivalent radius in terms of the scattered field. Jetting from component cavities on the periphery of clouds is regularly observed at higher intensities. The results may be of relevance for monitoring and controlling cavitation in therapeutic applications of focused ultrasound, where the phenomenon has the potential to mediate drug delivery from vasculature. (paper)

  7. GEWEX cloud assessment: A review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stubenrauch, Claudia; Rossow, William B.; Kinne, Stefan; Ackerman, Steve; Cesana, Gregory; Chepfer, Hélène; Di Girolamo, Larry; Getzewich, Brian; Guignard, Anthony; Heidinger, Andy; Maddux, Brent; Menzel, Paul; Minnis, Patrick; Pearl, Cindy; Platnick, Steven; Poulsen, Caroline; Riedi, Jérôme; Sayer, Andrew; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Walther, Andi; Winker, Dave; Zeng, Shen; Zhao, Guangyu

    2013-05-01

    Clouds cover about 70% of the Earth's surface and play a dominant role in the energy and water cycle of our planet. Only satellite observations provide a continuous survey of the state of the atmosphere over the entire globe and across the wide range of spatial and temporal scales that comprise weather and climate variability. Satellite cloud data records now exceed more than 25 years; however, climatologies compiled from different satellite datasets can exhibit systematic biases. Questions therefore arise as to the accuracy and limitations of the various sensors. The Global Energy and Water cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud Assessment, initiated in 2005 by the GEWEX Radiation Panel, provides the first coordinated intercomparison of publicly available, global cloud products (gridded, monthly statistics) retrieved from measurements of multi-spectral imagers (some with multi-angle view and polarization capabilities), IR sounders and lidar. Cloud properties under study include cloud amount, cloud height (in terms of pressure, temperature or altitude), cloud radiative properties (optical depth or emissivity), cloud thermodynamic phase and bulk microphysical properties (effective particle size and water path). Differences in average cloud properties, especially in the amount of high-level clouds, are mostly explained by the inherent instrument measurement capability for detecting and/or identifying optically thin cirrus, especially when overlying low-level clouds. The study of long-term variations with these datasets requires consideration of many factors. The monthly, gridded database presented here facilitates further assessments, climate studies, and the evaluation of climate models.

  8. Cloud Computing: An Overview

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Libor Sarga

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available As cloud computing is gaining acclaim as a cost-effective alternative to acquiring processing resources for corporations, scientific applications and individuals, various challenges are rapidly coming to the fore. While academia struggles to procure a concise definition, corporations are more interested in competitive advantages it may generate and individuals view it as a way of speeding up data access times or a convenient backup solution. Properties of the cloud architecture largely preclude usage of existing practices while achieving end-users’ and companies’ compliance requires considering multiple infrastructural as well as commercial factors, such as sustainability in case of cloud-side interruptions, identity management and off-site corporate data handling policies. The article overviews recent attempts at formal definitions of cloud computing, summarizes and critically evaluates proposed delimitations, and specifies challenges associated with its further proliferation. Based on the conclusions, future directions in the field of cloud computing are also briefly hypothesized to include deeper focus on community clouds and bolstering innovative cloud-enabled platforms and devices such as tablets, smart phones, as well as entertainment applications.

  9. CloudMC: a cloud computing application for Monte Carlo simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miras, H; Jiménez, R; Miras, C; Gomà, C

    2013-01-01

    This work presents CloudMC, a cloud computing application—developed in Windows Azure®, the platform of the Microsoft® cloud—for the parallelization of Monte Carlo simulations in a dynamic virtual cluster. CloudMC is a web application designed to be independent of the Monte Carlo code in which the simulations are based—the simulations just need to be of the form: input files → executable → output files. To study the performance of CloudMC in Windows Azure®, Monte Carlo simulations with penelope were performed on different instance (virtual machine) sizes, and for different number of instances. The instance size was found to have no effect on the simulation runtime. It was also found that the decrease in time with the number of instances followed Amdahl's law, with a slight deviation due to the increase in the fraction of non-parallelizable time with increasing number of instances. A simulation that would have required 30 h of CPU on a single instance was completed in 48.6 min when executed on 64 instances in parallel (speedup of 37 ×). Furthermore, the use of cloud computing for parallel computing offers some advantages over conventional clusters: high accessibility, scalability and pay per usage. Therefore, it is strongly believed that cloud computing will play an important role in making Monte Carlo dose calculation a reality in future clinical practice. (note)

  10. Relativism in the Cloud: Cloud Sourcing in virtue of IS Development Outsourcing - A literature review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Björn Johansson

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays Cloud Computing and Cloud Sourcing is on the agenda in many organizations. Many Chief Information Officers (CIOs that urge for alternatives to traditional outsourcing are interested in how they can take advantage from Cloud Computing, by sourcing Information Technology (IT from the cloud. This paper provides an overview of the research direction of Cloud Sourcing in the IS field. A literature review based on selected papers from top Information Systems (IS journals and conferences were conducted. Findings from the review indicate that the attention of Cloud Sourcing in IS literature has mainly been directed towards security and risk as well as adoption issues, and that Cloud Sourcing is claimed to be the next generation of outsourcing. Unfortunately, this is where this strong claim ends without any further evidence, which indicate that there is a need for more research on Cloud Sourcing, especially in the direction of investigating relationships and implications when organizations start using Cloud Sourcing.

  11. Encyclopedia of cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Bojanova, Irena

    2016-01-01

    The Encyclopedia of Cloud Computing provides IT professionals, educators, researchers and students with a compendium of cloud computing knowledge. Authored by a spectrum of subject matter experts in industry and academia, this unique publication, in a single volume, covers a wide range of cloud computing topics, including technological trends and developments, research opportunities, best practices, standards, and cloud adoption. Providing multiple perspectives, it also addresses questions that stakeholders might have in the context of development, operation, management, and use of clouds. Furthermore, it examines cloud computing's impact now and in the future. The encyclopedia presents 56 chapters logically organized into 10 sections. Each chapter covers a major topic/area with cross-references to other chapters and contains tables, illustrations, side-bars as appropriate. Furthermore, each chapter presents its summary at the beginning and backend material, references and additional resources for further i...

  12. "Black cloud" vs. "white cloud" physicians - Myth or reality in apheresis medicine?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pham, Huy P; Raju, Dheeraj; Jiang, Ning; Williams, Lance A

    2017-08-01

    Many practitioners believe in the phenomenon of either being labeled a "black cloud" or "white cloud" while on-call. A "white-cloud" physician is one who usually gets fewer cases. A "black-cloud" is one who often has more cases. It is unclear if the designation is only superstitious or if there is some merit. Our aim is to objectively assess this phenomenon in apheresis medicine at our center. A one-year prospective study from 12/2014 to 11/2015 was designed to evaluate the number of times apheresis physicians and nurses were involved with emergent apheresis procedures between the hours from 10 PM and 7 AM. Other parameters collected include the names of the physician, apheresis nurse, type of emergent apheresis procedure, day of the week, and season of the year. During the study period, 32 emergent procedures (or "black-cloud" events) occurred. The median time between two consecutive events was 8 days (range: 1-34 days). We found no statistically significant association between the "black-cloud" events and attending physicians, nurses, day of the week, or season of the year by Chi-square and Fisher's analyses. However, exploratory analysis using association rule demonstrated that "black-cloud" events were more likely to happen on Thursday (2.19 times), with attending physician 2 (1.18 times), and during winter (1.15 times). The results of this pilot study may support the common perception that some physicians or nurses are either "black cloud" or "white cloud". A larger, multi-center study population is needed to validate the results of this pilot study. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. A boundary-layer cloud study using Southern Great Plains Cloud and radiation testbed (CART) data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Albrecht, B.; Mace, G.; Dong, X.; Syrett, W. [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)] [and others

    1996-04-01

    Boundary layer clouds-stratus and fairweather cumulus - are closely coupled involves the radiative impact of the clouds on the surface energy budget and the strong dependence of cloud formation and maintenance on the turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture in the boundary layer. The continuous data collection at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site provides a unique opportunity to study components of the coupling processes associated with boundary layer clouds and to provide descriptions of cloud and boundary layer structure that can be used to test parameterizations used in climate models. But before the CART data can be used for process studies and parameterization testing, it is necessary to evaluate and validate data and to develop techniques for effectively combining the data to provide meaningful descriptions of cloud and boundary layer characteristics. In this study we use measurements made during an intensive observing period we consider a case where low-level stratus were observed at the site for about 18 hours. This case is being used to examine the temporal evolution of cloud base, cloud top, cloud liquid water content, surface radiative fluxes, and boundary layer structure. A method for inferring cloud microphysics from these parameters is currently being evaluated.

  14. Trust management in cloud services

    CERN Document Server

    Noor, Talal H; Bouguettaya, Athman

    2014-01-01

    This book describes the design and implementation of Cloud Armor, a novel approach for credibility-based trust management and automatic discovery of cloud services in distributed and highly dynamic environments. This book also helps cloud users to understand the difficulties of establishing trust in cloud computing and the best criteria for selecting a service cloud. The techniques have been validated by a prototype system implementation and experimental studies using a collection of real world trust feedbacks on cloud services.The authors present the design and implementation of a novel pro

  15. A TRUSTWORTHY CLOUD FORENSICS ENVIRONMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Zawoad , Shams; Hasan , Ragib

    2015-01-01

    Part 5: CLOUD FORENSICS; International audience; The rapid migration from traditional computing and storage models to cloud computing environments has made it necessary to support reliable forensic investigations in the cloud. However, current cloud computing environments often lack support for forensic investigations and the trustworthiness of evidence is often questionable because of the possibility of collusion between dishonest cloud providers, users and forensic investigators. This chapt...

  16. Genomics With Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Sukhamrit Kaur; Sandeep Kaur

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Genomics is study of genome which provides large amount of data for which large storage and computation power is needed. These issues are solved by cloud computing that provides various cloud platforms for genomics. These platforms provides many services to user like easy access to data easy sharing and transfer providing storage in hundreds of terabytes more computational power. Some cloud platforms are Google genomics DNAnexus and Globus genomics. Various features of cloud computin...

  17. Marine Cloud Brightening

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Latham, John; Bower, Keith; Choularton, Tom; Coe, H.; Connolly, P.; Cooper, Gary; Craft, Tim; Foster, Jack; Gadian, Alan; Galbraith, Lee; Iacovides, Hector; Johnston, David; Launder, Brian; Leslie, Brian; Meyer, John; Neukermans, Armand; Ormond, Bob; Parkes, Ben; Rasch, Philip J.; Rush, John; Salter, Stephen; Stevenson, Tom; Wang, Hailong; Wang, Qin; Wood, Robert

    2012-09-07

    The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could - subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identified herein - have the capacity to balance global warming up to the carbon dioxide-doubling point. We describe herein an account of our recent research on a number of critical issues associated with MCB. This involves (i) GCM studies, which are our primary tools for evaluating globally the effectiveness of MCB, and assessing its climate impacts on rainfall amounts and distribution, and also polar sea-ice cover and thickness; (ii) high-resolution modelling of the effects of seeding on marine stratocumulus, which are required to understand the complex array of interacting processes involved in cloud brightening; (iii) microphysical modelling sensitivity studies, examining the influence of seeding amount, seedparticle salt-mass, air-mass characteristics, updraught speed and other parameters on cloud-albedo change; (iv) sea water spray-production techniques; (v) computational fluid dynamics studies of possible large-scale periodicities in Flettner rotors; and (vi) the planning of a three-stage limited-area field research experiment, with the primary objectives of technology testing and determining to what extent, if any, cloud albedo might be enhanced by seeding marine stratocumulus clouds on a spatial scale of around 100 km. We stress that there would be no justification for deployment of MCB unless it was clearly established that no significant adverse consequences would result. There would also need to be an international agreement firmly in favour of such action.

  18. Marine cloud brightening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latham, John; Bower, Keith; Choularton, Tom; Coe, Hugh; Connolly, Paul; Cooper, Gary; Craft, Tim; Foster, Jack; Gadian, Alan; Galbraith, Lee; Iacovides, Hector; Johnston, David; Launder, Brian; Leslie, Brian; Meyer, John; Neukermans, Armand; Ormond, Bob; Parkes, Ben; Rasch, Phillip; Rush, John; Salter, Stephen; Stevenson, Tom; Wang, Hailong; Wang, Qin; Wood, Rob

    2012-09-13

    The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could-subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identified herein-have the capacity to balance global warming up to the carbon dioxide-doubling point. We describe herein an account of our recent research on a number of critical issues associated with MCB. This involves (i) GCM studies, which are our primary tools for evaluating globally the effectiveness of MCB, and assessing its climate impacts on rainfall amounts and distribution, and also polar sea-ice cover and thickness; (ii) high-resolution modelling of the effects of seeding on marine stratocumulus, which are required to understand the complex array of interacting processes involved in cloud brightening; (iii) microphysical modelling sensitivity studies, examining the influence of seeding amount, seed-particle salt-mass, air-mass characteristics, updraught speed and other parameters on cloud-albedo change; (iv) sea water spray-production techniques; (v) computational fluid dynamics studies of possible large-scale periodicities in Flettner rotors; and (vi) the planning of a three-stage limited-area field research experiment, with the primary objectives of technology testing and determining to what extent, if any, cloud albedo might be enhanced by seeding marine stratocumulus clouds on a spatial scale of around 100×100 km. We stress that there would be no justification for deployment of MCB unless it was clearly established that no significant adverse consequences would result. There would also need to be an international agreement firmly in favour of such action.

  19. A Robust Multi-Scale Modeling System for the Study of Cloud and Precipitation Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Wei-Kuo

    2012-01-01

    During the past decade, numerical weather and global non-hydrostatic models have started using more complex microphysical schemes originally developed for high resolution cloud resolving models (CRMs) with 1-2 km or less horizontal resolutions. These microphysical schemes affect the dynamic through the release of latent heat (buoyancy loading and pressure gradient) the radiation through the cloud coverage (vertical distribution of cloud species), and surface processes through rainfall (both amount and intensity). Recently, several major improvements of ice microphysical processes (or schemes) have been developed for cloud-resolving model (Goddard Cumulus Ensemble, GCE, model) and regional scale (Weather Research and Forecast, WRF) model. These improvements include an improved 3-ICE (cloud ice, snow and graupel) scheme (Lang et al. 2010); a 4-ICE (cloud ice, snow, graupel and hail) scheme and a spectral bin microphysics scheme and two different two-moment microphysics schemes. The performance of these schemes has been evaluated by using observational data from TRMM and other major field campaigns. In this talk, we will present the high-resolution (1 km) GeE and WRF model simulations and compared the simulated model results with observation from recent field campaigns [i.e., midlatitude continental spring season (MC3E; 2010), high latitude cold-season (C3VP, 2007; GCPEx, 2012), and tropical oceanic (TWP-ICE, 2006)].

  20. Mobile Cloud Learning for Higher Education: A Case Study of Moodle in the Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Minjuan; Chen, Yong; Khan, Muhammad Jahanzaib

    2014-01-01

    Mobile cloud learning, a combination of mobile learning and cloud computing, is a relatively new concept that holds considerable promise for future development and delivery in the education sectors. Cloud computing helps mobile learning overcome obstacles related to mobile computing. The main focus of this paper is to explore how cloud computing…

  1. How small is a small cloud?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Koren

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available The interplay between clouds and aerosols and their contribution to the radiation budget is one of the largest uncertainties of climate change. Most work to date has separated cloudy and cloud-free areas in order to evaluate the individual radiative forcing of aerosols, clouds, and aerosol effects on clouds.

    Here we examine the size distribution and the optical properties of small, sparse cumulus clouds and the associated optical properties of what is considered a cloud-free atmosphere within the cloud field. We show that any separation between clouds and cloud free atmosphere will incur errors in the calculated radiative forcing.

    The nature of small cumulus cloud size distributions suggests that at any resolution, a significant fraction of the clouds are missed, and their optical properties are relegated to the apparent cloud-free optical properties. At the same time, the cloudy portion incorporates significant contribution from non-cloudy pixels.

    We show that the largest contribution to the total cloud reflectance comes from the smallest clouds and that the spatial resolution changes the apparent energy flux of a broken cloudy scene. When changing the resolution from 30 m to 1 km (Landsat to MODIS the average "cloud-free" reflectance at 1.65 μm increases from 0.0095 to 0.0115 (>20%, the cloud reflectance decreases from 0.13 to 0.066 (~50%, and the cloud coverage doubles, resulting in an important impact on climate forcing estimations. The apparent aerosol forcing is on the order of 0.5 to 1 Wm−2 per cloud field.

  2. Impact of cloud microphysics on cloud-radiation interactions in the CSU general circulation model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fowler, L.D.; Randall, D.A.

    1995-04-01

    Our ability to study and quantify the impact of cloud-radiation interactions in studying global scale climate variations strongly relies upon the ability of general circulation models (GCMs) to simulate the coupling between the spatial and temporal variations of the model-generated cloudiness and atmospheric moisture budget components. In particular, the ability of GCMs to reproduce the geographical distribution of the sources and sinks of the planetary radiation balance depends upon their representation of the formation and dissipation of cloudiness in conjunction with cloud microphysics processes, and the fractional amount and optical characteristics of cloudiness in conjunction with the mass of condensate stored in the atmosphere. A cloud microphysics package which encompasses five prognostic variables for the mass of water vapor, cloud water, cloud ice, rain, and snow has been implemented in the Colorado State University General Circulation Model (CSU GCM) to simulate large-scale condensation processes. Convection interacts with the large-scale environment through the detrainment of cloud water and cloud ice at the top of cumulus towers. The cloud infrared emissivity and cloud optical depth of the model-generated cloudiness are interactive and depend upon the mass of cloud water and cloud ice suspended in the atmosphere. The global atmospheric moisture budget and planetary radiation budget of the CSU GCM obtained from a perpetual January simulation are discussed. Geographical distributions of the atmospheric moisture species are presented. Global maps of the top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation and planetary albedo are compared against Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) satellite data.

  3. A Location-Based Interactive Model of Internet of Things and Cloud (IoT-Cloud) for Mobile Cloud Computing Applications †

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinh, Thanh; Kim, Younghan; Lee, Hyukjoon

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a location-based interactive model of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud integration (IoT-cloud) for mobile cloud computing applications, in comparison with the periodic sensing model. In the latter, sensing collections are performed without awareness of sensing demands. Sensors are required to report their sensing data periodically regardless of whether or not there are demands for their sensing services. This leads to unnecessary energy loss due to redundant transmission. In the proposed model, IoT-cloud provides sensing services on demand based on interest and location of mobile users. By taking advantages of the cloud as a coordinator, sensing scheduling of sensors is controlled by the cloud, which knows when and where mobile users request for sensing services. Therefore, when there is no demand, sensors are put into an inactive mode to save energy. Through extensive analysis and experimental results, we show that the location-based model achieves a significant improvement in terms of network lifetime compared to the periodic model. PMID:28257067

  4. Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parishani, Hossein; Pritchard, Michael S.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Wyant, Matthew C.; Khairoutdinov, Marat

    2017-07-01

    Systematic biases in the representation of boundary layer (BL) clouds are a leading source of uncertainty in climate projections. A variation on superparameterization (SP) called "ultraparameterization" (UP) is developed, in which the grid spacing of the cloud-resolving models (CRMs) is fine enough (250 × 20 m) to explicitly capture the BL turbulence, associated clouds, and entrainment in a global climate model capable of multiyear simulations. UP is implemented within the Community Atmosphere Model using 2° resolution (˜14,000 embedded CRMs) with one-moment microphysics. By using a small domain and mean-state acceleration, UP is computationally feasible today and promising for exascale computers. Short-duration global UP hindcasts are compared with SP and satellite observations of top-of-atmosphere radiation and cloud vertical structure. The most encouraging improvement is a deeper BL and more realistic vertical structure of subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) clouds, due to stronger vertical eddy motions that promote entrainment. Results from 90 day integrations show climatological errors that are competitive with SP, with a significant improvement in the diurnal cycle of offshore Sc liquid water. Ongoing concerns with the current UP implementation include a dim bias for near-coastal Sc that also occurs less prominently in SP and a bright bias over tropical continental deep convection zones. Nevertheless, UP makes global eddy-permitting simulation a feasible and interesting alternative to conventionally parameterized GCMs or SP-GCMs with turbulence parameterizations for studying BL cloud-climate and cloud-aerosol feedback.

  5. VMware vCloud director cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Langenhan, Daniel

    2013-01-01

    VMware vCloud Director Cookbook will adopt a Cookbook-based approach. Packed with illustrations and programming examples, this book explains the simple as well as the complex recipes in an easy-to-understand language.""VMware vCloud Director Cookbook"" is aimed at system administrators and technical architects moving from a virtualized environment to cloud environments. Familiarity with cloud computing platforms and some knowledge of virtualization and managing cloud environments is expected.

  6. OCCI-Compliant Cloud Configuration Simulation

    OpenAIRE

    Ahmed-Nacer , Mehdi; Gaaloul , Walid; Tata , Samir

    2017-01-01

    In recent years many organizations such as, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, have accelerated the development of their cloud computing ecosystem. This rapid development has created a plethora of cloud resource management interfaces for provisioning, supervising, and managing cloud resources. Thus, there is an obvious need for the standardization of cloud resource management interfaces to cope with the prevalent issues of heterogeneity, integration, and portability issues.To this end, Open Cloud Com...

  7. Chargeback for cloud services.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Baars, T.; Khadka, R.; Stefanov, H.; Jansen, S.; Batenburg, R.; Heusden, E. van

    2014-01-01

    With pay-per-use pricing models, elastic scaling of resources, and the use of shared virtualized infrastructures, cloud computing offers more efficient use of capital and agility. To leverage the advantages of cloud computing, organizations have to introduce cloud-specific chargeback practices.

  8. Cloud computing for radiologists

    OpenAIRE

    Amit T Kharat; Amjad Safvi; S S Thind; Amarjit Singh

    2012-01-01

    Cloud computing is a concept wherein a computer grid is created using the Internet with the sole purpose of utilizing shared resources such as computer software, hardware, on a pay-per-use model. Using Cloud computing, radiology users can efficiently manage multimodality imaging units by using the latest software and hardware without paying huge upfront costs. Cloud computing systems usually work on public, private, hybrid, or community models. Using the various components of a Cloud, such as...

  9. Cloud services in organization

    OpenAIRE

    FUXA, Jan

    2013-01-01

    The work deals with the definition of the word cloud computing, cloud computing models, types, advantages, disadvantages, and comparing SaaS solutions such as: Google Apps and Office 365 in the area of electronic communications. The work deals with the use of cloud computing in the corporate practice, both good and bad practice. The following section describes the methodology for choosing the appropriate cloud service organization. Another part deals with analyzing the possibilities of SaaS i...

  10. Orchestrating Your Cloud Orchestra

    OpenAIRE

    Hindle, Abram

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing potentially ushers in a new era of computer music performance with exceptionally large computer music instruments consisting of 10s to 100s of virtual machines which we propose to call a `cloud-orchestra'. Cloud computing allows for the rapid provisioning of resources, but to deploy such a complicated and interconnected network of software synthesizers in the cloud requires a lot of manual work, system administration knowledge, and developer/operator skills. This is a barrier ...

  11. High Resolution Integral Field Spectroscopy of Europa's Sodium Clouds: Evidence for a Component with Origins in Iogenic Plasma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, C.; Johnson, R. E.; Mendillo, M.; Baumgardner, J. L.; Moore, L.; O'Donoghue, J.; Leblanc, F.

    2015-12-01

    With the object of constraining Iogenic contributions and identifying drivers for variability, we report new observations of neutral sodium in Europa's exosphere. An R~20000 integral field spectrograph at McDonald Observatory is used to generate Doppler maps of sodium cloud structures with a resolution of 2.8 km/s/pixel. In the five nights of observations since 2011, measurements on UT 6.15-6.31 May 2015 uniquely feature fast (10s of km/s) neutral sodium clouds extending nearly 100 Europa radii, more distant than in any previous findings. During these measurements, the satellite geometry was favorable for the transfer of Na from Io to Europa, located at 1:55 to 4:00 and 3:38 to 4:39 Jovian local time, respectively. Eastward emission (away from Jupiter) extends 10-20 Europa radii retaining the moon's rest velocity, while westward emission blue-shifts with distance, and a broad range of velocities are measured, reaching at least 70 km/s at 80 Europa radii. These cloud features are distinct from Io's "banana" and "stream" features, the distant Jupiter-orbiting nebula, and from terrestrial OH and Na contaminant emissions. Io's production was quiescent during this observation, following an extremely active phase in February 2015. These results are consistent with previous findings that Europa's Na exosphere has peak emission between midnight and dawn Jovian local time and support the idea that sodium escape from Io can significantly enhance the emission intensity measured at Europa.

  12. STRUCTURE LINE DETECTION FROM LIDAR POINT CLOUDS USING TOPOLOGICAL ELEVATION ANALYSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Y. Lo

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Airborne LIDAR point clouds, which have considerable points on object surfaces, are essential to building modeling. In the last two decades, studies have developed different approaches to identify structure lines using two main approaches, data-driven and modeldriven. These studies have shown that automatic modeling processes depend on certain considerations, such as used thresholds, initial value, designed formulas, and predefined cues. Following the development of laser scanning systems, scanning rates have increased and can provide point clouds with higher point density. Therefore, this study proposes using topological elevation analysis (TEA to detect structure lines instead of threshold-dependent concepts and predefined constraints. This analysis contains two parts: data pre-processing and structure line detection. To preserve the original elevation information, a pseudo-grid for generating digital surface models is produced during the first part. The highest point in each grid is set as the elevation value, and its original threedimensional position is preserved. In the second part, using TEA, the structure lines are identified based on the topology of local elevation changes in two directions. Because structure lines can contain certain geometric properties, their locations have small relieves in the radial direction and steep elevation changes in the circular direction. Following the proposed approach, TEA can be used to determine 3D line information without selecting thresholds. For validation, the TEA results are compared with those of the region growing approach. The results indicate that the proposed method can produce structure lines using dense point clouds.

  13. Solar variability and clouds

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkby, Jasper

    2000-01-01

    Satellite observations have revealed a surprising imprint of the 11- year solar cycle on global low cloud cover. The cloud data suggest a correlation with the intensity of Galactic cosmic rays. If this apparent connection between cosmic rays and clouds is real, variations of the cosmic ray flux caused by long-term changes in the solar wind could have a significant influence on the global energy radiation budget and the climate. However a direct link between cosmic rays and clouds has not been unambiguously established and, moreover, the microphysical mechanism is poorly understood. New experiments are being planned to find out whether cosmic rays can affect cloud formation, and if so how. (37 refs).

  14. A parameterization of cloud droplet nucleation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghan, S.J.; Chuang, C.; Penner, J.E.

    1993-01-01

    Droplet nucleation is a fundamental cloud process. The number of aerosols activated to form cloud droplets influences not only the number of aerosols scavenged by clouds but also the size of the cloud droplets. Cloud droplet size influences the cloud albedo and the conversion of cloud water to precipitation. Global aerosol models are presently being developed with the intention of coupling with global atmospheric circulation models to evaluate the influence of aerosols and aerosol-cloud interactions on climate. If these and other coupled models are to address issues of aerosol-cloud interactions, the droplet nucleation process must be adequately represented. Here we introduce a droplet nucleation parametrization that offers certain advantages over the popular Twomey (1959) parameterization

  15. Security Architecture and Protocol for Trust Verifications Regarding the Integrity of Files Stored in Cloud Services †

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-01-01

    Cloud computing is considered an interesting paradigm due to its scalability, availability and virtually unlimited storage capacity. However, it is challenging to organize a cloud storage service (CSS) that is safe from the client point-of-view and to implement this CSS in public clouds since it is not advisable to blindly consider this configuration as fully trustworthy. Ideally, owners of large amounts of data should trust their data to be in the cloud for a long period of time, without the burden of keeping copies of the original data, nor of accessing the whole content for verifications regarding data preservation. Due to these requirements, integrity, availability, privacy and trust are still challenging issues for the adoption of cloud storage services, especially when losing or leaking information can bring significant damage, be it legal or business-related. With such concerns in mind, this paper proposes an architecture for periodically monitoring both the information stored in the cloud and the service provider behavior. The architecture operates with a proposed protocol based on trust and encryption concepts to ensure cloud data integrity without compromising confidentiality and without overloading storage services. Extensive tests and simulations of the proposed architecture and protocol validate their functional behavior and performance. PMID:29498641

  16. An Enhanced Data Integrity Model In Mobile Cloud Environment Using Digital Signature Algorithm And Robust Reversible Watermarking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boukari Souley

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available the increase use of hand held devices such as smart phones to access multimedia content in the cloud is increasing with rise and growth in information technology. Mobile cloud computing is increasingly used today because it allows users to have access to variety of resources in the cloud such as image video audio and software applications with minimal usage of their inbuilt resources such as storage memory by using the one available in the cloud. The major challenge faced with mobile cloud computing is security. Watermarking and digital signature are some techniques used to provide security and authentication on user data in the cloud. Watermarking is a technique used to embed digital data within a multimedia content such as image video or audio in order to prevent authorized access to those content by intruders whereas digital signature is used to identify and verify user data when accessed. In this work we implemented digital signature and robust reversible image watermarking in order enhance mobile cloud computing security and integrity of data by providing double authentication techniques. The results obtained show the effectiveness of combining the two techniques robust reversible watermarking and digital signature by providing strong authentication to ensures data integrity and extract the original content watermarked without changes.

  17. OpenStack Swift as Multi-Region Eventual Consistency Storage for ownCloud Primary Storage

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2014-01-01

    As more users adopt AARNet’s CloudStor Plus offering within Australia, interim solutions deployed to overcome failures of various distributed replicated storage technologies haven’t kept pace with the growth in data volume. AARNet’s original design goal of user proximal data storage, combined with national and even international data replication for redundancy reasons continues to be a key driver for design choices. AARNet’s national network is over 90ms from end to end, and accommodating this has been a key issue with numerous software solutions, hindering attempts to provide both original design goals in a reliable real-time manner. With the addition of features to the ownCloud software allowing primary data storage on OpenStack Swift, AARNet has chosen to deploy Swift in a nation spanning multi-region ring to take advantage of Swift’s eventual consistency capabilities and the local region quorum functionality for fast writes. The scaling capability of Swift resolves the twin problems of geogr...

  18. GPM GROUND VALIDATION NOAA S-BAND PROFILER ORIGINAL DWELL DATA MC3E V1

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The S-band Profiler Original Dwell dataset in the netCDF format was gathered during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) in Oklahoma...

  19. The Impact of Aerosols on Cloud and Precipitation Processes: Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Wei-Kuo; Li, Xiaowen; Khain, Alexander; Matsui, Toshihisa; Lang, Stephen; Simpson, Joanne

    2008-01-01

    Aerosols and especially their effect on clouds are one of the key components of the climate system and the hydrological cycle [Ramanathan et al., 2001]. Yet, the aerosol effect on clouds remains largely unknown and the processes involved not well understood. A recent report published by the National Academy of Science states "The greatest uncertainty about the aerosol climate forcing - indeed, the largest of all the uncertainties about global climate forcing - is probably the indirect effect of aerosols on clouds [NRC, 2001]." The aerosol effect on clouds is often categorized into the traditional "first indirect (i.e., Twomey)" effect on the cloud droplet sizes for a constant liquid water path [Twomey, 1977] and the "semi-direct" effect on cloud coverage [e.g., Ackerman et al ., 2001]." Enhanced aerosol concentrations can also suppress warm rain processes by producing a narrow droplet spectrum that inhibits collision and coalescence processes [e.g., Squires and Twomey, 1961; Warner and Twomey, 1967; Warner, 1968; Rosenfeld, 19991. The aerosol effect on precipitation processes, also known as the second type of aerosol indirect effect [Albrecht, 1989], is even more complex, especially for mixed-phase convective clouds. Table 1 summarizes the key observational studies identifying the microphysical properties, cloud characteristics, thermodynamics and dynamics associated with cloud systems from high-aerosol continental environments. For example, atmospheric aerosol concentrations can influence cloud droplet size distributions, warm-rain process, cold-rain process, cloud-top height, the depth of the mixed phase region, and occurrence of lightning. In addition, high aerosol concentrations in urban environments could affect precipitation variability by providing an enhanced source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Hypotheses have been developed to explain the effect of urban regions on convection and precipitation [van den Heever and Cotton, 2007 and Shepherd, 2005

  20. Taxonomy of cloud computing services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoefer, C.N.; Karagiannis, Georgios

    2010-01-01

    Cloud computing is a highly discussed topic, and many big players of the software industry are entering the development of cloud services. Several companies want to explore the possibilities and benefits of cloud computing, but with the amount of cloud computing services increasing quickly, the need

  1. Islands in the Sky: Ecophysiological Cloud-Vegetation Linkages in Southern Appalachian Mountain Cloud Forests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhardt, K.; Emanuel, R. E.; Johnson, D. M.

    2013-12-01

    Mountain cloud forest (MCF) ecosystems are characterized by a high frequency of cloud fog, with vegetation enshrouded in fog. The altitudinal boundaries of cloud-fog zones co-occur with conspicuous, sharp vegetation ecotones between MCF- and non-MCF-vegetation. This suggests linkages between cloud-fog and vegetation physiology and ecosystem functioning. However, very few studies have provided a mechanistic explanation for the sharp changes in vegetation communities, or how (if) cloud-fog and vegetation are linked. We investigated ecophysiological linkages between clouds and trees in Southern Appalachian spruce-fir MCF. These refugial forests occur in only six mountain-top, sky-island populations, and are immersed in clouds on up to 80% of all growing season days. Our fundamental research questions was: How are cloud-fog and cloud-forest trees linked? We measured microclimate and physiology of canopy tree species across a range of sky conditions (cloud immersed, partly cloudy, sunny). Measurements included: 1) sunlight intensity and spectral quality; 2) carbon gain and photosynthetic capacity at leaf (gas exchange) and ecosystem (eddy covariance) scales; and 3) relative limitations to carbon gain (biochemical, stomatal, hydraulic). RESULTS: 1) Midday sunlight intensity ranged from very dark (2500 μmol m-2 s-1), and was highly variable on minute-to-minute timescales whenever clouds were present in the sky. Clouds and cloud-fog increased the proportion of blue-light wavelengths 5-15% compared to sunny conditions, and altered blue:red and red:far red ratios, both of which have been shown to strongly affect stomatal functioning. 2) Cloud-fog resulted in ~50% decreased carbon gain at leaf and ecosystem scales, due to sunlight levels below photosynthetic light-saturation-points. However, greenhouse studies and light-response-curve analyses demonstrated that MCF tree species have low light-compensation points (can photosynthesize even at low light levels), and maximum

  2. Atmospheric diffusion of large clouds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Crawford, T. V. [Univ. of California, Lawrence Radiation Lab., Livermore, California (United States)

    1967-07-01

    Clouds of pollutants travel within a coordinate system that is fixed to the earth's surface, and they diffuse and grow within a coordinate system fixed to the cloud's center. This paper discusses an approach to predicting the cloud's properties, within the latter coordinate system, on space scales of a few hundred meters to a few hundred kilometers and for time periods of a few days. A numerical cloud diffusion model is presented which starts with a cloud placed arbitrarily within the troposphere. Similarity theories of atmospheric turbulence are used to predict the horizontal diffusivity as a function of initial cloud size, turbulent atmospheric dissipation, and time. Vertical diffusivity is input as a function of time and height. Therefore, diurnal variations of turbulent diffusion in the boundary layer and effects of temperature inversions, etc. can be modeled. Nondiffusive cloud depletion mechanisms, such as dry deposition, washout, and radioactive decay, are also a part of this numerical model. An effluent cloud, produced by a reactor run at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station, Nevada, is discussed in this paper. Measurements on this cloud, for a period of two days, are compared to calculations with the above numerical cloud diffusion model. In general, there is agreement. within a factor of two, for airborne concentrations, cloud horizontal area, surface air concentrations, and dry deposition as airborne concentration decreased by seven orders of magnitude during the two-day period. (author)

  3. When STAR meets the Clouds-Virtualization and Cloud Computing Experiences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lauret, J; Hajdu, L; Walker, M; Balewski, J; Goasguen, S; Stout, L; Fenn, M; Keahey, K

    2011-01-01

    In recent years, Cloud computing has become a very attractive paradigm and popular model for accessing distributed resources. The Cloud has emerged as the next big trend. The burst of platform and projects providing Cloud resources and interfaces at the very same time that Grid projects are entering a production phase in their life cycle has however raised the question of the best approach to handling distributed resources. Especially, are Cloud resources scaling at the levels shown by Grids? Are they performing at the same level? What is their overhead on the IT teams and infrastructure? Rather than seeing the two as orthogonal, the STAR experiment has viewed them as complimentary and has studied merging the best of the two worlds with Grid middleware providing the aggregation of both Cloud and traditional resources. Since its first use of Cloud resources on Amazon EC2 in 2008/2009 using a Nimbus/EC2 interface, the STAR software team has tested and experimented with many novel approaches: from a traditional, native EC2 approach to the Virtual Organization Cluster (VOC) at Clemson University and Condor/VM on the GLOW resources at the University of Wisconsin. The STAR team is also planning to run as part of the DOE/Magellan project. In this paper, we will present an overview of our findings from using truly opportunistic resources and scaling-out two orders of magnitude in both tests and practical usage.

  4. Cloud Properties Simulated by a Single-Column Model. Part II: Evaluation of Cumulus Detrainment and Ice-phase Microphysics Using a Cloud Resolving Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Yali; Krueger, Steven K.; Xu, Kuan-Man

    2005-01-01

    This paper is the second in a series in which kilometer-scale-resolving observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program and a cloud-resolving model (CRM) are used to evaluate the single-column model (SCM) version of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Global Forecast System model. Part I demonstrated that kilometer-scale cirrus properties simulated by the SCM significantly differ from the cloud radar observations while the CRM simulation reproduced most of the cirrus properties as revealed by the observations. The present study describes an evaluation, through a comparison with the CRM, of the SCM's representation of detrainment from deep cumulus and ice-phase microphysics in an effort to better understand the findings of Part I. It is found that detrainment occurs too infrequently at a single level at a time in the SCM, although the detrainment rate averaged over the entire simulation period is somewhat comparable to that of the CRM simulation. Relatively too much detrained ice is sublimated when first detrained. Snow falls over too deep of a layer due to the assumption that snow source and sink terms exactly balance within one time step in the SCM. These characteristics in the SCM parameterizations may explain many of the differences in the cirrus properties between the SCM and the observations (or between the SCM and the CRM). A possible improvement for the SCM consists of the inclusion of multiple cumulus cloud types as in the original Arakawa-Schubert scheme, prognostically determining the stratiform cloud fraction and snow mixing ratio. This would allow better representation of the detrainment from deep convection, better coupling of the volume of detrained air with cloud fraction, and better representation of snow field.

  5. Stable water isotopologue ratios in fog and cloud droplets of liquid clouds are not size-dependent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spiegel, J.K.; Aemisegger, F.; Scholl, M.; Wienhold, F.G.; Collett, J.L.; Lee, T.; van Pinxteren, D.; Mertes, S.; Tilgner, A.; Herrmann, H.; Werner, Roland A.; Buchmann, N.; Eugster, W.

    2012-01-01

    In this work, we present the first observations of stable water isotopologue ratios in cloud droplets of different sizes collected simultaneously. We address the question whether the isotope ratio of droplets in a liquid cloud varies as a function of droplet size. Samples were collected from a ground intercepted cloud (= fog) during the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia 2010 campaign (HCCT-2010) using a three-stage Caltech Active Strand Cloud water Collector (CASCC). An instrument test revealed that no artificial isotopic fractionation occurs during sample collection with the CASCC. Furthermore, we could experimentally confirm the hypothesis that the δ values of cloud droplets of the relevant droplet sizes (μm-range) were not significantly different and thus can be assumed to be in isotopic equilibrium immediately with the surrounding water vapor. However, during the dissolution period of the cloud, when the supersaturation inside the cloud decreased and the cloud began to clear, differences in isotope ratios of the different droplet sizes tended to be larger. This is likely to result from the cloud's heterogeneity, implying that larger and smaller cloud droplets have been collected at different moments in time, delivering isotope ratios from different collection times.

  6. Stable water isotopologue ratios in fog and cloud droplets of liquid clouds are not size-dependent

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. K. Spiegel

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available In this work, we present the first observations of stable water isotopologue ratios in cloud droplets of different sizes collected simultaneously. We address the question whether the isotope ratio of droplets in a liquid cloud varies as a function of droplet size. Samples were collected from a ground intercepted cloud (= fog during the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia 2010 campaign (HCCT-2010 using a three-stage Caltech Active Strand Cloud water Collector (CASCC. An instrument test revealed that no artificial isotopic fractionation occurs during sample collection with the CASCC. Furthermore, we could experimentally confirm the hypothesis that the δ values of cloud droplets of the relevant droplet sizes (μm-range were not significantly different and thus can be assumed to be in isotopic equilibrium immediately with the surrounding water vapor. However, during the dissolution period of the cloud, when the supersaturation inside the cloud decreased and the cloud began to clear, differences in isotope ratios of the different droplet sizes tended to be larger. This is likely to result from the cloud's heterogeneity, implying that larger and smaller cloud droplets have been collected at different moments in time, delivering isotope ratios from different collection times.

  7. Analysis on Cloud Computing Database in Cloud Environment – Concept and Adoption Paradigm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena-Geanina ULARU

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available With the development of the Internet’s new technical functionalities, new concepts have started to take shape. These concepts have an important role especially in the development of corporate IT. Such a concept is „the Cloud”. Various marketing campaigns have started to focus on the Cloud and began to promote it in different but confusing ways. This campaigns do little, to explain what cloud computing is and why it is becoming increasingly necessary. The lack of understanding in this new technology generates a lack of knowledge in business cloud adoption regarding database and also application. Only by focusing on the business processes and objectives an enterprise can achieve the full benefits of the cloud and mitigate the potential risks. In this article we create our own complete definition of the cloud and we analyze the essential aspects of cloud adoption for a banking financial reporting application.

  8. Testing the Two-Layer Model for Correcting Near Cloud Reflectance Enhancement Using LES SHDOM Simulated Radiances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Guoyong; Marshak, Alexander; Varnai, Tamas; Levy, Robert

    2016-01-01

    A transition zone exists between cloudy skies and clear sky; such that, clouds scatter solar radiation into clear-sky regions. From a satellite perspective, it appears that clouds enhance the radiation nearby. We seek a simple method to estimate this enhancement, since it is so computationally expensive to account for all three-dimensional (3-D) scattering processes. In previous studies, we developed a simple two-layer model (2LM) that estimated the radiation scattered via cloud-molecular interactions. Here we have developed a new model to account for cloud-surface interaction (CSI). We test the models by comparing to calculations provided by full 3-D radiative transfer simulations of realistic cloud scenes. For these scenes, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-like radiance fields were computed from the Spherical Harmonic Discrete Ordinate Method (SHDOM), based on a large number of cumulus fields simulated by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) large eddy simulation (LES) model. We find that the original 2LM model that estimates cloud-air molecule interactions accounts for 64 of the total reflectance enhancement and the new model (2LM+CSI) that also includes cloud-surface interactions accounts for nearly 80. We discuss the possibility of accounting for cloud-aerosol radiative interactions in 3-D cloud-induced reflectance enhancement, which may explain the remaining 20 of enhancements. Because these are simple models, these corrections can be applied to global satellite observations (e.g., MODIS) and help to reduce biases in aerosol and other clear-sky retrievals.

  9. The basics of cloud computing understanding the fundamentals of cloud computing in theory and practice

    CERN Document Server

    Rountree, Derrick

    2013-01-01

    As part of the Syngress Basics series, The Basics of Cloud Computing provides readers with an overview of the cloud and how to implement cloud computing in their organizations. Cloud computing continues to grow in popularity, and while many people hear the term and use it in conversation, many are confused by it or unaware of what it really means. This book helps readers understand what the cloud is and how to work with it, even if it isn't a part of their day-to-day responsibility. Authors Derrick Rountree and Ileana Castrillo explains the concepts of cloud computing in prac

  10. Cloud's Center of Gravity – a compact approach to analyze convective cloud development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Koren

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available As cloud resolving models become more detailed, with higher resolution outputs, it is often complicated to isolate the physical processes that control the cloud attributes. Moreover, due to the high dimensionality and complexity of the model output, the analysis and interpretation of the results can be very complicated. Here we suggest a novel approach to convective cloud analysis that yields more insight into the physical and temporal evolution of clouds, and is compact and efficient. The different (3-D cloud attributes are weighted and projected onto a single point in space and in time, that has properties of, or similar to, the Center Of Gravity (COG. The location, magnitude and spread of this variable are followed in time. The implications of the COG approach are demonstrated for a study of aerosol effects on a warm convective cloud. We show that in addition to reducing dramatically the dimensionality of the output, such an approach often enhances the signal, adds more information, and makes the physical description of cloud evolution clearer, allowing unambiguous comparison of clouds evolving in different environmental conditions. This approach may also be useful for analysis of cloud data retrieved from surface or space-based cloud radars.

  11. Expansion of magnetic clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suess, S.T.

    1987-01-01

    Magnetic clouds are a carefully defined subclass of all interplanetary signatures of coronal mass ejections whose geometry is thought to be that of a cylinder embedded in a plane. It has been found that the total magnetic pressure inside the clouds is higher than the ion pressure outside, and that the clouds are expanding at 1 AU at about half the local Alfven speed. The geometry of the clouds is such that even though the magnetic pressure inside is larger than the total pressure outside, expansion will not occur because the pressure is balanced by magnetic tension - the pinch effect. The evidence for expansion of clouds at 1 AU is nevertheless quite strong so another reason for its existence must be found. It is demonstrated that the observations can be reproduced by taking into account the effects of geometrical distortion of the low plasma beta clouds as they move away from the Sun

  12. Characterization of Cloud Water-Content Distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Seungwon

    2010-01-01

    The development of realistic cloud parameterizations for climate models requires accurate characterizations of subgrid distributions of thermodynamic variables. To this end, a software tool was developed to characterize cloud water-content distributions in climate-model sub-grid scales. This software characterizes distributions of cloud water content with respect to cloud phase, cloud type, precipitation occurrence, and geo-location using CloudSat radar measurements. It uses a statistical method called maximum likelihood estimation to estimate the probability density function of the cloud water content.

  13. SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON CLOUD ACCOUNTING

    OpenAIRE

    Doina Pacurari; Elena Nechita

    2013-01-01

    Cloud technologies have developed intensively during the last years. Cloud computing allows the customers to interact with their data and applications at any time, from any location, while the providers host these resources. A client company may choose to run in the cloud a part of its business (sales by agents, payroll, etc.), or even the entire business. The company can get access to a large category of cloud-based software, including accounting software. Cloud solutions are especially reco...

  14. The role of cloud-scale resolution on radiative properties of oceanic cumulus clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kassianov, Evgueni; Ackerman, Thomas; Kollias, Pavlos

    2005-01-01

    Both individual and combined effects of the horizontal and vertical variability of cumulus clouds on solar radiative transfer are investigated using a two-dimensional (x- and z-directions) cloud radar dataset. This high-resolution dataset of typical fair-weather marine cumulus is derived from ground-based 94GHz cloud radar observations. The domain-averaged (along x-direction) radiative properties are computed by a Monte Carlo method. It is shown that (i) different cloud-scale resolutions can be used for accurate calculations of the mean absorption, upward and downward fluxes; (ii) the resolution effects can depend strongly on the solar zenith angle; and (iii) a few cloud statistics can be successfully applied for calculating the averaged radiative properties

  15. All your clouds are belong to us - Security analysis of cloud management interfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Somorovsky, Juraj; Heiderich, Mario; Jensen, Meiko

    2011-01-01

    a complete power over the victim's account, with all the stored data included. In this paper, we provide a security analysis pertaining to the control interfaces of a large Public Cloud (Amazon) and a widely used Private Cloud software (Eucalyptus). Our research results are alarming: in regards to the Amazon......Cloud Computing resources are handled through control interfaces. It is through these interfaces that the new machine images can be added, existing ones can be modified, and instances can be started or ceased. Effectively, a successful attack on a Cloud control interface grants the attacker...... discoveries, we additionally describe the countermea-sures against these attacks, as well as introduce a novel "black box" analysis methodology for public Cloud interfaces....

  16. Cloud Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramaswami, Rama; Raths, David; Schaffhauser, Dian; Skelly, Jennifer

    2011-01-01

    For many IT shops, the cloud offers an opportunity not only to improve operations but also to align themselves more closely with their schools' strategic goals. The cloud is not a plug-and-play proposition, however--it is a complex, evolving landscape that demands one's full attention. Security, privacy, contracts, and contingency planning are all…

  17. Cloud Cover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaffhauser, Dian

    2012-01-01

    This article features a major statewide initiative in North Carolina that is showing how a consortium model can minimize risks for districts and help them exploit the advantages of cloud computing. Edgecombe County Public Schools in Tarboro, North Carolina, intends to exploit a major cloud initiative being refined in the state and involving every…

  18. Fast Molecular Cloud Destruction Requires Fast Cloud Formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark [American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West, New York, NY 10024 (United States); Burkert, Andreas [Universitäts Sternwarte München, Ludwigs-Maximilian-Universität, D-81679 München (Germany); Ibáñez-Mejía, Juan C., E-mail: mordecai@amnh.org, E-mail: burkert@usm.lmu.de, E-mail: ibanez@ph1.uni-koeln.de [Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85748 Garching bei München (Germany)

    2017-09-20

    A large fraction of the gas in the Galaxy is cold, dense, and molecular. If all this gas collapsed under the influence of gravity and formed stars in a local free-fall time, the star formation rate in the Galaxy would exceed that observed by more than an order of magnitude. Other star-forming galaxies behave similarly. Yet, observations and simulations both suggest that the molecular gas is indeed gravitationally collapsing, albeit hierarchically. Prompt stellar feedback offers a potential solution to the low observed star formation rate if it quickly disrupts star-forming clouds during gravitational collapse. However, this requires that molecular clouds must be short-lived objects, raising the question of how so much gas can be observed in the molecular phase. This can occur only if molecular clouds form as quickly as they are destroyed, maintaining a global equilibrium fraction of dense gas. We therefore examine cloud formation timescales. We first demonstrate that supernova and superbubble sweeping cannot produce dense gas at the rate required to match the cloud destruction rate. On the other hand, Toomre gravitational instability can reach the required production rate. We thus argue that, although dense, star-forming gas may last only around a single global free-fall time; the dense gas in star-forming galaxies can globally exist in a state of dynamic equilibrium between formation by gravitational instability and disruption by stellar feedback. At redshift z ≳ 2, the Toomre instability timescale decreases, resulting in a prediction of higher molecular gas fractions at early times, in agreement with the observations.

  19. Estimating cloud field coverage using morphological analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bar-Or, Rotem Z; Koren, Ilan; Altaratz, Orit

    2010-01-01

    The apparent cloud-free atmosphere in the vicinity of clouds ('the twilight zone') is often affected by undetectable weak signature clouds and humidified aerosols. It is suggested here to classify the atmosphere into two classes: cloud fields, and cloud-free (away from a cloud field), while detectable clouds are included in the cloud field class as a subset. Since the definition of cloud fields is ambiguous, a robust cloud field masking algorithm is presented here, based on the cloud spatial distribution. The cloud field boundaries are calculated then on the basis of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud mask products and the total cloud field area is estimated for the Atlantic Ocean (50 deg. S-50 deg. N). The findings show that while the monthly averaged cloud fraction over the Atlantic Ocean during July is 53%, the cloud field fraction may reach 97%, suggesting that cloud field properties should be considered in climate studies. A comparison between aerosol optical depth values inside and outside cloud fields reveals differences in the retrieved radiative properties of aerosols depending on their location. The observed mean aerosol optical depth inside the cloud fields is more than 10% higher than outside it, indicating that such convenient cloud field masking may contribute to better estimations of aerosol direct and indirect forcing.

  20. Scale analysis of convective clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Micha Gryschka

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The size distribution of cumulus clouds due to shallow and deep convection is analyzed using satellite pictures, LES model results and data from the German rain radar network. The size distributions found can be described by simple power laws as has also been proposed for other cloud data in the literature. As the observed precipitation at ground stations is finally determined by cloud numbers in an area and individual sizes and rain rates of single clouds, the cloud size distributions might be used for developing empirical precipitation forecasts or for validating results from cloud resolving models being introduced to routine weather forecasts.

  1. Aerosol-cloud feedbacks in a turbulent environment: Laboratory measurements representative of conditions in boundary layer clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cantrell, W. H.; Chandrakar, K. K.; Karki, S.; Kinney, G.; Shaw, R.

    2017-12-01

    Many of the climate impacts of boundary layer clouds are modulated by aerosol particles. As two examples, their interactions with incoming solar and upwelling terrestrial radiation and their propensity for precipitation are both governed by the population of aerosol particles upon which the cloud droplets formed. In turn, clouds are the primary removal mechanism for aerosol particles smaller than a few micrometers and larger than a few nanometers. Aspects of these interconnected phenomena are known in exquisite detail (e.g. Köhler theory), but other parts have not been as amenable to study in the laboratory (e.g. scavenging of aerosol particles by cloud droplets). As a complicating factor, boundary layer clouds are ubiquitously turbulent, which introduces fluctuations in the water vapor concentration and temperature, which govern the saturation ratio which mediates aerosol-cloud interactions. We have performed laboratory measurements of aerosol-cloud coupling and feedbacks, using Michigan Tech's Pi Chamber (Chang et al., 2016). In conditions representative of boundary layer clouds, our data suggest that the lifetime of most interstitial particles in the accumulation mode is governed by cloud activation - particles are removed from the Pi Chamber when they activate and settle out of the chamber as cloud droplets. As cloud droplets are removed, these interstitial particles activate until the initially polluted cloud cleans itself and all particulates are removed from the chamber. At that point, the cloud collapses. Our data also indicate that smaller particles, Dp defined through the use of the Dämkohler number, the ratio of the characteristic turbulence timescale to the cloud's microphysical response time. Chang, K., et al., 2016. A laboratory facility to study gas-aerosol-cloud interactions in a turbulent environment: The Π Chamber. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00203.1

  2. A MAS-Based Cloud Service Brokering System to Respond Security Needs of Cloud Customers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jamal Talbi

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is becoming a key factor in computer science and an important technology for many organizations to deliver different types of services. The companies which provide services to customers are called as cloud service providers. The cloud users (CUs increase and require secure, reliable and trustworthy cloud service providers (CSPs from the market. So, it’s a challenge for a new customer to choose the highly secure provider. This paper presents a cloud service brokering system in order to analyze and rank the secured cloud service provider among the available providers list. This model uses an autonomous and flexible agent in multi-agent system (MASs that have an intelligent behavior and suitable tools for helping the brokering system to assess the security risks for the group of cloud providers which make decision of the more secured provider and justify the business needs of users in terms of security and reliability.

  3. Cloud a particle beam facility to investigate the influence of cosmic rays on clouds

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkby, Jasper

    2001-01-01

    Palaeoclimatic data provide extensive evidence for solar forcing of the climate during the Holocene and the last ice age, but the underlying mechanism remains a mystery. However recent observations suggest that cosmic rays may play a key role. Satellite data have revealed a surprising correlation between cosmic ray intensity and the fraction of the Earth covered by low clouds \\cite{svensmark97,marsh}. Since the cosmic ray intensity is modulated by the solar wind, this may be an important clue to the long-sought mechanism for solar-climate variability. In order to test whether cosmic rays and clouds are causally linked and, if so, to understand the microphysical mechanisms, a novel experiment known as CLOUD\\footnotemark\\ has been proposed \\cite{cloud_proposal}--\\cite{cloud_addendum_2}. CLOUD proposes to investigate ion-aerosol-cloud microphysics under controlled laboratory conditions using a beam from a particle accelerator, which provides a precisely adjustable and measurable artificial source of cosmic rays....

  4. Delivering Unidata Technology via the Cloud

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, Ward; Oxelson Ganter, Jennifer

    2016-04-01

    Over the last two years, Docker has emerged as the clear leader in open-source containerization. Containerization technology provides a means by which software can be pre-configured and packaged into a single unit, i.e. a container. This container can then be easily deployed either on local or remote systems. Containerization is particularly advantageous when moving software into the cloud, as it simplifies the process. Unidata is adopting containerization as part of our commitment to migrate our technologies to the cloud. We are using a two-pronged approach in this endeavor. In addition to migrating our data-portal services to a cloud environment, we are also exploring new and novel ways to use cloud-specific technology to serve our community. This effort has resulted in several new cloud/Docker-specific projects at Unidata: "CloudStream," "CloudIDV," and "CloudControl." CloudStream is a docker-based technology stack for bringing legacy desktop software to new computing environments, without the need to invest significant engineering/development resources. CloudStream helps make it easier to run existing software in a cloud environment via a technology called "Application Streaming." CloudIDV is a CloudStream-based implementation of the Unidata Integrated Data Viewer (IDV). CloudIDV serves as a practical example of application streaming, and demonstrates how traditional software can be easily accessed and controlled via a web browser. Finally, CloudControl is a web-based dashboard which provides administrative controls for running docker-based technologies in the cloud, as well as providing user management. In this work we will give an overview of these three open-source technologies and the value they offer to our community.

  5. Counting the clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Randall, David A

    2005-01-01

    Cloud processes are very important for the global circulation of the atmosphere. It is now possible, though very expensive, to simulate the global circulation of the atmosphere using a model with resolution fine enough to explicitly represent the larger individual clouds. An impressive preliminary calculation of this type has already been performed by Japanese scientists, using the Earth Simulator. Within the next few years, such global cloud-resolving models (GCRMs) will be applied to weather prediction, and later they will be used in climatechange simulations. The tremendous advantage of GCRMs, relative to conventional lowerresolution global models, is that GCRMs can avoid many of the questionable 'parameterizations' used to represent cloud effects in lower-resolution global models. Although cloud microphysics, turbulence, and radiation must still be parameterized in GCRMs, the high resolution of a GCRM simplifies these problems considerably, relative to conventional models. The United States currently has no project to develop a GCRM, although we have both the computer power and the expertise to do it. A research program aimed at development and applications of GCRMs is outlined

  6. Cloud manufacturing: from concept to practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Lei; Zhang, Lin; Tao, Fei; Zhao, Chun; Chai, Xudong; Zhao, Xinpei

    2015-02-01

    The concept of cloud manufacturing is emerging as a new promising manufacturing paradigm, as well as a business model, which is reshaping the service-oriented, highly collaborative, knowledge-intensive and eco-efficient manufacturing industry. However, the basic concepts about cloud manufacturing are still in discussion. Both academia and industry will need to have a commonly accepted definition of cloud manufacturing, as well as further guidance and recommendations on how to develop and implement cloud manufacturing. In this paper, we review some of the research work and clarify some fundamental terminologies in this field. Further, we developed a cloud manufacturing systems which may serve as an application example. From a systematic and practical perspective, the key requirements of cloud manufacturing platforms are investigated, and then we propose a cloud manufacturing platform prototype, MfgCloud. Finally, a public cloud manufacturing system for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is presented. This paper presents a new perspective for cloud manufacturing, as well as a cloud-to-ground solution. The integrated solution proposed in this paper, including the terminology, MfgCloud, and applications, can push forward this new paradigm from concept to practice.

  7. Unveiling aerosol-cloud interactions - Part 1: Cloud contamination in satellite products enhances the aerosol indirect forcing estimate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christensen, Matthew W.; Neubauer, David; Poulsen, Caroline A.; Thomas, Gareth E.; McGarragh, Gregory R.; Povey, Adam C.; Proud, Simon R.; Grainger, Roy G.

    2017-11-01

    Increased concentrations of aerosol can enhance the albedo of warm low-level cloud. Accurately quantifying this relationship from space is challenging due in part to contamination of aerosol statistics near clouds. Aerosol retrievals near clouds can be influenced by stray cloud particles in areas assumed to be cloud-free, particle swelling by humidification, shadows and enhanced scattering into the aerosol field from (3-D radiative transfer) clouds. To screen for this contamination we have developed a new cloud-aerosol pairing algorithm (CAPA) to link cloud observations to the nearest aerosol retrieval within the satellite image. The distance between each aerosol retrieval and nearest cloud is also computed in CAPA. Results from two independent satellite imagers, the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), show a marked reduction in the strength of the intrinsic aerosol indirect radiative forcing when selecting aerosol pairs that are located farther away from the clouds (-0.28±0.26 W m-2) compared to those including pairs that are within 15 km of the nearest cloud (-0.49±0.18 W m-2). The larger aerosol optical depths in closer proximity to cloud artificially enhance the relationship between aerosol-loading, cloud albedo, and cloud fraction. These results suggest that previous satellite-based radiative forcing estimates represented in key climate reports may be exaggerated due to the inclusion of retrieval artefacts in the aerosol located near clouds.

  8. ATLAS cloud R and D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panitkin, Sergey; Bejar, Jose Caballero; Hover, John; Zaytsev, Alexander; Megino, Fernando Barreiro; Girolamo, Alessandro Di; Kucharczyk, Katarzyna; Llamas, Ramon Medrano; Benjamin, Doug; Gable, Ian; Paterson, Michael; Sobie, Randall; Taylor, Ryan; Hendrix, Val; Love, Peter; Ohman, Henrik; Walker, Rodney

    2014-01-01

    The computing model of the ATLAS experiment was designed around the concept of grid computing and, since the start of data taking, this model has proven very successful. However, new cloud computing technologies bring attractive features to improve the operations and elasticity of scientific distributed computing. ATLAS sees grid and cloud computing as complementary technologies that will coexist at different levels of resource abstraction, and two years ago created an R and D working group to investigate the different integration scenarios. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R and D has been able to demonstrate the feasibility of offloading work from grid to cloud sites and, as of today, is able to integrate transparently various cloud resources into the PanDA workload management system. The ATLAS Cloud Computing R and D is operating various PanDA queues on private and public resources and has provided several hundred thousand CPU days to the experiment. As a result, the ATLAS Cloud Computing R and D group has gained a significant insight into the cloud computing landscape and has identified points that still need to be addressed in order to fully utilize this technology. This contribution will explain the cloud integration models that are being evaluated and will discuss ATLAS' learning during the collaboration with leading commercial and academic cloud providers.

  9. Exploring the factors influencing the cloud computing adoption: a systematic study on cloud migration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rai, Rashmi; Sahoo, Gadadhar; Mehfuz, Shabana

    2015-01-01

    Today, most of the organizations trust on their age old legacy applications, to support their business-critical systems. However, there are several critical concerns, as maintainability and scalability issues, associated with the legacy system. In this background, cloud services offer a more agile and cost effective platform, to support business applications and IT infrastructure. As the adoption of cloud services has been increasing recently and so has been the academic research in cloud migration. However, there is a genuine need of secondary study to further strengthen this research. The primary objective of this paper is to scientifically and systematically identify, categorize and compare the existing research work in the area of legacy to cloud migration. The paper has also endeavored to consolidate the research on Security issues, which is prime factor hindering the adoption of cloud through classifying the studies on secure cloud migration. SLR (Systematic Literature Review) of thirty selected papers, published from 2009 to 2014 was conducted to properly understand the nuances of the security framework. To categorize the selected studies, authors have proposed a conceptual model for cloud migration which has resulted in a resource base of existing solutions for cloud migration. This study concludes that cloud migration research is in seminal stage but simultaneously it is also evolving and maturing, with increasing participation from academics and industry alike. The paper also identifies the need for a secure migration model, which can fortify organization's trust into cloud migration and facilitate necessary tool support to automate the migration process.

  10. Cloud Storage and Bioinformatics in a private cloud deployment: Lessons for Data Intensive research

    OpenAIRE

    Chang, Victor; Walters, Robert John; Wills, Gary

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes service portability for a private cloud deployment, including a detailed case study about Cloud Storage and bioinformatics services developed as part of the Cloud Computing Adoption Framework (CCAF). Our Cloud Storage design and deployment is based on Storage Area Network (SAN) technologies, details of which include functionalities, technical implementation, architecture and user support. Experiments for data services (backup automation, data recovery and data migration) ...

  11. Cloud Computing:Strategies for Cloud Computing Adoption

    OpenAIRE

    Shimba, Faith

    2010-01-01

    The advent of cloud computing in recent years has sparked an interest from different organisations, institutions and users to take advantage of web applications. This is a result of the new economic model for the Information Technology (IT) department that cloud computing promises. The model promises a shift from an organisation required to invest heavily for limited IT resources that are internally managed, to a model where the organisation can buy or rent resources that are managed by a clo...

  12. Lean computing for the cloud

    CERN Document Server

    Bauer, Eric

    2016-01-01

    Applies lean manufacturing principles across the cloud service delivery chain to enable application and infrastructure service providers to sustainably achieve the shortest lead time, best quality, and value This book focuses on lean in the context of cloud computing capacity management of applications and the physical and virtual cloud resources that support them. Lean Computing for the Cloud considers business, architectural and operational aspects of efficiently delivering valuable services to end users via cloud-based applications hosted on shared cloud infrastructure. The work also focuses on overall optimization of the service delivery chain to enable both application service and infrastructure service providers to adopt leaner, demand driven operations to serve end users more efficiently. The book’s early chapters analyze how capacity management morphs with cloud computing into interlocked physical infrastructure capacity management, virtual resou ce capacity management, and application capacity ma...

  13. Macrophysical and optical properties of midlatitude cirrus clouds from four ground-based lidars and collocated CALIOP observations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dupont, Jean-Charles; Haeffelin, M.; Morille, Y.; Noel, V.; Keckhut, P.; Winker, D.; Comstock, Jennifer M.; Chervet, P.; Roblin, A.

    2010-05-27

    Ground-based lidar and CALIOP datasets gathered over four mid-latitude sites, two US and two French sites, are used to evaluate the consistency of cloud macrophysical and optical property climatologies that can be derived by such datasets. The consistency in average cloud height (both base and top height) between the CALIOP and ground datasets ranges from -0.4km to +0.5km. The cloud geometrical thickness distributions vary significantly between the different datasets, due in part to the original vertical resolutions of the lidar profiles. Average cloud geometrical thicknesses vary from 1.2 to 1.9km, i.e. by more than 50%. Cloud optical thickness distributions in subvisible, semi-transparent and moderate intervals differ by more than 50% between ground and space-based datasets. The cirrus clouds with 2 optical thickness below 0.1 (not included in historical cloud climatologies) represent 30-50% of the non-opaque cirrus class. The differences in average cloud base altitude between ground and CALIOP datasets of 0.0-0.1 km, 0.0-0.2 km and 0.0-0.2 km can be attributed to irregular sampling of seasonal variations in the ground-based data, to day-night differences in detection capabilities by CALIOP, and to the restriction to situations without low-level clouds in ground-based data, respectively. The cloud geometrical thicknesses are not affected by irregular sampling of seasonal variations in the ground-based data, while up to 0.0-0.2 km and 0.1-0.3 km differences can be attributed to day-night differences in detection capabilities by CALIOP, and to the restriction to situations without lowlevel clouds in ground-based data, respectively.

  14. Embracing the Cloud: Six Ways to Look at the Shift to Cloud Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ullman, David F.; Haggerty, Blake

    2010-01-01

    Cloud computing is the latest paradigm shift for the delivery of IT services. Where previous paradigms (centralized, decentralized, distributed) were based on fairly straightforward approaches to technology and its management, cloud computing is radical in comparison. The literature on cloud computing, however, suffers from many divergent…

  15. Evaluating the impact of aerosol particles above cloud on cloud optical depth retrievals from MODIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfaro-Contreras, Ricardo; Zhang, Jianglong; Campbell, James R.; Holz, Robert E.; Reid, Jeffrey S.

    2014-05-01

    Using two different operational Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud optical depth (COD) retrievals (0.86 versus 1.6 µm), we evaluate the impact of above-cloud smoke aerosol particles on near-IR (0.86 µm) COD retrievals. Aerosol Index (AI) from the collocated Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to identify above-cloud aerosol particle loading over the southern Atlantic Ocean, including both smoke and dust from the African subcontinent. Collocated Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation data constrain cloud phase and provide contextual above-cloud aerosol optical depth. The frequency of occurrence of above-cloud aerosol events is depicted on a global scale for the spring and summer seasons from OMI and Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization. Seasonal frequencies for smoke-over-cloud off the southwestern Africa coastline reach 20-50% in boreal summer. We find a corresponding low COD bias of 10-20% for standard MODIS COD retrievals when averaged OMI AI are larger than 1. No such bias is found over the Saharan dust outflow region off northern Africa, since both MODIS 0.86 and 1.6 µm channels are vulnerable to radiance attenuation due to dust particles. A similar result is found for a smaller domain, in the Gulf of Tonkin region, from smoke advection over marine stratocumulus clouds and outflow into the northern South China Sea in spring. This study shows the necessity of accounting for the above-cloud aerosol events for future studies using standard MODIS cloud products in biomass burning outflow regions, through the use of collocated OMI AI and supplementary MODIS 1.6 µm COD products.

  16. Evaluating the impact of above-cloud aerosols on cloud optical depth retrievals from MODIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfaro, Ricardo

    Using two different operational Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud optical depth (COD) retrievals (visible and shortwave infrared), the impacts of above-cloud absorbing aerosols on the standard COD retrievals are evaluated. For fine-mode aerosol particles, aerosol optical depth (AOD) values diminish sharply from the visible to the shortwave infrared channels. Thus, a suppressed above-cloud particle radiance aliasing effect occurs for COD retrievals using shortwave infrared channels. Aerosol Index (AI) from the spatially and temporally collocated Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to identify above-cloud aerosol particle loading over the southern Atlantic Ocean, including both smoke and dust from the African sub-continent. MODIS and OMI Collocated Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) data are used to constrain cloud phase and provide contextual above-cloud AOD values. The frequency of occurrence of above-cloud aerosols is depicted on a global scale for the spring and summer seasons from OMI and CALIOP, thus indicating the significance of the problem. Seasonal frequencies for smoke-over-cloud off the southwestern Africa coastline reach 20--50% in boreal summer. We find a corresponding low COD bias of 10--20% for standard MODIS COD retrievals when averaged OMI AI are larger than 1.0. No such bias is found over the Saharan dust outflow region off northern Africa, since both MODIS visible and shortwave in channels are vulnerable to dust particle aliasing, and thus a COD impact cannot be isolated with this method. A similar result is found for a smaller domain, in the Gulf of Tonkin region, from smoke advection over marine stratocumulus clouds and outflow into the northern South China Sea in spring. This study shows the necessity of accounting for the above-cloud aerosol events for future studies using standard MODIS cloud products in biomass burning outflow regions, through the use of

  17. Cloud Scavenging Effects on Aerosol Radiative and Cloud-nucleating Properties - Final Technical Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ogren, John A.; Sheridan, Patrick S.; Andrews, Elisabeth

    2009-03-05

    The optical properties of aerosol particles are the controlling factors in determining direct aerosol radiative forcing. These optical properties depend on the chemical composition and size distribution of the aerosol particles, which can change due to various processes during the particles’ lifetime in the atmosphere. Over the course of this project we have studied how cloud processing of atmospheric aerosol changes the aerosol optical properties. A counterflow virtual impactor was used to separate cloud drops from interstitial aerosol and parallel aerosol systems were used to measure the optical properties of the interstitial and cloud-scavenged aerosol. Specifically, aerosol light scattering, back-scattering and absorption were measured and used to derive radiatively significant parameters such as aerosol single scattering albedo and backscatter fraction for cloud-scavenged and interstitial aerosol. This data allows us to demonstrate that the radiative properties of cloud-processed aerosol can be quite different than pre-cloud aerosol. These differences can be used to improve the parameterization of aerosol forcing in climate models.

  18. Scanning Cloud Radar Observations at Azores: Preliminary 3D Cloud Products

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kollias, P.; Johnson, K.; Jo, I.; Tatarevic, A.; Giangrande, S.; Widener, K.; Bharadwaj, N.; Mead, J.

    2010-03-15

    The deployment of the Scanning W-Band ARM Cloud Radar (SWACR) during the AMF campaign at Azores signals the first deployment of an ARM Facility-owned scanning cloud radar and offers a prelude for the type of 3D cloud observations that ARM will have the capability to provide at all the ARM Climate Research Facility sites by the end of 2010. The primary objective of the deployment of Scanning ARM Cloud Radars (SACRs) at the ARM Facility sites is to map continuously (operationally) the 3D structure of clouds and shallow precipitation and to provide 3D microphysical and dynamical retrievals for cloud life cycle and cloud-scale process studies. This is a challenging task, never attempted before, and requires significant research and development efforts in order to understand the radar's capabilities and limitations. At the same time, we need to look beyond the radar meteorology aspects of the challenge and ensure that the hardware and software capabilities of the new systems are utilized for the development of 3D data products that address the scientific needs of the new Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program. The SWACR observations at Azores provide a first look at such observations and the challenges associated with their analysis and interpretation. The set of scan strategies applied during the SWACR deployment and their merit is discussed. The scan strategies were adjusted for the detection of marine stratocumulus and shallow cumulus that were frequently observed at the Azores deployment. Quality control procedures for the radar reflectivity and Doppler products are presented. Finally, preliminary 3D-Active Remote Sensing of Cloud Locations (3D-ARSCL) products on a regular grid will be presented, and the challenges associated with their development discussed. In addition to data from the Azores deployment, limited data from the follow-up deployment of the SWACR at the ARM SGP site will be presented. This effort provides a blueprint for the effort required

  19. Security in the cloud.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degaspari, John

    2011-08-01

    As more provider organizations look to the cloud computing model, they face a host of security-related questions. What are the appropriate applications for the cloud, what is the best cloud model, and what do they need to know to choose the best vendor? Hospital CIOs and security experts weigh in.

  20. Dynamic virtual machine allocation policy in cloud computing complying with service level agreement using CloudSim

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aneri, Parikh; Sumathy, S.

    2017-11-01

    Cloud computing provides services over the internet and provides application resources and data to the users based on their demand. Base of the Cloud Computing is consumer provider model. Cloud provider provides resources which consumer can access using cloud computing model in order to build their application based on their demand. Cloud data center is a bulk of resources on shared pool architecture for cloud user to access. Virtualization is the heart of the Cloud computing model, it provides virtual machine as per application specific configuration and those applications are free to choose their own configuration. On one hand, there is huge number of resources and on other hand it has to serve huge number of requests effectively. Therefore, resource allocation policy and scheduling policy play very important role in allocation and managing resources in this cloud computing model. This paper proposes the load balancing policy using Hungarian algorithm. Hungarian Algorithm provides dynamic load balancing policy with a monitor component. Monitor component helps to increase cloud resource utilization by managing the Hungarian algorithm by monitoring its state and altering its state based on artificial intelligent. CloudSim used in this proposal is an extensible toolkit and it simulates cloud computing environment.

  1. Model Based Business and IT Cloud Alignment as a Cloud Offering

    OpenAIRE

    Robert Woitsch; Wilfrid Utz

    2015-01-01

    Cloud computing proved to offer flexible IT solutions. Although large enterprises may benefit from this technology by educating their IT departments, SMEs are dramatically falling behind in cloud usage and hence lose the ability to efficiently adapt their IT to their business needs. This paper introduces the project idea of the H2020 project CloudSocket, by elaborating the idea of Business Processes as a Service, where concept models and semantics are applied to align business pro...

  2. Analysis of albedo versus cloud fraction relationships in liquid water clouds using heuristic models and large eddy simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feingold, Graham; Balsells, Joseph; Glassmeier, Franziska; Yamaguchi, Takanobu; Kazil, Jan; McComiskey, Allison

    2017-07-01

    The relationship between the albedo of a cloudy scene A and cloud fraction fc is studied with the aid of heuristic models of stratocumulus and cumulus clouds. Existing work has shown that scene albedo increases monotonically with increasing cloud fraction but that the relationship varies from linear to superlinear. The reasons for these differences in functional dependence are traced to the relationship between cloud deepening and cloud widening. When clouds deepen with no significant increase in fc (e.g., in solid stratocumulus), the relationship between A and fc is linear. When clouds widen as they deepen, as in cumulus cloud fields, the relationship is superlinear. A simple heuristic model of a cumulus cloud field with a power law size distribution shows that the superlinear A-fc behavior is traced out either through random variation in cloud size distribution parameters or as the cloud field oscillates between a relative abundance of small clouds (steep slopes on a log-log plot) and a relative abundance of large clouds (flat slopes). Oscillations of this kind manifest in large eddy simulation of trade wind cumulus where the slope and intercept of the power law fit to the cloud size distribution are highly correlated. Further analysis of the large eddy model-generated cloud fields suggests that cumulus clouds grow larger and deeper as their underlying plumes aggregate; this is followed by breakup of large plumes and a tendency to smaller clouds. The cloud and thermal size distributions oscillate back and forth approximately in unison.

  3. SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON CLOUD ACCOUNTING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Doina Pacurari

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Cloud technologies have developed intensively during the last years. Cloud computing allows the customers to interact with their data and applications at any time, from any location, while the providers host these resources. A client company may choose to run in the cloud a part of its business (sales by agents, payroll, etc., or even the entire business. The company can get access to a large category of cloud-based software, including accounting software. Cloud solutions are especially recommended for small companies that do not have enough financial resources to invest in the IT infrastructure and in expensive accounting software. However, a special attention is required in the case of sensitive data, which should not be placed in a public cloud. All these aspects need to be discussed with the students, who should acquire the qualifications needed for operating with cloud applications. Our paper considers all the above issues regarding cloud computing for accountants and suggests some possibilities to approach these topics with the students.

  4. CLOUD TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander N. Dukkardt

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This article is devoted to the review of main features of cloud computing that can be used in education. Particular attention is paid to those learning and supportive tasks, that can be greatly improved in the case of the using of cloud services. Several ways to implement this approach are proposed, based on widely accepted models of providing cloud services. Nevertheless, the authors have not ignored currently existing problems of cloud technologies , identifying the most dangerous risks and their impact on the core business processes of the university. 

  5. A Condensation–coalescence Cloud Model for Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Formulation and Test Applications to Terrestrial and Jovian Clouds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ohno, Kazumasa; Okuzumi, Satoshi [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan)

    2017-02-01

    A number of transiting exoplanets have featureless transmission spectra that might suggest the presence of clouds at high altitudes. A realistic cloud model is necessary to understand the atmospheric conditions under which such high-altitude clouds can form. In this study, we present a new cloud model that takes into account the microphysics of both condensation and coalescence. Our model provides the vertical profiles of the size and density of cloud and rain particles in an updraft for a given set of physical parameters, including the updraft velocity and the number density of cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs). We test our model by comparing with observations of trade-wind cumuli on Earth and ammonia ice clouds in Jupiter. For trade-wind cumuli, the model including both condensation and coalescence gives predictions that are consistent with observations, while the model including only condensation overestimates the mass density of cloud droplets by up to an order of magnitude. For Jovian ammonia clouds, the condensation–coalescence model simultaneously reproduces the effective particle radius, cloud optical thickness, and cloud geometric thickness inferred from Voyager observations if the updraft velocity and CCN number density are taken to be consistent with the results of moist convection simulations and Galileo probe measurements, respectively. These results suggest that the coalescence of condensate particles is important not only in terrestrial water clouds but also in Jovian ice clouds. Our model will be useful to understand how the dynamics, compositions, and nucleation processes in exoplanetary atmospheres affect the vertical extent and optical thickness of exoplanetary clouds via cloud microphysics.

  6. A Condensation–coalescence Cloud Model for Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Formulation and Test Applications to Terrestrial and Jovian Clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohno, Kazumasa; Okuzumi, Satoshi

    2017-01-01

    A number of transiting exoplanets have featureless transmission spectra that might suggest the presence of clouds at high altitudes. A realistic cloud model is necessary to understand the atmospheric conditions under which such high-altitude clouds can form. In this study, we present a new cloud model that takes into account the microphysics of both condensation and coalescence. Our model provides the vertical profiles of the size and density of cloud and rain particles in an updraft for a given set of physical parameters, including the updraft velocity and the number density of cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs). We test our model by comparing with observations of trade-wind cumuli on Earth and ammonia ice clouds in Jupiter. For trade-wind cumuli, the model including both condensation and coalescence gives predictions that are consistent with observations, while the model including only condensation overestimates the mass density of cloud droplets by up to an order of magnitude. For Jovian ammonia clouds, the condensation–coalescence model simultaneously reproduces the effective particle radius, cloud optical thickness, and cloud geometric thickness inferred from Voyager observations if the updraft velocity and CCN number density are taken to be consistent with the results of moist convection simulations and Galileo probe measurements, respectively. These results suggest that the coalescence of condensate particles is important not only in terrestrial water clouds but also in Jovian ice clouds. Our model will be useful to understand how the dynamics, compositions, and nucleation processes in exoplanetary atmospheres affect the vertical extent and optical thickness of exoplanetary clouds via cloud microphysics.

  7. The mass spectrum of interstellar clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dickey, J.M.; Garwood, R.W.

    1989-01-01

    The abundances of diffuse clouds and molecular clouds in the inner Galaxy and at the solar circle are compared. Using results of recent low-latitude 21 cm absorption studies, the number of diffuse clouds per kiloparsec along the line of sight is derived as a function of the cloud column density, under two assumptions relating cloud densities and temperatures. The density of clouds is derived as a function of cloud mass. The results are consistent with a single, continuous mass spectrum for interstellar clouds from less than 1 solar mass to 1,000,000 solar masses, with perhaps a change of slope at masses where the atomic and molecular mass fractions are roughly equal. 36 refs

  8. Cloud database development and management

    CERN Document Server

    Chao, Lee

    2013-01-01

    Nowadays, cloud computing is almost everywhere. However, one can hardly find a textbook that utilizes cloud computing for teaching database and application development. This cloud-based database development book teaches both the theory and practice with step-by-step instructions and examples. This book helps readers to set up a cloud computing environment for teaching and learning database systems. The book will cover adequate conceptual content for students and IT professionals to gain necessary knowledge and hands-on skills to set up cloud based database systems.

  9. iCloud standard guide

    CERN Document Server

    Alfi, Fauzan

    2013-01-01

    An easy-to-use guide, filled with tutorials that will teach you how to set up and use iCloud, and profit from all of its marvellous features.This book is for anyone with basic knowledge of computers and mobile operations. Prior knowledge of cloud computing or iCloud is not expected.

  10. A cloud shadow detection method combined with cloud height iteration and spectral analysis for Landsat 8 OLI data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Lin; Liu, Xinyan; Yang, Yikun; Chen, TingTing; Wang, Quan; Zhou, Xueying

    2018-04-01

    Although enhanced over prior Landsat instruments, Landsat 8 OLI can obtain very high cloud detection precisions, but for the detection of cloud shadows, it still faces great challenges. Geometry-based cloud shadow detection methods are considered the most effective and are being improved constantly. The Function of Mask (Fmask) cloud shadow detection method is one of the most representative geometry-based methods that has been used for cloud shadow detection with Landsat 8 OLI. However, the Fmask method estimates cloud height employing fixed temperature rates, which are highly uncertain, and errors of large area cloud shadow detection can be caused by errors in estimations of cloud height. This article improves the geometry-based cloud shadow detection method for Landsat OLI from the following two aspects. (1) Cloud height no longer depends on the brightness temperature of the thermal infrared band but uses a possible dynamic range from 200 m to 12,000 m. In this case, cloud shadow is not a specific location but a possible range. Further analysis was carried out in the possible range based on the spectrum to determine cloud shadow location. This effectively avoids the cloud shadow leakage caused by the error in the height determination of a cloud. (2) Object-based and pixel spectral analyses are combined to detect cloud shadows, which can realize cloud shadow detection from two aspects of target scale and pixel scale. Based on the analysis of the spectral differences between the cloud shadow and typical ground objects, the best cloud shadow detection bands of Landsat 8 OLI were determined. The combined use of spectrum and shape can effectively improve the detection precision of cloud shadows produced by thin clouds. Several cloud shadow detection experiments were carried out, and the results were verified by the results of artificial recognition. The results of these experiments indicated that this method can identify cloud shadows in different regions with correct

  11. Three-moment representation of rain in a cloud microphysics model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paukert, M.; Fan, J.; Rasch, P. J.; Morrison, H.; Milbrandt, J.; Khain, A.; Shpund, J.

    2017-12-01

    Two-moment microphysics schemes have been commonly used for cloud simulation in models across different scales - from large-eddy simulations to global climate models. These schemes have yielded valuable insights into cloud and precipitation processes, however the size distributions are limited to two degrees of freedom, and thus the shape parameter is typically fixed or diagnosed. We have developed a three-moment approach for the rain category in order to provide an additional degree of freedom to the size distribution and thereby improve the cloud microphysics representations for more accurate weather and climate simulations. The approach is applied to the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) scheme. In addition to the rain number and mass mixing ratios predicted in the two-moment P3, we now include prognostic equations for the sixth moment of the size distribution (radar reflectivity), thus allowing the shape parameter to evolve freely. We employ the spectral bin microphysics (SBM) model to formulate the three-moment process rates in P3 for drop collisions and breakup. We first test the three-moment scheme with a maritime stratocumulus case from the VOCALS field campaign, and compare the model results with respect to cloud and precipitation properties from the new P3 scheme, original two-moment P3 scheme, SBM, and in-situ aircraft measurements. The improved simulation results by the new P3 scheme will be discussed and physically explained.

  12. Cloud Computing Security: A Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Issa M. Khalil

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is an emerging technology paradigm that migrates current technological and computing concepts into utility-like solutions similar to electricity and water systems. Clouds bring out a wide range of benefits including configurable computing resources, economic savings, and service flexibility. However, security and privacy concerns are shown to be the primary obstacles to a wide adoption of clouds. The new concepts that clouds introduce, such as multi-tenancy, resource sharing and outsourcing, create new challenges to the security community. Addressing these challenges requires, in addition to the ability to cultivate and tune the security measures developed for traditional computing systems, proposing new security policies, models, and protocols to address the unique cloud security challenges. In this work, we provide a comprehensive study of cloud computing security and privacy concerns. We identify cloud vulnerabilities, classify known security threats and attacks, and present the state-of-the-art practices to control the vulnerabilities, neutralize the threats, and calibrate the attacks. Additionally, we investigate and identify the limitations of the current solutions and provide insights of the future security perspectives. Finally, we provide a cloud security framework in which we present the various lines of defense and identify the dependency levels among them. We identify 28 cloud security threats which we classify into five categories. We also present nine general cloud attacks along with various attack incidents, and provide effectiveness analysis of the proposed countermeasures.

  13. Defining the cloud battlefield - supporting security assessments by cloud customers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bleikertz, Sören; Mastelic, Toni; Pape, Sebastian; Pieters, Wolter; Dimkov, T.

    Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular, but security concerns overshadow its technical and economic benefits. In particular, insider attacks and malicious insiders are considered as one of the major threats and risks in cloud computing. As physical boundaries disappear and a variety of

  14. CloudNeo: a cloud pipeline for identifying patient-specific tumor neoantigens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bais, Preeti; Namburi, Sandeep; Gatti, Daniel M; Zhang, Xinyu; Chuang, Jeffrey H

    2017-10-01

    We present CloudNeo, a cloud-based computational workflow for identifying patient-specific tumor neoantigens from next generation sequencing data. Tumor-specific mutant peptides can be detected by the immune system through their interactions with the human leukocyte antigen complex, and neoantigen presence has recently been shown to correlate with anti T-cell immunity and efficacy of checkpoint inhibitor therapy. However computing capabilities to identify neoantigens from genomic sequencing data are a limiting factor for understanding their role. This challenge has grown as cancer datasets become increasingly abundant, making them cumbersome to store and analyze on local servers. Our cloud-based pipeline provides scalable computation capabilities for neoantigen identification while eliminating the need to invest in local infrastructure for data transfer, storage or compute. The pipeline is a Common Workflow Language (CWL) implementation of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing using Polysolver or HLAminer combined with custom scripts for mutant peptide identification and NetMHCpan for neoantigen prediction. We have demonstrated the efficacy of these pipelines on Amazon cloud instances through the Seven Bridges Genomics implementation of the NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud, which provides graphical interfaces for running and editing, infrastructure for workflow sharing and version tracking, and access to TCGA data. The CWL implementation is at: https://github.com/TheJacksonLaboratory/CloudNeo. For users who have obtained licenses for all internal software, integrated versions in CWL and on the Seven Bridges Cancer Genomics Cloud platform (https://cgc.sbgenomics.com/, recommended version) can be obtained by contacting the authors. jeff.chuang@jax.org. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

  15. Diffuse interstellar clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Black, J.H.

    1987-01-01

    The author defines and discusses the nature of diffuse interstellar clouds. He discusses how they contribute to the general extinction of starlight. The atomic and molecular species that have been identified in the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared regions of the spectrum of a diffuse cloud are presented. The author illustrates some of the practical considerations that affect absorption line observations of interstellar atoms and molecules. Various aspects of the theoretical description of diffuse clouds required for a full interpretation of the observations are discussed

  16. Cloud Computing Security

    OpenAIRE

    Ngongang, Guy

    2011-01-01

    This project aimed to show how possible it is to use a network intrusion detection system in the cloud. The security in the cloud is a concern nowadays and security professionals are still finding means to make cloud computing more secure. First of all the installation of the ESX4.0, vCenter Server and vCenter lab manager in server hardware was successful in building the platform. This allowed the creation and deployment of many virtual servers. Those servers have operating systems and a...

  17. Trusted cloud computing

    CERN Document Server

    Krcmar, Helmut; Rumpe, Bernhard

    2014-01-01

    This book documents the scientific results of the projects related to the Trusted Cloud Program, covering fundamental aspects of trust, security, and quality of service for cloud-based services and applications. These results aim to allow trustworthy IT applications in the cloud by providing a reliable and secure technical and legal framework. In this domain, business models, legislative circumstances, technical possibilities, and realizable security are closely interwoven and thus are addressed jointly. The book is organized in four parts on "Security and Privacy", "Software Engineering and

  18. Determination of the chemical properties of residues retained in individual cloud droplets by XRF microprobe at SPring-8

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma, C.-J.; Tohno, S.; Kasahara, M.; Hayakawa, S.

    2004-01-01

    To determine the chemical properties of residue retained in individual cloud droplets is primarily important for the understanding of rainout mechanism and aerosol modification in droplet. The sampling of individual cloud droplets were carried out on the summit of Mt. Taiko located in Tango peninsula, Kyoto prefecture, during Asian dust storm event in March of 2002. XRF microprobe system equipped at SPring-8, BL-37XU was applied to the subsequent quantification analysis of ultra trace elements in residues of individual cloud droplets. It was possible to form the replicas of separated individual cloud droplets on the thin collodion film. The two dimensional XRF maps for the residues in individual cloud droplets were clearly drawn by scanning of micro-beam. Also, XRF spectra of trace elements in residues were well resolved. From the XRF spectra for individual residues, the chemical mixed state of residues could be assumed. The chemical forms of Fe (Fe +++ ) and Zn (Zn + ) could be clearly characterized by their K-edge micro-XANES spectra. By comparison of Z/Si mass ratios of residues in cloud droplets and those of the original sands collected in desert areas in China, the aging of ambient dust particles and their in cloud modification were indirectly assumed

  19. The sensitivities of in cloud and cloud top phase distributions to primary ice formation in ICON-LEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beydoun, H.; Karrer, M.; Tonttila, J.; Hoose, C.

    2017-12-01

    Mixed phase clouds remain a leading source of uncertainty in our attempt to quantify cloud-climate and aerosol-cloud climate interactions. Nevertheless, recent advances in parametrizing the primary ice formation process, high resolution cloud modelling, and retrievals of cloud phase distributions from satellite data offer an excellent opportunity to conduct closure studies on the sensitivity of the cloud phase to microphysical and dynamical processes. Particularly, the reliability of satellite data to resolve the phase at the top of the cloud provides a promising benchmark to compare model output to. We run large eddy simulations with the new ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic atmosphere model (ICON) to place bounds on the sensitivity of in cloud and cloud top phase to the primary ice formation process. State of the art primary ice formation parametrizations in the form of the cumulative ice active site density ns are implemented in idealized deep convective cloud simulations. We exploit the ability of ICON-LEM to switch between a two moment microphysics scheme and the newly developed Predicted Particle Properties (P3) scheme by running our simulations in both configurations for comparison. To quantify the sensitivity of cloud phase to primary ice formation, cloud ice content is evaluated against order of magnitude changes in ns at variable convective strengths. Furthermore, we assess differences between in cloud and cloud top phase distributions as well as the potential impact of updraft velocity on the suppression of the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process. The study aims to evaluate our practical understanding of primary ice formation in the context of predicting the structure and evolution of mixed phase clouds.

  20. If It's in the Cloud, Get It on Paper: Cloud Computing Contract Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trappler, Thomas J.

    2010-01-01

    Much recent discussion has focused on the pros and cons of cloud computing. Some institutions are attracted to cloud computing benefits such as rapid deployment, flexible scalability, and low initial start-up cost, while others are concerned about cloud computing risks such as those related to data location, level of service, and security…

  1. Measurements of the relation between aerosol properties and microphysics and chemistry of low level liquid water clouds in Northern Finland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Lihavainen

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Physical and chemical properties of boundary layer clouds, together with relevant aerosol properties, were investigated during the first Pallas Cloud Experiment (First Pace conducted in northern Finland between 20 October and 9 November 2004. Two stations located 6 km apart from each other at different altitudes were employed in measurements. The low-altitude station was always below the cloud layer, whereas the high-altitude station was inside clouds about 75% of the time during the campaign. Direct measurements of cloud droplet populations showed that our earlier approach of determining cloud droplet residual particle size distributions and corresponding activated fractions using continuous aerosol number size distribution measurements at the two stations is valid, as long as the cloud events are carefully screened to exclude precipitating clouds and to make sure the same air mass has been measured at both stations. We observed that a non-negligible fraction of cloud droplets originated from Aitken mode particles even at moderately-polluted air masses. We found clear evidence on first indirect aerosol effect on clouds but demonstrated also that no simple relation between the cloud droplet number concentration and aerosol particle number concentration exists for this type of clouds. The chemical composition of aerosol particles was dominated by particulate organic matter (POM and sulphate in continental air masses and POM, sodium and chlorine in marine air masses. The inorganic composition of cloud water behaved similarly to that of the aerosol phase and was not influenced by inorganic trace gases.

  2. Marine cloud brightening

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latham, John; Bower, Keith; Choularton, Tom; Coe, Hugh; Connolly, Paul; Cooper, Gary; Craft, Tim; Foster, Jack; Gadian, Alan; Galbraith, Lee; Iacovides, Hector; Johnston, David; Launder, Brian; Leslie, Brian; Meyer, John; Neukermans, Armand; Ormond, Bob; Parkes, Ben; Rasch, Phillip; Rush, John; Salter, Stephen; Stevenson, Tom; Wang, Hailong; Wang, Qin; Wood, Rob

    2012-01-01

    The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could—subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identified herein—have the capacity to balance global warming up to the carbon dioxide-doubling point. We describe herein an account of our recent research on a number of critical issues associated with MCB. This involves (i) GCM studies, which are our primary tools for evaluating globally the effectiveness of MCB, and assessing its climate impacts on rainfall amounts and distribution, and also polar sea-ice cover and thickness; (ii) high-resolution modelling of the effects of seeding on marine stratocumulus, which are required to understand the complex array of interacting processes involved in cloud brightening; (iii) microphysical modelling sensitivity studies, examining the influence of seeding amount, seed-particle salt-mass, air-mass characteristics, updraught speed and other parameters on cloud–albedo change; (iv) sea water spray-production techniques; (v) computational fluid dynamics studies of possible large-scale periodicities in Flettner rotors; and (vi) the planning of a three-stage limited-area field research experiment, with the primary objectives of technology testing and determining to what extent, if any, cloud albedo might be enhanced by seeding marine stratocumulus clouds on a spatial scale of around 100×100 km. We stress that there would be no justification for deployment of MCB unless it was clearly established that no significant adverse consequences would result. There would also need to be an international agreement firmly in favour of such action

  3. The Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS): overview and experimental design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tjernström, M.; Leck, C.; Birch, C. E.; Bottenheim, J. W.; Brooks, B. J.; Brooks, I. M.; Bäcklin, L.; Chang, R. Y.-W.; de Leeuw, G.; Di Liberto, L.; de la Rosa, S.; Granath, E.; Graus, M.; Hansel, A.; Heintzenberg, J.; Held, A.; Hind, A.; Johnston, P.; Knulst, J.; Martin, M.; Matrai, P. A.; Mauritsen, T.; Müller, M.; Norris, S. J.; Orellana, M. V.; Orsini, D. A.; Paatero, J.; Persson, P. O. G.; Gao, Q.; Rauschenberg, C.; Ristovski, Z.; Sedlar, J.; Shupe, M. D.; Sierau, B.; Sirevaag, A.; Sjogren, S.; Stetzer, O.; Swietlicki, E.; Szczodrak, M.; Vaattovaara, P.; Wahlberg, N.; Westberg, M.; Wheeler, C. R.

    2014-03-01

    The climate in the Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on earth. Poorly understood feedback processes relating to Arctic clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions contribute to a poor understanding of the present changes in the Arctic climate system, and also to a large spread in projections of future climate in the Arctic. The problem is exacerbated by the paucity of research-quality observations in the central Arctic. Improved formulations in climate models require such observations, which can only come from measurements in situ in this difficult-to-reach region with logistically demanding environmental conditions. The Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) was the most extensive central Arctic Ocean expedition with an atmospheric focus during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. ASCOS focused on the study of the formation and life cycle of low-level Arctic clouds. ASCOS departed from Longyearbyen on Svalbard on 2 August and returned on 9 September 2008. In transit into and out of the pack ice, four short research stations were undertaken in the Fram Strait: two in open water and two in the marginal ice zone. After traversing the pack ice northward, an ice camp was set up on 12 August at 87°21' N, 01°29' W and remained in operation through 1 September, drifting with the ice. During this time, extensive measurements were taken of atmospheric gas and particle chemistry and physics, mesoscale and boundary-layer meteorology, marine biology and chemistry, and upper ocean physics. ASCOS provides a unique interdisciplinary data set for development and testing of new hypotheses on cloud processes, their interactions with the sea ice and ocean and associated physical, chemical, and biological processes and interactions. For example, the first-ever quantitative observation of bubbles in Arctic leads, combined with the unique discovery of marine organic material, polymer gels with an origin in the ocean, inside cloud droplets suggests the possibility of

  4. Can Condensing Organic Aerosols Lead to Less Cloud Particles?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, C. Y.; Tsigaridis, K.; Bauer, S.

    2017-12-01

    We examined the impact of condensing organic aerosols on activated cloud number concentration in a new aerosol microphysics box model, MATRIX-VBS. The model includes the volatility-basis set (VBS) framework in an aerosol microphysical scheme MATRIX (Multiconfiguration Aerosol TRacker of mIXing state) that resolves aerosol mass and number concentrations and aerosol mixing state. Preliminary results show that by including the condensation of organic aerosols, the new model (MATRIX-VBS) has less activated particles compared to the original model (MATRIX), which treats organic aerosols as non-volatile. Parameters such as aerosol chemical composition, mass and number concentrations, and particle sizes which affect activated cloud number concentration are thoroughly evaluated via a suite of Monte-Carlo simulations. The Monte-Carlo simulations also provide information on which climate-relevant parameters play a critical role in the aerosol evolution in the atmosphere. This study also helps simplifying the newly developed box model which will soon be implemented in the global model GISS ModelE as a module.

  5. Polar cloud observatory at Ny-Ålesund in GRENE Arctic Climate Change Research Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamanouchi, Takashi; Takano, Toshiaki; Shiobara, Masataka; Okamoto, Hajime; Koike, Makoto; Ukita, Jinro

    2016-04-01

    Cloud is one of the main processes in the climate system and especially a large feed back agent for Arctic warming amplification (Yoshimori et al., 2014). From this reason, observation of polar cloud has been emphasized and 95 GHz cloud profiling radar in high precision was established at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard in 2013 as one of the basic infrastructure in the GRENE (Green Network of Excellence Program) Arctic Climate Change Research Project. The radar, "FALCON-A", is a FM-CW (frequency modulated continuous wave) Doppler radar, developed for Arctic use by Chiba University (PI: T. Takano) in 2012, following its prototype, "FALCON-1" which was developed in 2006 (Takano et al., 2010). The specifications of the radar are, central frequency: 94.84 GHz; antenna power: 1 W; observation height: up to 15 km; range resolution: 48 m; beam width: 0.2 degree (15 m at 5 km); Doppler width: 3.2 m/s; time interval: 10 sec, and capable of archiving high sensitivity and high spatial and time resolution. An FM-CW type radar realizes similar sensitivity with much smaller parabolic antennas separated 1.4 m from each other used for transmitting and receiving the wave. Polarized Micro-Pulse Lidar (PMPL, Sigma Space MPL-4B-IDS), which is capable to measure the backscatter and depolarization ratio, has also been deployed to Ny-Ålesund in March 2012, and now operated to perform collocated measurements with FALCON-A. Simultaneous measurement data from collocated PMPL and FALCON-A are available for synergetic analyses of cloud microphysics. Cloud mycrophysics, such as effective radius of ice particles and ice water content, are obtained from the analysis based on algorithm, which is modified for ground-based measurements from Okamoto's retrieval algorithm for satellite based cloud profiling radar and lidar (CloudSat and CALIPSO; Okamoto et al., 2010). Results of two years will be shown in the presentation. Calibration is a point to derive radar reflectivity (dBZ) from original intensity data

  6. Selected translated abstracts of Russian-language climate-change publications: II, Clouds. Issue 159

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burtis, M.D. [comp.

    1994-01-01

    This report presents abstracts (translated into English) of important Russian-language literature concerning clouds as they relate to climate change. In addition to the bibliographic citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Russian. Author and title indexes are included to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest.

  7. Evaluation of Multilayer Cloud Detection Using a MODIS CO2-Slicing Algorithm With CALIPSO-CloudSat Measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viudez-Mora, Antonio; Kato, Seiji

    2015-01-01

    This work evaluates the multilayer cloud (MCF) algorithm based on CO2-slicing techniques against CALISPO-CloudSat (CLCS) measurement. This evaluation showed that the MCF underestimates the presence of multilayered clouds compared with CLCS and are retrained to cloud emissivities below 0.8 and cloud optical septs no larger than 0.3.

  8. Identity Management issues in Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Saini, Smita; Mann, Deep

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing is providing a low cost on demand services to the users, omnipresent network,large storage capacity due to these features of cloud computing web applications are moving towards the cloud and due to this migration of the web application,cloud computing platform is raised many issues like privacy, security etc. Privacy issue are major concern for the cloud computing. Privacy is to preserve the sensitive information of the cloud consumer and the major issues to the privacy are un...

  9. Cloud computing: Overview of available solutions

    OpenAIRE

    Feňko, Marek

    2012-01-01

    The paper Works describes concept of cloud computing, his main characteristics. Cloud computing is new trend in IT. The company doesn't have your own servers and data centres, but everything is situated in cloud -- in set of pc and server. The owners of these are suppliers of these services. The aim of the thesis is defined Cloud Computing concepts and evaluate by criterion if cloud computing application can compete to classic application. Introduction of the Works describe the gist of cloud ...

  10. In situ measurements of cloud microphysics and aerosol over coastal Antarctica during the MAC campaign

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Shea, Sebastian J.; Choularton, Thomas W.; Flynn, Michael; Bower, Keith N.; Gallagher, Martin; Crosier, Jonathan; Williams, Paul; Crawford, Ian; Fleming, Zoë L.; Listowski, Constantino; Kirchgaessner, Amélie; Ladkin, Russell S.; Lachlan-Cope, Thomas

    2017-11-01

    During austral summer 2015, the Microphysics of Antarctic Clouds (MAC) field campaign collected unique and detailed airborne and ground-based in situ measurements of cloud and aerosol properties over coastal Antarctica and the Weddell Sea. This paper presents the first results from the experiment and discusses the key processes important in this region, which is critical to predicting future climate change. The sampling was predominantly of stratus clouds, at temperatures between -20 and 0 °C. These clouds were dominated by supercooled liquid water droplets, which had a median concentration of 113 cm-3 and an interquartile range of 86 cm-3. Both cloud liquid water content and effective radius increased closer to cloud top. The cloud droplet effective radius increased from 4 ± 2 µm near cloud base to 8 ± 3 µm near cloud top. Cloud ice particle concentrations were highly variable with the ice tending to occur in small, isolated patches. Below approximately 1000 m, glaciated cloud regions were more common at higher temperatures; however, the clouds were still predominantly liquid throughout. When ice was present at temperatures higher than -10 °C, secondary ice production most likely through the Hallett-Mossop mechanism led to ice concentrations 1 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than the number predicted by commonly used primary ice nucleation parameterisations. The drivers of the ice crystal variability are investigated. No clear dependence on the droplet size distribution was found. The source of first ice in the clouds remains uncertain but may include contributions from biogenic particles, blowing snow or other surface ice production mechanisms. The concentration of large aerosols (diameters 0.5 to 1.6 µm) decreased with altitude and were depleted in air masses that originated over the Antarctic continent compared to those more heavily influenced by the Southern Ocean and sea ice regions. The dominant aerosol in the region was hygroscopic in nature, with

  11. The Ethics of Cloud Computing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Bruin, Boudewijn; Floridi, Luciano

    2017-02-01

    Cloud computing is rapidly gaining traction in business. It offers businesses online services on demand (such as Gmail, iCloud and Salesforce) and allows them to cut costs on hardware and IT support. This is the first paper in business ethics dealing with this new technology. It analyzes the informational duties of hosting companies that own and operate cloud computing datacentres (e.g., Amazon). It considers the cloud services providers leasing 'space in the cloud' from hosting companies (e.g., Dropbox, Salesforce). And it examines the business and private 'clouders' using these services. The first part of the paper argues that hosting companies, services providers and clouders have mutual informational (epistemic) obligations to provide and seek information about relevant issues such as consumer privacy, reliability of services, data mining and data ownership. The concept of interlucency is developed as an epistemic virtue governing ethically effective communication. The second part considers potential forms of government restrictions on or proscriptions against the development and use of cloud computing technology. Referring to the concept of technology neutrality, it argues that interference with hosting companies and cloud services providers is hardly ever necessary or justified. It is argued, too, however, that businesses using cloud services (e.g., banks, law firms, hospitals etc. storing client data in the cloud) will have to follow rather more stringent regulations.

  12. Cloud Based Applications and Platforms (Presentation)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brodt-Giles, D.

    2014-05-15

    Presentation to the Cloud Computing East 2014 Conference, where we are highlighting our cloud computing strategy, describing the platforms on the cloud (including Smartgrid.gov), and defining our process for implementing cloud based applications.

  13. CO observations of southern high-latitude clouds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keto, E.R.; Myers, P.C.

    1986-01-01

    Results from a survey of 2.6 mm emission in the J = 1 to 0 transition of CO of clouds are reported for 15 high Galactic latitude clouds and three clouds located on the fringe of a large molecular cloud in the Chameleon dark cloud complex. The line widths, excitation temperatures, sizes, and n(CO)/N(H2) ratio of these clouds are similar to those seen in dark clouds. The densities, extinctions, and masses of the high-latitude clouds are one order of magnitude less than those found in dark clouds. For its size and velocity dispersion, the typical cloud has a mass of at least 10 times less than that needed to bind the cloud by self-gravity alone. External pressures are needed to maintain the typical cloud in equilibrium, and these values are consistent with several estimates of the intercloud pressure. 32 references

  14. Research About Attacks Over Cloud Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jie

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is expected to continue expanding in the next few years and people will start to see some of the following benefits in their real lives. Security of cloud computing environments is the set of control-based technologies and policies absolute to adhere regulatory compliance rules and protect information data applications and infrastructure related with cloud use. In this paper we suggest a model to estimating the cloud computing security and test the services provided to users. The simulator NG-Cloud Next Generation Secure Cloud Storage is used and modified to administer the proposed model. This implementation achieved security functions potential attacks as defined in the proposed model. Finally we also solve some attacks over cloud computing to provide the security and safety of the cloud.

  15. Cloud services, networking, and management

    CERN Document Server

    da Fonseca, Nelson L S

    2015-01-01

    Cloud Services, Networking and Management provides a comprehensive overview of the cloud infrastructure and services, as well as their underlying management mechanisms, including data center virtualization and networking, cloud security and reliability, big data analytics, scientific and commercial applications. Special features of the book include: State-of-the-art content. Self-contained chapters for readers with specific interests. Includes commercial applications on Cloud (video services and games).

  16. Cloud computing basics for librarians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoy, Matthew B

    2012-01-01

    "Cloud computing" is the name for the recent trend of moving software and computing resources to an online, shared-service model. This article briefly defines cloud computing, discusses different models, explores the advantages and disadvantages, and describes some of the ways cloud computing can be used in libraries. Examples of cloud services are included at the end of the article. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

  17. Invasion of the atmosphere by radioactivity of atomic explosive origin and its influence on atmospheric precipitation. [In French

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garrigue, H

    1951-01-01

    Aerial observations on the rapid increase of the 20- to 30-h radioactive substance (labelled A) on February 3, 1951 leave no doubt as to its origin in atomic explosions. A large part of the radioactive cloud must enter the stratosphere and fall back to earth very slowly. The portion of the cloud diffusing into the troposphere supplies abundant condensation nuclei which profoundly affect the processes of precipitation.

  18. Green Cloud Computing: A Literature Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura-Diana Radu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is a dynamic field of information and communication technologies (ICTs, introducing new challenges for environmental protection. Cloud computing technologies have a variety of application domains, since they offer scalability, are reliable and trustworthy, and offer high performance at relatively low cost. The cloud computing revolution is redesigning modern networking, and offering promising environmental protection prospects as well as economic and technological advantages. These technologies have the potential to improve energy efficiency and to reduce carbon footprints and (e-waste. These features can transform cloud computing into green cloud computing. In this survey, we review the main achievements of green cloud computing. First, an overview of cloud computing is given. Then, recent studies and developments are summarized, and environmental issues are specifically addressed. Finally, future research directions and open problems regarding green cloud computing are presented. This survey is intended to serve as up-to-date guidance for research with respect to green cloud computing.

  19. Long Term Cloud Property Datasets From MODIS and AVHRR Using the CERES Cloud Algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minnis, Patrick; Bedka, Kristopher M.; Doelling, David R.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Yost, Christopher R.; Trepte, Qing Z.; Bedka, Sarah T.; Palikonda, Rabindra; Scarino, Benjamin R.; Chen, Yan; hide

    2015-01-01

    Cloud properties play a critical role in climate change. Monitoring cloud properties over long time periods is needed to detect changes and to validate and constrain models. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project has developed several cloud datasets from Aqua and Terra MODIS data to better interpret broadband radiation measurements and improve understanding of the role of clouds in the radiation budget. The algorithms applied to MODIS data have been adapted to utilize various combinations of channels on the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the long-term time series of NOAA and MetOp satellites to provide a new cloud climate data record. These datasets can be useful for a variety of studies. This paper presents results of the MODIS and AVHRR analyses covering the period from 1980-2014. Validation and comparisons with other datasets are also given.

  20. Detailed Information Security in Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Pavel Valerievich Ivonin

    2013-01-01

    The object of research in this article is technology of public clouds, structure and security system of clouds. Problems of information security in clouds are considered, elements of security system in public clouds are described.

  1. Global Software Development with Cloud Platforms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yara, Pavan; Ramachandran, Ramaseshan; Balasubramanian, Gayathri; Muthuswamy, Karthik; Chandrasekar, Divya

    Offshore and outsourced distributed software development models and processes are facing challenges, previously unknown, with respect to computing capacity, bandwidth, storage, security, complexity, reliability, and business uncertainty. Clouds promise to address these challenges by adopting recent advances in virtualization, parallel and distributed systems, utility computing, and software services. In this paper, we envision a cloud-based platform that addresses some of these core problems. We outline a generic cloud architecture, its design and our first implementation results for three cloud forms - a compute cloud, a storage cloud and a cloud-based software service- in the context of global distributed software development (GSD). Our ”compute cloud” provides computational services such as continuous code integration and a compile server farm, ”storage cloud” offers storage (block or file-based) services with an on-line virtual storage service, whereas the on-line virtual labs represent a useful cloud service. We note some of the use cases for clouds in GSD, the lessons learned with our prototypes and identify challenges that must be conquered before realizing the full business benefits. We believe that in the future, software practitioners will focus more on these cloud computing platforms and see clouds as a means to supporting a ecosystem of clients, developers and other key stakeholders.

  2. Cloud Computing Security Issue: Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamal, Shailza; Kaur, Rajpreet

    2011-12-01

    Cloud computing is the growing field in IT industry since 2007 proposed by IBM. Another company like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft provides further products to cloud computing. The cloud computing is the internet based computing that shared recourses, information on demand. It provides the services like SaaS, IaaS and PaaS. The services and recourses are shared by virtualization that run multiple operation applications on cloud computing. This discussion gives the survey on the challenges on security issues during cloud computing and describes some standards and protocols that presents how security can be managed.

  3. Cloud phase identification of Arctic boundary-layer clouds from airborne spectral reflection measurements: test of three approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Ehrlich

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Arctic boundary-layer clouds were investigated with remote sensing and in situ instruments during the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR campaign in March and April 2007. The clouds formed in a cold air outbreak over the open Greenland Sea. Beside the predominant mixed-phase clouds pure liquid water and ice clouds were observed. Utilizing measurements of solar radiation reflected by the clouds three methods to retrieve the thermodynamic phase of the cloud are introduced and compared. Two ice indices IS and IP were obtained by analyzing the spectral pattern of the cloud top reflectance in the near infrared (1500–1800 nm wavelength spectral range which is characterized by ice and water absorption. While IS analyzes the spectral slope of the reflectance in this wavelength range, IS utilizes a principle component analysis (PCA of the spectral reflectance. A third ice index IA is based on the different side scattering of spherical liquid water particles and nonspherical ice crystals which was recorded in simultaneous measurements of spectral cloud albedo and reflectance.

    Radiative transfer simulations show that IS, IP and IA range between 5 to 80, 0 to 8 and 1 to 1.25 respectively with lowest values indicating pure liquid water clouds and highest values pure ice clouds. The spectral slope ice index IS and the PCA ice index IP are found to be strongly sensitive to the effective diameter of the ice crystals present in the cloud. Therefore, the identification of mixed-phase clouds requires a priori knowledge of the ice crystal dimension. The reflectance-albedo ice index IA is mainly dominated by the uppermost cloud layer (τ<1.5. Therefore, typical boundary-layer mixed-phase clouds with a liquid cloud top layer will

  4. Hailstones: a window into the microbial and chemical inventory of a storm cloud.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Šantl-Temkiv, Tina; Finster, Kai; Dittmar, Thorsten; Hansen, Bjarne Munk; Thyrhaug, Runar; Nielsen, Niels Woetmann; Karlson, Ulrich Gosewinkel

    2013-01-01

    Storm clouds frequently form in the summer period in temperate climate zones. Studies on these inaccessible and short-lived atmospheric habitats have been scarce. We report here on the first comprehensive biogeochemical investigation of a storm cloud using hailstones as a natural stochastic sampling tool. A detailed molecular analysis of the dissolved organic matter in individual hailstones via ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry revealed the molecular formulae of almost 3000 different compounds. Only a small fraction of these compounds were rapidly biodegradable carbohydrates and lipids, suitable for microbial consumption during the lifetime of cloud droplets. However, as the cloud environment was characterized by a low bacterial density (Me = 1973 cells/ml) as well as high concentrations of both dissolved organic carbon (Me = 179 µM) and total dissolved nitrogen (Me = 30 µM), already trace amounts of easily degradable organic compounds suffice to support bacterial growth. The molecular fingerprints revealed a mainly soil origin of dissolved organic matter and a minor contribution of plant-surface compounds. In contrast, both the total and the cultivable bacterial community were skewed by bacterial groups (γ-Proteobacteria, Sphingobacteriales and Methylobacterium) that indicated the dominance of plant-surface bacteria. The enrichment of plant-associated bacterial groups points at a selection process of microbial genera in the course of cloud formation, which could affect the long-distance transport and spatial distribution of bacteria on Earth. Based on our results we hypothesize that plant-associated bacteria were more likely than soil bacteria (i) to survive the airborne state due to adaptations to life in the phyllosphere, which in many respects matches the demands encountered in the atmosphere and (ii) to grow on the suitable fraction of dissolved organic matter in clouds due to their ecological strategy. We conclude that storm clouds are

  5. Comets and the origin of life

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Delsemme, A H

    1981-01-01

    Current understandings of the nature and evolution of the universe and of the earth are summarized as a background to the discussion of the origin of life on earth as the result of the transport of the necessary materials to earth by comets. Evidence for the origin of the universe in the Big Bang supplied by observations of the expansion of the universe and the cosmic microwave background is discussed, and the condensation of primordial matter into galaxies and stars and the chemical processes in stars converting primordial hydrogen and helium into heavy elements as the stars evolve giving rise to an interstellar medium are considered. Attention is then given to the birth of the solar system from the contraction of a dark interstellar cloud containing gas, dust and interstellar molecules, and in particular to the origin of the terrestrial planets and the cometary contributions to the terrestrial crust, oceans and atmosphere. Finally, the chronology of the universe from the Big Bang to the present and that of the earth from its formation to the present are reviewed.

  6. Intercomparison of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in stratiform orographic mixed-phase clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhlbauer, A.; Hashino, T.; Xue, L.; Teller, A.; Lohmann, U.; Rasmussen, R. M.; Geresdi, I.; Pan, Z.

    2010-09-01

    Anthropogenic aerosols serve as a source of both cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nuclei (IN) and affect microphysical properties of clouds. Increasing aerosol number concentrations is hypothesized to retard the cloud droplet coalescence and the riming in mixed-phase clouds, thereby decreasing orographic precipitation. This study presents results from a model intercomparison of 2-D simulations of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in stratiform orographic mixed-phase clouds. The sensitivity of orographic precipitation to changes in the aerosol number concentrations is analysed and compared for various dynamical and thermodynamical situations. Furthermore, the sensitivities of microphysical processes such as coalescence, aggregation, riming and diffusional growth to changes in the aerosol number concentrations are evaluated and compared. The participating numerical models are the model from the Consortium for Small-Scale Modeling (COSMO) with bulk microphysics, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with bin microphysics and the University of Wisconsin modeling system (UWNMS) with a spectral ice habit prediction microphysics scheme. All models are operated on a cloud-resolving scale with 2 km horizontal grid spacing. The results of the model intercomparison suggest that the sensitivity of orographic precipitation to aerosol modifications varies greatly from case to case and from model to model. Neither a precipitation decrease nor a precipitation increase is found robustly in all simulations. Qualitative robust results can only be found for a subset of the simulations but even then quantitative agreement is scarce. Estimates of the aerosol effect on orographic precipitation are found to range from -19% to 0% depending on the simulated case and the model. Similarly, riming is shown to decrease in some cases and models whereas it increases in others, which implies that a decrease in riming with increasing aerosol load is not a robust result

  7. Effect of CALIPSO Cloud Aerosol Discrimination (CAD) Confidence Levels on Observations of Aerosol Properties near Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Weidong; Marshak, Alexander; Varnai, Tamas; Liu, Zhaoyan

    2012-01-01

    CALIPSO aerosol backscatter enhancement in the transition zone between clouds and clear sky areas is revisited with particular attention to effects of data selection based on the confidence level of cloud-aerosol discrimination (CAD). The results show that backscatter behavior in the transition zone strongly depends on the CAD confidence level. Higher confidence level data has a flatter backscatter far away from clouds and a much sharper increase near clouds (within 4 km), thus a smaller transition zone. For high confidence level data it is shown that the overall backscatter enhancement is more pronounced for small clear-air segments and horizontally larger clouds. The results suggest that data selection based on CAD reduces the possible effects of cloud contamination when studying aerosol properties in the vicinity of clouds.

  8. The CN/C15N isotopic ratio towards dark clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hily-Blant, P.; Pineau des Forêts, G.; Faure, A.; Le Gal, R.; Padovani, M.

    2013-09-01

    Understanding the origin of the composition of solar system cosmomaterials is a central question, not only in the cosmochemistry and astrochemistry fields, and requires various approaches to be combined. Measurements of isotopic ratios in cometary materials provide strong constraints on the content of the protosolar nebula. Their relation with the composition of the parental dark clouds is, however, still very elusive. In this paper, we bring new constraints based on the isotopic composition of nitrogen in dark clouds, with the aim of understanding the chemical processes that are responsible for the observed isotopic ratios. We have observed and detected the fundamental rotational transition of C15N towards two starless dark clouds, L1544 and L1498. We were able to derive the column density ratio of C15N over 13CN towards the same clouds and obtain the CN/C15N isotopic ratios, which were found to be 500 ± 75 for both L1544 and L1498. These values are therefore marginally consistent with the protosolar value of 441. Moreover, this ratio is larger than the isotopic ratio of nitrogen measured in HCN. In addition, we present model calculations of the chemical fractionation of nitrogen in dark clouds, which make it possible to understand how CN can be deprived of 15N and HCN can simultaneously be enriched in heavy nitrogen. The non-fractionation of N2H+, however, remains an open issue, and we propose some chemical way of alleviating the discrepancy between model predictions and the observed ratios. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgThe reduced spectra (in FITS format) are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/557/A65

  9. Progress in Understanding the Impacts of 3-D Cloud Structure on MODIS Cloud Property Retrievals for Marine Boundary Layer Clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhibo; Werner, Frank; Miller, Daniel; Platnick, Steven; Ackerman, Andrew; DiGirolamo, Larry; Meyer, Kerry; Marshak, Alexander; Wind, Galina; Zhao, Guangyu

    2016-01-01

    Theory: A novel framework based on 2-D Tayler expansion for quantifying the uncertainty in MODIS retrievals caused by sub-pixel reflectance inhomogeneity. (Zhang et al. 2016). How cloud vertical structure influences MODIS LWP retrievals. (Miller et al. 2016). Observation: Analysis of failed MODIS cloud property retrievals. (Cho et al. 2015). Cloud property retrievals from 15m resolution ASTER observations. (Werner et al. 2016). Modeling: LES-Satellite observation simulator (Zhang et al. 2012, Miller et al. 2016).

  10. Vapour cloud explosion hazard greater with light feedstocks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Windebank, C.S.

    1980-03-03

    Because lighter chemical feedstocks such as propylene and butylenes are more reactive than LPG's they pose a greater risk of vapor cloud explosion, particularly during their transport. According to C.S. Windebank (Insurance Tech. Bur.), percussive unconfined vapor cloud explosions (PUVCE's) do not usually occur below the ten-ton threshold for saturated hydrocarbons but can occur well below this threshold in the case of unsaturated hydrocarbons such as propylene and butylenes. Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions (BLEVE's) are more likely to be ''hot'' (i.e., the original explosion is associated with fire) than ''cold'' in the case of unsaturated hydrocarbons. No PUVCE or BLEVE incident has been reported in the UK. In the US, 16 out of 20 incidents recorded between 1970 and 1975 were related to chemical feedstocks, including propylene and butylenes, and only 4 were LPG-related. The average losses were $20 million per explosion. Between 1968 and 1978, 8% of LPG pipeline spillages led to explosions.

  11. ATLAS World-cloud and networking in PanDA

    CERN Document Server

    Barreiro Megino, Fernando Harald; The ATLAS collaboration; De, Kaushik; Di Girolamo, Alessandro; Walker, Rodney

    2016-01-01

    The ATLAS computing model was originally designed as static clouds (usually national or geographical groupings of sites) around the Tier 1 centers, which confined tasks and most of the data traffic. Since those early days, the sites' network bandwidth has increased at O(1000) and the difference in functionalities between Tier 1s and Tier 2s has reduced. After years of manual, intermediate solutions, we have now ramped up to full usage of World-cloud, the latest step in the PanDA Workload Management System to increase resource utilization on the ATLAS Grid, for all workflows (MC production, data (re)processing, etc.). We have based the development on two new site concepts. Nuclei sites are the Tier 1s and large Tier 2s, where tasks will be assigned and the output aggregated, and satellites are the sites that will execute the jobs and send the output to their nucleus. Nuclei and satellite sites are dynamically paired by PanDA for each task based on the input data availability, capability matching, site load and...

  12. ATLAS WORLD-cloud and networking in PanDA

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(SzGeCERN)643806; The ATLAS collaboration; De, Kaushik; Di Girolamo, Alessandro; Maeno, Tadashi; Walker, Rodney

    2017-01-01

    The ATLAS computing model was originally designed as static clouds (usually national or geographical groupings of sites) around the Tier 1 centres, which confined tasks and most of the data traffic. Since those early days, the sites' network bandwidth has increased at 0(1000) and the difference in functionalities between Tier 1s and Tier 2s has reduced. After years of manual, intermediate solutions, we have now ramped up to full usage of World-cloud, the latest step in the PanDA Workload Management System to increase resource utilization on the ATLAS Grid, for all workflows (MC production, data (re)processing, etc.). We have based the development on two new site concepts. Nuclei sites are the Tier 1s and large Tier 2s, where tasks will be assigned and the output aggregated, and satellites are the sites that will execute the jobs and send the output to their nucleus. PanDA dynamically pairs nuclei and satellite sites for each task based on the input data availability, capability matching, site load and network...

  13. Point Cloud Management Through the Realization of the Intelligent Cloud Viewer Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costantino, D.; Angelini, M. G.; Settembrini, F.

    2017-05-01

    The paper presents a software dedicated to the elaboration of point clouds, called Intelligent Cloud Viewer (ICV), made in-house by AESEI software (Spin-Off of Politecnico di Bari), allowing to view point cloud of several tens of millions of points, also on of "no" very high performance systems. The elaborations are carried out on the whole point cloud and managed by means of the display only part of it in order to speed up rendering. It is designed for 64-bit Windows and is fully written in C ++ and integrates different specialized modules for computer graphics (Open Inventor by SGI, Silicon Graphics Inc), maths (BLAS, EIGEN), computational geometry (CGAL, Computational Geometry Algorithms Library), registration and advanced algorithms for point clouds (PCL, Point Cloud Library), advanced data structures (BOOST, Basic Object Oriented Supporting Tools), etc. ICV incorporates a number of features such as, for example, cropping, transformation and georeferencing, matching, registration, decimation, sections, distances calculation between clouds, etc. It has been tested on photographic and TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) data, obtaining satisfactory results. The potentialities of the software have been tested by carrying out the photogrammetric survey of the Castel del Monte which was already available in previous laser scanner survey made from the ground by the same authors. For the aerophotogrammetric survey has been adopted a flight height of approximately 1000ft AGL (Above Ground Level) and, overall, have been acquired over 800 photos in just over 15 minutes, with a covering not less than 80%, the planned speed of about 90 knots.

  14. POINT CLOUD MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE REALIZATION OF THE INTELLIGENT CLOUD VIEWER SOFTWARE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Costantino

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents a software dedicated to the elaboration of point clouds, called Intelligent Cloud Viewer (ICV, made in-house by AESEI software (Spin-Off of Politecnico di Bari, allowing to view point cloud of several tens of millions of points, also on of “no” very high performance systems. The elaborations are carried out on the whole point cloud and managed by means of the display only part of it in order to speed up rendering. It is designed for 64-bit Windows and is fully written in C ++ and integrates different specialized modules for computer graphics (Open Inventor by SGI, Silicon Graphics Inc, maths (BLAS, EIGEN, computational geometry (CGAL, Computational Geometry Algorithms Library, registration and advanced algorithms for point clouds (PCL, Point Cloud Library, advanced data structures (BOOST, Basic Object Oriented Supporting Tools, etc. ICV incorporates a number of features such as, for example, cropping, transformation and georeferencing, matching, registration, decimation, sections, distances calculation between clouds, etc. It has been tested on photographic and TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner data, obtaining satisfactory results. The potentialities of the software have been tested by carrying out the photogrammetric survey of the Castel del Monte which was already available in previous laser scanner survey made from the ground by the same authors. For the aerophotogrammetric survey has been adopted a flight height of approximately 1000ft AGL (Above Ground Level and, overall, have been acquired over 800 photos in just over 15 minutes, with a covering not less than 80%, the planned speed of about 90 knots.

  15. Radiative effect differences between multi-layered and single-layer clouds derived from CERES, CALIPSO, and CloudSat data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Jiming; Yi Yuhong; Minnis, Patrick; Huang Jianping; Yan Hongru; Ma Yuejie; Wang Wencai; Kirk Ayers, J.

    2011-01-01

    Clouds alter general circulation through modification of the radiative heating profile within the atmosphere. Their effects are complex and depend on height, vertical structure, and phase. The instantaneous cloud radiative effect (CRE) induced by multi-layered (ML) and single-layer (SL) clouds is estimated by analyzing data collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), CloudSat, and Clouds and Earth's Radiation Energy Budget System (CERES) missions from March 2007 through February 2008. The CRE differences between ML and SL clouds at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and at the surface were also examined. The zonal mean shortwave (SW) CRE differences between the ML and SL clouds at the TOA and surface were positive at most latitudes, peaking at 120 W m -2 in the tropics and dropping to -30 W m -2 at higher latitudes. This indicated that the ML clouds usually reflected less sunlight at the TOA and transmitted more to the surface than the SL clouds, due to their higher cloud top heights. The zonal mean longwave (LW) CRE differences between ML and SL clouds at the TOA and surface were relatively small, ranging from -30 to 30 W m -2 . This showed that the ML clouds only increased the amount of thermal radiation at the TOA relative to the SL clouds in the tropics, decreasing it elsewhere. In other words, ML clouds tended to cool the atmosphere in the tropics and warm it elsewhere when compared to SL clouds. The zonal mean net CRE differences were positive at most latitudes and dominated by the SW CRE differences.

  16. CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristian IVANUS

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing has been a tremendous innovation, through which applications became available online, accessible through an Internet connection and using any computing device (computer, smartphone or tablet. According to one of the most recent studies conducted in 2012 by Everest Group and Cloud Connect, 57% of companies said they already use SaaS application (Software as a Service, and 38% reported using standard tools PaaS (Platform as a Service. However, in the most cases, the users of these solutions highlighted the fact that one of the main obstacles in the development of this technology is the fact that, in cloud, the application is not available without an Internet connection. The new challenge of the cloud system has become now the offline, specifically accessing SaaS applications without being connected to the Internet. This topic is directly related to user productivity within companies as productivity growth is one of the key promises of cloud computing system applications transformation. The aim of this paper is the presentation of some important aspects related to the offline cloud system and regulatory trends in the European Union (EU.

  17. INFRARED DARK CLOUDS IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Min-Young; Stanimirovic, Snezana; Devine, Kathryn E.; Ott, Juergen; Van Loon, Jacco Th.; Oliveira, Joana M.; Bolatto, Alberto D.; Jones, Paul A.; Cunningham, Maria R.

    2009-01-01

    We have applied the unsharp-masking technique to the 24 μm image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, to search for high-extinction regions. This technique has been used to locate very dense and cold interstellar clouds in the Galaxy, particularly infrared dark clouds (IRDCs). Fifty-five candidate regions of high extinction, namely, high-contrast regions (HCRs), have been identified from the generated decremental contrast image of the SMC. Most HCRs are located in the southern bar region and mainly distributed in the outskirts of CO clouds, but most likely contain a significant amount of H 2 . HCRs have a peak contrast at 24 μm of 2%-2.5% and a size of 8-14 pc. This corresponds to the size of typical and large Galactic IRDCs, but Galactic IRDCs are 2-3 times darker at 24 μm than our HCRs. To constrain the physical properties of the HCRs, we have performed NH 3 , N 2 H + , HNC, HCO + , and HCN observations toward one of the HCRs, HCR LIRS36-east, using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Mopra single-dish radio telescope. We did not detect any molecular line emission, however, our upper limits to the column densities of molecular species suggest that HCRs are most likely moderately dense with n ∼ 10 3 cm -3 . This volume density is in agreement with predictions for the cool atomic phase in low-metallicity environments. We suggest that HCRs may be tracing clouds at the transition from atomic to molecule-dominated medium, and could be a powerful way to study early stages of gas condensation in low-metallicity galaxies. Alternatively, if made up of dense molecular clumps <0.5 pc in size, HCRs could be counterparts of Galactic IRDCs, and/or regions with highly unusual abundance of very small dust grains.

  18. A Diagnostic PDF Cloud Scheme to Improve Subtropical Low Clouds in NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Yi; Lin, Yanluan; Xu, Shiming; Ma, Hsi-Yen; Xie, Shaocheng

    2018-02-01

    Low clouds strongly impact the radiation budget of the climate system, but their simulation in most GCMs has remained a challenge, especially over the subtropical stratocumulus region. Assuming a Gaussian distribution for the subgrid-scale total water and liquid water potential temperature, a new statistical cloud scheme is proposed and tested in NCAR Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5). The subgrid-scale variance is diagnosed from the turbulent and shallow convective processes in CAM5. The approach is able to maintain the consistency between cloud fraction and cloud condensate and thus alleviates the adjustment needed in the default relative humidity-based cloud fraction scheme. Short-term forecast simulations indicate that low cloud fraction and liquid water content, including their diurnal cycle, are improved due to a proper consideration of subgrid-scale variance over the southeastern Pacific Ocean region. Compared with the default cloud scheme, the new approach produced the mean climate reasonably well with improved shortwave cloud forcing (SWCF) due to more reasonable low cloud fraction and liquid water path over regions with predominant low clouds. Meanwhile, the SWCF bias over the tropical land regions is also alleviated. Furthermore, the simulated marine boundary layer clouds with the new approach extend further offshore and agree better with observations. The new approach is able to obtain the top of atmosphere (TOA) radiation balance with a slightly alleviated double ITCZ problem in preliminary coupled simulations. This study implies that a close coupling of cloud processes with other subgrid-scale physical processes is a promising approach to improve cloud simulations.

  19. Entangled Cloud Storage

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ateniese, Giuseppe; Dagdelen, Özgür; Damgård, Ivan Bjerre

    2012-01-01

    keeps the files in it private but still lets each client P_i recover his own data by interacting with S; no cooperation from other clients is needed. At the same time, the cloud provider is discouraged from altering or overwriting any significant part of c as this will imply that none of the clients can......Entangled cloud storage enables a set of clients {P_i} to “entangle” their files {f_i} into a single clew c to be stored by a (potentially malicious) cloud provider S. The entanglement makes it impossible to modify or delete significant part of the clew without affecting all files in c. A clew...... recover their files. We provide theoretical foundations for entangled cloud storage, introducing the notion of an entangled encoding scheme that guarantees strong security requirements capturing the properties above. We also give a concrete construction based on privacy-preserving polynomial interpolation...

  20. Satellite remote sensing and cloud modeling of St. Anthony, Minnesota storm clouds and dew point depression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hung, R. J.; Tsao, Y. D.

    1988-01-01

    Rawinsonde data and geosynchronous satellite imagery were used to investigate the life cycles of St. Anthony, Minnesota's severe convective storms. It is found that the fully developed storm clouds, with overshooting cloud tops penetrating above the tropopause, collapsed about three minutes before the touchdown of the tornadoes. Results indicate that the probability of producing an outbreak of tornadoes causing greater damage increases when there are higher values of potential energy storage per unit area for overshooting cloud tops penetrating the tropopause. It is also found that there is less chance for clouds with a lower moisture content to be outgrown as a storm cloud than clouds with a higher moisture content.

  1. Cloud Computing: An Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Ling; Luo, Zhiguo; Du, Yujian; Guo, Leitao

    In order to support the maximum number of user and elastic service with the minimum resource, the Internet service provider invented the cloud computing. within a few years, emerging cloud computing has became the hottest technology. From the publication of core papers by Google since 2003 to the commercialization of Amazon EC2 in 2006, and to the service offering of AT&T Synaptic Hosting, the cloud computing has been evolved from internal IT system to public service, from cost-saving tools to revenue generator, and from ISP to telecom. This paper introduces the concept, history, pros and cons of cloud computing as well as the value chain and standardization effort.

  2. Life in the clouds: are tropical montane cloud forests responding to changes in climate?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Jia; Riveros-Iregui, Diego A

    2016-04-01

    The humid tropics represent only one example of the many places worldwide where anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are quickly affecting the feedbacks between water and trees. In this article, we address the need for a more long-term perspective on the effects of climate change on tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) in order to fully assess the combined vulnerability and long-term response of tropical trees to changes in precipitation regimes, including cloud immersion. We first review the ecophysiological benefits that cloud water interception offers to trees in TMCF and then examine current climatological evidence that suggests changes in cloud base height and impending changes in cloud immersion for TMCF. Finally, we propose an experimental approach to examine the long-term dynamics of tropical trees in TMCF in response to environmental conditions on decade-to-century time scales. This information is important to assess the vulnerability and long-term response of TMCF to changes in cloud cover and fog frequency and duration.

  3. On the existence of tropical anvil clouds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seeley, J.; Jeevanjee, N.; Langhans, W.; Romps, D.

    2017-12-01

    In the deep tropics, extensive anvil clouds produce a peak in cloud cover below the tropopause. The dominant paradigm for cloud cover attributes this anvil peak to a layer of enhanced mass convergence in the clear-sky upper-troposphere, which is presumed to force frequent detrainment of convective anvils. However, cloud cover also depends on the lifetime of cloudy air after it detrains, which raises the possibility that anvil clouds may be the signature of slow cloud decay rather than enhanced detrainment. Here we measure the cloud decay timescale in cloud-resolving simulations, and find that cloudy updrafts that detrain in the upper troposphere take much longer to dissipate than their shallower counterparts. We show that cloud lifetimes are long in the upper troposphere because the saturation specific humidity becomes orders of magnitude smaller than the typical condensed water loading of cloudy updrafts. This causes evaporative cloud decay to act extremely slowly, thereby prolonging cloud lifetimes in the upper troposphere. As a consequence, extensive anvil clouds still occur in a convecting atmosphere that is forced to have no preferential clear-sky convergence layer. On the other hand, when cloud lifetimes are fixed at a characteristic lower-tropospheric value, extensive anvil clouds do not form. Our results support a revised understanding of tropical anvil clouds, which attributes their existence to the microphysics of slow cloud decay rather than a peak in clear-sky convergence.

  4. Clouds in the Martian Atmosphere

    Science.gov (United States)

    Määttänen, Anni; Montmessin, Franck

    2018-01-01

    Although resembling an extremely dry desert, planet Mars hosts clouds in its atmosphere. Every day somewhere on the planet a part of the tiny amount of water vapor held by the atmosphere can condense as ice crystals to form cirrus-type clouds. The existence of water ice clouds has been known for a long time, and they have been studied for decades, leading to the establishment of a well-known climatology and understanding of their formation and properties. Despite their thinness, they have a clear impact on the atmospheric temperatures, thus affecting the Martian climate. Another, more exotic type of clouds forms as well on Mars. The atmospheric temperatures can plunge to such frigid values that the major gaseous component of the atmosphere, CO2, condenses as ice crystals. These clouds form in the cold polar night where they also contribute to the formation of the CO2 ice polar cap, and also in the mesosphere at very high altitudes, near the edge of space, analogously to the noctilucent clouds on Earth. The mesospheric clouds are a fairly recent discovery and have put our understanding of the Martian atmosphere to a test. On Mars, cloud crystals form on ice nuclei, mostly provided by the omnipresent dust. Thus, the clouds link the three major climatic cycles: those of the two major volatiles, H2O and CO2; and that of dust, which is a major climatic agent itself.

  5. Molecular clouds without detectable CO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blitz, L.; Bazell, D.; Desert, F.X.

    1990-01-01

    The clouds identified by Desert, Bazell, and Boulanger (DBB clouds) in their search for high-latitude molecular clouds were observed in the CO (J = 1-0) line, but only 13 percent of the sample was detected. The remaining 87 percent are diffuse molecular clouds with CO abundances of about 10 to the -6th, a typical value for diffuse clouds. This hypothesis is shown to be consistent with Copernicus data. The DBB clouds are shown to be an essentially complete catalog of diffuse molecular clouds in the solar vicinity. The total molecular surface density in the vicinity of the sun is then only about 20 percent greater than the 1.3 solar masses/sq pc determined by Dame et al. (1987). Analysis of the CO detections indicates that there is a sharp threshold in extinction of 0.25 mag before CO is detectable and is derived from the IRAS I(100) micron threshold of 4 MJy/sr. This threshold is presumably where the CO abundance exhibits a sharp increase 18 refs

  6. Security for cloud storage systems

    CERN Document Server

    Yang, Kan

    2014-01-01

    Cloud storage is an important service of cloud computing, which offers service for data owners to host their data in the cloud. This new paradigm of data hosting and data access services introduces two major security concerns. The first is the protection of data integrity. Data owners may not fully trust the cloud server and worry that data stored in the cloud could be corrupted or even removed. The second is data access control. Data owners may worry that some dishonest servers provide data access to users that are not permitted for profit gain and thus they can no longer rely on the servers

  7. Green Cloud on the Horizon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Mufajjul

    This paper proposes a Green Cloud model for mobile Cloud computing. The proposed model leverage on the current trend of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service), and look at new paradigm called "Network as a Service" (NaaS). The Green Cloud model proposes various Telco's revenue generating streams and services with the CaaS (Cloud as a Service) for the near future.

  8. Cloud Computing Security: A Survey

    OpenAIRE

    Khalil, Issa; Khreishah, Abdallah; Azeem, Muhammad

    2014-01-01

    Cloud computing is an emerging technology paradigm that migrates current technological and computing concepts into utility-like solutions similar to electricity and water systems. Clouds bring out a wide range of benefits including configurable computing resources, economic savings, and service flexibility. However, security and privacy concerns are shown to be the primary obstacles to a wide adoption of clouds. The new concepts that clouds introduce, such as multi-tenancy, resource sharing a...

  9. Database security in the cloud

    OpenAIRE

    Sakhi, Imal

    2012-01-01

    The aim of the thesis is to get an overview of the database services available in cloud computing environment, investigate the security risks associated with it and propose the possible countermeasures to minimize the risks. The thesis also analyzes two cloud database service providers namely; Amazon RDS and Xeround. The reason behind choosing these two providers is because they are currently amongst the leading cloud database providers and both provide relational cloud databases which makes ...

  10. Reusability Framework for Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Singh, Sukhpal; Singh, Rishideep

    2012-01-01

    Cloud based development is a challenging task for several software engineering projects, especially for those which needs development with reusability. Present time of cloud computing is allowing new professional models for using the software development. The expected upcoming trend of computing is assumed to be this cloud computing because of speed of application deployment, shorter time to market, and lower cost of operation. Until Cloud Co mputing Reusability Model is considered a fundamen...

  11. Coupled fvGCM-GCE Modeling System, 3D Cloud-Resolving Model and Cloud Library

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Wei-Kuo

    2005-01-01

    Recent GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) model comparison projects have indicated that cloud- resolving models (CRMs) agree with observations better than traditional single-column models in simulating various types of clouds and cloud systems from different geographic locations. Current and future NASA satellite programs can provide cloud, precipitation, aerosol and other data at very fine spatial and temporal scales. It requires a coupled global circulation model (GCM) and cloud-scale model (termed a super-parameterization or multi-scale modeling framework, MMF) to use these satellite data to improve the understanding of the physical processes that are responsible for the variation in global and regional climate and hydrological systems. The use of a GCM will enable global coverage, and the use of a CRM will allow for better and more sophisticated physical parameterization. NASA satellite and field campaign cloud related datasets can provide initial conditions as well as validation for both the MMF and CRMs. A seed fund is available at NASA Goddard to build a MMF based on the 2D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model and the Goddard finite volume general circulation model (fvGCM). A prototype MMF in being developed and production runs will be conducted at the beginning of 2005. In this talk, I will present: (1) A brief review on GCE model and its applications on precipitation processes, ( 2 ) The Goddard MMF and the major difference between two existing MMFs (CSU MMF and Goddard MMF), (3) A cloud library generated by Goddard MMF, and 3D GCE model, and (4) A brief discussion on the GCE model on developing a global cloud simulator.

  12. High performance cloud auditing and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Choi, Baek-Young; Song, Sejun

    2014-01-01

    This book mainly focuses on cloud security and high performance computing for cloud auditing. The book discusses emerging challenges and techniques developed for high performance semantic cloud auditing, and presents the state of the art in cloud auditing, computing and security techniques with focus on technical aspects and feasibility of auditing issues in federated cloud computing environments.   In summer 2011, the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) CyberBAT Cloud Security and Auditing Team initiated the exploration of the cloud security challenges and future cloud auditing research directions that are covered in this book. This work was supported by the United States government funds from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Visiting Faculty Research Program (VFRP), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). All chapters were partially suppor...

  13. Electron cloud effects in hadron beams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petrov, Fedor; Boine-Frankenheim, Oliver; Weiland, Thomas [TU-Darmstadt, Institut fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder,Schlossgartenstr. 8 64289 Darmstadt (Germany)

    2013-07-01

    Accelerators operating with intense positively charged beams can suffer from the electron cloud phenomenon. For example, it is the intensity limiting factor in CERN LHC and SPS. In past decades a lot of progress in understanding the electron cloud effects was made worldwide. Methods to suppress or weaken the electron cloud phenomenon were proposed. Theories governing the bunch stability in presence of the electron cloud were developed. Recently the theory was introduced to describe the bunch energy loss due to the electron cloud. However, most of the publications concern the single bunch electron cloud effects. In reality bunches are packed into trains. A disturbance of the cloud caused by the bunch in the beginning of the train affects the subsequent bunches. We present a further investigation of single-bunch electron cloud effects and planned activities to study the phenomenon in case of multiple bunches.

  14. Automatic markerless registration of point clouds with semantic-keypoint-based 4-points congruent sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ge, Xuming

    2017-08-01

    The coarse registration of point clouds from urban building scenes has become a key topic in applications of terrestrial laser scanning technology. Sampling-based algorithms in the random sample consensus (RANSAC) model have emerged as mainstream solutions to address coarse registration problems. In this paper, we propose a novel combined solution to automatically align two markerless point clouds from building scenes. Firstly, the method segments non-ground points from ground points. Secondly, the proposed method detects feature points from each cross section and then obtains semantic keypoints by connecting feature points with specific rules. Finally, the detected semantic keypoints from two point clouds act as inputs to a modified 4PCS algorithm. Examples are presented and the results compared with those of K-4PCS to demonstrate the main contributions of the proposed method, which are the extension of the original 4PCS to handle heavy datasets and the use of semantic keypoints to improve K-4PCS in relation to registration accuracy and computational efficiency.

  15. Analyzing cloud base at local and regional scales to understand tropical montane cloud forest vulnerability to climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Beusekom, Ashley E.; González, Grizelle; Scholl, Martha A.

    2017-01-01

    The degree to which cloud immersion provides water in addition to rainfall, suppresses transpiration, and sustains tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) during rainless periods is not well understood. Climate and land use changes represent a threat to these forests if cloud base altitude rises as a result of regional warming or deforestation. To establish a baseline for quantifying future changes in cloud base, we installed a ceilometer at 100 m altitude in the forest upwind of the TMCF that occupies an altitude range from ∼ 600 m to the peaks at 1100 m in the Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico. Airport Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) ceilometer data, radiosonde data, and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite data were obtained to investigate seasonal cloud base dynamics, altitude of the trade-wind inversion (TWI), and typical cloud thickness for the surrounding Caribbean region. Cloud base is rarely quantified near mountains, so these results represent a first look at seasonal and diurnal cloud base dynamics for the TMCF. From May 2013 to August 2016, cloud base was lowest during the midsummer dry season, and cloud bases were lower than the mountaintops as often in the winter dry season as in the wet seasons. The lowest cloud bases most frequently occurred at higher elevation than 600 m, from 740 to 964 m. The Luquillo forest low cloud base altitudes were higher than six other sites in the Caribbean by ∼ 200–600 m, highlighting the importance of site selection to measure topographic influence on cloud height. Proximity to the oceanic cloud system where shallow cumulus clouds are seasonally invariant in altitude and cover, along with local trade-wind orographic lifting and cloud formation, may explain the dry season low clouds. The results indicate that climate change threats to low-elevation TMCFs are not limited to the dry season; changes in synoptic-scale weather patterns

  16. Top-down and Bottom-up aerosol-cloud-closure: towards understanding sources of unvertainty in deriving cloud radiative flux

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez, K.; Roberts, G.; Calmer, R.; Nicoll, K.; Hashimshoni, E.; Rosenfeld, D.; Ovadnevaite, J.; Preissler, J.; Ceburnis, D.; O'Dowd, C. D. D.; Russell, L. M.

    2017-12-01

    Top-down and bottom-up aerosol-cloud shortwave radiative flux closures were conducted at the Mace Head atmospheric research station in Galway, Ireland in August 2015. Instrument platforms include ground-based, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and satellite measurements of aerosols, clouds and meteorological variables. The ground-based and airborne measurements of aerosol size distributions and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration were used to initiate a 1D microphysical aerosol-cloud parcel model (ACPM). UAVs were equipped for a specific science mission, with an optical particle counter for aerosol distribution profiles, a cloud sensor to measure cloud extinction, or a 5-hole probe for 3D wind vectors. These are the first UAV measurements at Mace Head. ACPM simulations are compared to in-situ cloud extinction measurements from UAVs to quantify closure in terms of cloud shortwave radiative flux. Two out of seven cases exhibit sub-adiabatic vertical temperature profiles within the cloud, which suggests that entrainment processes affect cloud microphysical properties and lead to an overestimate of simulated cloud shortwave radiative flux. Including an entrainment parameterization and explicitly calculating the entrainment fraction in the ACPM simulations both improved cloud-top radiative closure. Entrainment reduced the difference between simulated and observation-derived cloud-top shortwave radiative flux (δRF) by between 25 W m-2 and 60 W m-2. After accounting for entrainment, satellite-derived cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) were within 30% of simulated CDNC. In cases with a well-mixed boundary layer, δRF is no greater than 20 W m-2 after accounting for cloud-top entrainment, and up to 50 W m-2 when entrainment is not taken into account. In cases with a decoupled boundary layer, cloud microphysical properties are inconsistent with ground-based aerosol measurements, as expected, and δRF is as high as 88 W m-2, even high (> 30 W m-2) after

  17. Origin of the chemical elements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tayler, R J

    1984-05-01

    The subject is discussed in relation to the composition of initially created matter and changes which have occurred during the life history of the universe, with particular reference to our galaxy and nearby galaxies. Headings are: observations of element abundances (stars, gas clouds in our own and nearby galaxies, hot gas in galaxy clusters, the solar system); the originally created matter (Big Bang theory and early nuclear reactions); processes changing observed composition (galactic evolution; nuclear fusion reactions in stellar interiors; chemical composition of a highly evolved massive star); supernovae (production of heavy elements); chemical evolution of the galaxy; production of very heavy elements (s process, r process).

  18. Using deep recurrent neural network for direct beam solar irradiance cloud screening

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Maosi; Davis, John M.; Liu, Chaoshun; Sun, Zhibin; Zempila, Melina Maria; Gao, Wei

    2017-09-01

    Cloud screening is an essential procedure for in-situ calibration and atmospheric properties retrieval on (UV-)MultiFilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer [(UV-)MFRSR]. Previous study has explored a cloud screening algorithm for direct-beam (UV-)MFRSR voltage measurements based on the stability assumption on a long time period (typically a half day or a whole day). To design such an algorithm requires in-depth understanding of radiative transfer and delicate data manipulation. Recent rapid developments on deep neural network and computation hardware have opened a window for modeling complicated End-to-End systems with a standardized strategy. In this study, a multi-layer dynamic bidirectional recurrent neural network is built for determining the cloudiness on each time point with a 17-year training dataset and tested with another 1-year dataset. The dataset is the daily 3-minute cosine corrected voltages, airmasses, and the corresponding cloud/clear-sky labels at two stations of the USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program. The results show that the optimized neural network model (3-layer, 250 hidden units, and 80 epochs of training) has an overall test accuracy of 97.87% (97.56% for the Oklahoma site and 98.16% for the Hawaii site). Generally, the neural network model grasps the key concept of the original model to use data in the entire day rather than short nearby measurements to perform cloud screening. A scrutiny of the logits layer suggests that the neural network model automatically learns a way to calculate a quantity similar to total optical depth and finds an appropriate threshold for cloud screening.

  19. A comparison of ground and satellite observations of cloud cover to saturation pressure differences during a cold air outbreak

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alliss, R.J.; Raman, S. [North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)

    1996-04-01

    The role of clouds in the atmospheric general circulation and the global climate is twofold. First, clouds owe their origin to large-scale dynamical forcing, radiative cooling in the atmosphere, and turbulent transfer at the surface. In addition, they provide one of the most important mechanisms for the vertical redistribution of momentum and sensible and latent heat for the large scale, and they influence the coupling between the atmosphere and the surface as well as the radiative and dynamical-hydrological balance. In existing diagnostic cloudiness parameterization schemes, relative humidity is the most frequently used variable for estimating total cloud amount or stratiform cloud amount. However, the prediction of relative humidity in general circulation models (GCMs) is usually poor. Even for the most comprehensive GCMs, the predicted relative humidity may deviate greatly from that observed, as far as the frequency distribution of relative humidity is concerned. Recently, there has been an increased effort to improve the representation of clouds and cloud-radiation feedback in GCMs, but the verification of cloudiness parameterization schemes remains a severe problem because of the lack of observational data sets. In this study, saturation pressure differences (as opposed to relative humidity) and satellite-derived cloud heights and amounts are compared with ground determinations of cloud cover over the Gulf Stream Locale (GSL) during a cold air outbreak.

  20. The role of ions in new particle formation in the CLOUD chamber

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Wagner

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The formation of secondary particles in the atmosphere accounts for more than half of global cloud condensation nuclei. Experiments at the CERN CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets chamber have underlined the importance of ions for new particle formation, but quantifying their effect in the atmosphere remains challenging. By using a novel instrument setup consisting of two nanoparticle counters, one of them equipped with an ion filter, we were able to further investigate the ion-related mechanisms of new particle formation. In autumn 2015, we carried out experiments at CLOUD on four systems of different chemical compositions involving monoterpenes, sulfuric acid, nitrogen oxides, and ammonia. We measured the influence of ions on the nucleation rates under precisely controlled and atmospherically relevant conditions. Our results indicate that ions enhance the nucleation process when the charge is necessary to stabilize newly formed clusters, i.e., in conditions in which neutral clusters are unstable. For charged clusters that were formed by ion-induced nucleation, we were able to measure, for the first time, their progressive neutralization due to recombination with oppositely charged ions. A large fraction of the clusters carried a charge at 1.5 nm diameter. However, depending on particle growth rates and ion concentrations, charged clusters were largely neutralized by ion–ion recombination before they grew to 2.5 nm. At this size, more than 90 % of particles were neutral. In other words, particles may originate from ion-induced nucleation, although they are neutral upon detection at diameters larger than 2.5 nm. Observations at Hyytiälä, Finland, showed lower ion concentrations and a lower contribution of ion-induced nucleation than measured at CLOUD under similar conditions. Although this can be partly explained by the observation that ion-induced fractions decrease towards lower ion concentrations, further investigations