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.

Homogenizing Surface and Satellite Observations of Cloud. Aspects of Bias in Surface Data.

Science.gov (United States)

1987-11-10

both ( pannus ), usually below fractus of bad weather, or both ( pannus ), usu- Altostratus or Nimbostratus ally below Altostratus or Nimbostratus 8 Cumulus...Stratocumulus, Stratus of an anvil; either accompanied or not by Cu- or pannus mulonimbus without anvil or fibrous upper part, by Cumulus, Stratocumulus...Stratus or pannus CL clouds invisible owing to darkness, fog, / Stratocumulus, Stratus, Cumulus and Cu- blowing dust or sand, or other similar mulonimbus

A Climatology of Midlatitude Continental Clouds from the ARM SGP Site. Part I; Low-Level Cloud Macrophysical, Microphysical, and Radiative Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Xiquan; Minnis, Patrick; Xi, Baike

2005-01-01

A record of single-layer and overcast low cloud (stratus) properties has been generated using approximately 4000 hours of data collected from January 1997 to December 2002 at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains Central Facility (SCF). The cloud properties include liquid-phase and liquid-dominant, mixed-phase, low cloud macrophysical, microphysical, and radiative properties including cloud-base and -top heights and temperatures, and cloud physical thickness derived from a ground-based radar and lidar pair, and rawinsonde sounding; cloud liquid water path (LWP) and content (LWC), and cloud-droplet effective radius (r(sub e)) and number concentration (N) derived from the macrophysical properties and radiometer data; and cloud optical depth (tau), effective solar transmission (gamma), and cloud/top-of-atmosphere albedos (R(sub cldy)/R(sub TOA)) derived from Eppley precision spectral pyranometer measurements. The cloud properties were analyzed in terms of their seasonal, monthly, and hourly variations. In general, more stratus clouds occur during winter and spring than in summer. Cloud-layer altitudes and physical thicknesses were higher and greater in summer than in winter with averaged physical thicknesses of 0.85 km and 0.73 km for day and night, respectively. The seasonal variations of LWP, LWC, N. tau, R(sub cldy), and R(sub TOA) basically follow the same pattern with maxima and minima during winter and summer, respectively. There is no significant variation in mean r(sub e), however, despite a summertime peak in aerosol loading, Although a considerable degree of variability exists, the 6-yr average values of LWP, LWC, r(sub e), N, tau, gamma, R(sub cldy) and R(sub TOA) are 150 gm(exp -2) (138), 0.245 gm(exp -3) (0.268), 8.7 micrometers (8.5), 213 cm(exp -3) (238), 26.8 (24.8), 0.331, 0.672, 0.563 for daytime (nighttime). A new conceptual model of midlatitude continental low clouds at the ARM SGP site has been developed from this study

Absorption of solar radiation in broken clouds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuev, V.E.; Titov, G.A.; Zhuravleva, T.B. [Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Tomsk (Russian Federation)

1996-04-01

It is recognized now that the plane-parallel model unsatisfactorily describes the transfer of radiation through broken clouds and that, consequently, the radiation codes of general circulation models (GCMs) must be refined. However, before any refinement in a GCM code is made, it is necessary to investigate the dependence of radiative characteristics on the effects caused by the random geometry of cloud fields. Such studies for mean fluxes of downwelling and upwelling solar radiation in the visible and near-infrared (IR) spectral range were performed by Zuev et al. In this work, we investigate the mean spectral and integrated absorption of solar radiation by broken clouds (in what follows, the term {open_quotes}mean{close_quotes} will be implied but not used, for convenience). To evaluate the potential effect of stochastic geometry, we will compare the absorption by cumulus (0.5 {le} {gamma} {le} 2) to that by equivalent stratus ({gamma} <<1) clouds; here {gamma} = H/D, H is the cloud layer thickness and D the characteristic horizontal cloud size. The equivalent stratus clouds differ from cumulus only in the aspect ratio {gamma}, all the other parameters coinciding.

The chemical composition of fogs and clouds in Southern California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Munger, J.W.

1989-01-01

The major inorganic species in cloud and fog water samples were NH{sub 4}{sup +}, H{sup +}, NO{sub 3}{sup {minus}}, and SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}}. Concentrations in fog water samples were 1 - 10 {times} 10{sup {minus}3} M; pH values ranged from {approx equal} 2 to 6. Nitrate usually exceeded sulfate. Acidity depended on the availability of NH{sub 3} from agricultural operations. Stratus cloudwater had somewhat lower concentrations; pH values were in the range 3-4. The major factors accounting for variation in fog- or cloudwater composition were the preexisting aerosol and gas concentrations and variations in liquid water content. Deposition and entrainment or advection of different air masses were also important during extended cloud or fog episodes. The droplet size dependence of cloudwater composition was investigated on one occasion in an intercepted coastal stratus clouds. Concentrations of S(IV) and CH{sub 2}O in the range 100-1000 {mu}M were observed in fogwater from urban sites in Southern California. Lower concentrations were observed in stratus clouds. The high levels of S(IV) and CH{sub 2}O were attributed to the formation of hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMSA), the S(IV) adduct of CH{sub 2}O. Direct measurements of HMSA in fogwater samples from Bakersfield, CA were made by ion-pairing chromatography. Glyoxal and methyglyoxal were observed at concentrations comparable to CH{sub 2}O in fogwater samples from Riverside, CA and in stratus cloudwater samples from sites along the Santa Barbara Channel.

Properties of CIRRUS Overlapping Clouds as Deduced from the GOES-12 Imagery Data

Science.gov (United States)

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

2006-01-01

Understanding the impact of cirrus clouds on modifying both the solar reflected and terrestrial emitted radiations is crucial for climate studies. Unlike most boundary layer stratus and stratocumulus clouds that have a net cooling effect on the climate, high-level thin cirrus clouds can have a warming effect on our climate. Many research efforts have been devoted to retrieving cirrus cloud properties due to their ubiquitous presence. However, using satellite observations to detect and/or retrieve cirrus cloud properties faces two major challenges. First, they are often semitransparent at visible to infrared wavelengths; and secondly, they often occur over a lower cloud system. The overlapping of high-level cirrus and low-level stratus cloud poses a difficulty in determining the individual cloud top altitudes and optical properties, especially when the signals from cirrus clouds are overwhelmed by the signals of stratus clouds. Moreover, the operational satellite retrieval algorithms, which often assume only single layer cloud in the development of cloud retrieval techniques, cannot resolve the cloud overlapping situation properly. The new geostationary satellites, starting with the Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12), are providing a new suite of imager bands that have replaced the conventional 12-micron channel with a 13.3-micron CO2 absorption channel. The replacement of the 13.3-micron channel allows for the application of a CO2-slicing retrieval technique (Chahine et al. 1974; Smith and Platt 1978), which is one of the important passive satellite methods for remote sensing the altitudes of mid to high-level clouds. Using the CO2- slicing technique is more effective in detecting semitransparent cirrus clouds than using the conventional infrared-window method.

Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20 degs S, 85 degs W) Mooring Recovery and Deployment Cruise, STRATUS 8, R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 07-09, October 9, 2007-November 6, 2007

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Whelan, Sean; Lord, Jeff; Grados, Carmen; Yu, Lisan; Morales, Luis; Galbraith, Nancy; de Szoeke, Simon P; O'Leary, Megan; Weller, Robert; Bouchard, Paul

2007-01-01

.... During the October 2007 cruise on the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were recovery of the Stratus 7 WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October 2006, deployment of a new (Stratus...

A radiation closure study of Arctic stratus cloud microphysical properties using the collocated satellite-surface data and Fu-Liou radiative transfer model

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Qiu, Shaoyue; Minnis, Patrick; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Rose, Fred

2016-09-01

Retrievals of cloud microphysical properties based on passive satellite imagery are especially difficult over snow-covered surfaces because of the bright and cold surface. To help quantify their uncertainties, single-layered overcast liquid-phase Arctic stratus cloud microphysical properties retrieved by using the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Edition 2 and Edition 4 (CERES Ed2 and Ed4) algorithms are compared with ground-based retrievals at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement North Slope of Alaska (ARM NSA) site at Barrow, AK, during the period from March 2000 to December 2006. A total of 206 and 140 snow-free cases (Rsfc ≤ 0.3), and 108 and 106 snow cases (Rsfc > 0.3), respectively, were selected from Terra and Aqua satellite passes over the ARM NSA site. The CERES Ed4 and Ed2 optical depth (τ) and liquid water path (LWP) retrievals from both Terra and Aqua are almost identical and have excellent agreement with ARM retrievals under snow-free and snow conditions. In order to reach a radiation closure study for both the surface and top of atmosphere (TOA) radiation budgets, the ARM precision spectral pyranometer-measured surface albedos were adjusted (63.6% and 80% of the ARM surface albedos for snow-free and snow cases, respectively) to account for the water and land components of the domain of 30 km × 30 km. Most of the radiative transfer model calculated SW↓sfc and SW↑TOA fluxes by using ARM and CERES cloud retrievals and the domain mean albedos as input agree with the ARM and CERES flux observations within 10 W m-2 for both snow-free and snow conditions. Sensitivity studies show that the ARM LWP and re retrievals are less dependent on solar zenith angle (SZA), but all retrieved optical depths increase with SZA.

Validation of Satellite Derived Cloud Properties Over the Southeastern Pacific

Science.gov (United States)

Ayers, J.; Minnis, P.; Zuidema, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Palikonda, R.; Nguyen, L.; Fairall, C.

2005-12-01

Satellite measurements of cloud properties and the radiation budget are essential for understanding meso- and large-scale processes that determine the variability in climate over the southeastern Pacific. Of particular interest in this region is the prevalent stratocumulus cloud deck. The stratocumulus albedos are directly related to cloud microphysical properties that need to be accurately characterized in Global Climate Models (GCMs) to properly estimate the Earth's radiation budget. Meteorological observations in this region are sparse causing large uncertainties in initialized model fields. Remote sensing from satellites can provide a wealth of information about the clouds in this region, but it is vital to validate the remotely sensed parameters and to understand their relationship to other parameters that are not directly observed by the satellites. The variety of measurements from the R/V Roger Revelle during the 2003 STRATUS cruise and from the R/V Ron Brown during EPIC 2001 and the 2004 STRATUS cruises are suitable for validating and improving the interpretation of the satellite derived cloud properties. In this study, satellite-derived cloud properties including coverage, height, optical depth, and liquid water path are compared with in situ measurements taken during the EPIC and STRATUS cruises. The remotely sensed values are derived from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager data, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the Terra and Aqua satellites, and from the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. The products from this study will include regional monthly cloud climatologies derived from the GOES data for the 2003 and 2004 cruises as well as micro and macro physical cloud property retrievals centered over the ship tracks from MODIS and VIRS.

Estimates for the Probabilities of Surface-to-Air Cloud-Free Lines-of-Sight and Low Cloud Statistics from Ship Observations. Part 1. Fifteen Marine Locations.

Science.gov (United States)

1980-11-24

time before and after) or cumulus fractus of bad weath’er, or both ( pannus ), usually below altostratus or nimbostratus. 8 = Cumulus and stratocumulus...vibrous upper part by cumulus, stratocumulus, stratus or pannus . + . from Surface Marine Observations Tape Deck TDF-11 *Fog All clouds in the 0-50...Fractus of bad weather, cr V both ( pannus ), usually below Alto- stratus or N~imbostratus. The term "bad weather* denotes the conditions which coenerally

Ubiquity and impact of thin mid-level clouds in the tropics

OpenAIRE

Bourgeois, Quentin; Ekman, Annica M. L.; Igel, Matthew R.; Krejci, Radovan

2016-01-01

Clouds are crucial for Earth's climate and radiation budget. Great attention has been paid to low, high and vertically thick tropospheric clouds such as stratus, cirrus and deep convective clouds. However, much less is known about tropospheric mid-level clouds as these clouds are challenging to observe in situ and difficult to detect by remote sensing techniques. Here we use Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) satellite observations to show that thin mid-level clouds (TM...

The Chemical Composition of Fogs and Clouds in Southern California.

Science.gov (United States)

Munger, James William

Fog and clouds are frequent occurrences in Southern California. Their chemical composition is of interest due to their potential role in the transformation of sulfur and nitrogen oxides to sulfuric and nitric acid and in the subsequent deposition of those acids. In addition, cloud and fog droplets may be involved in the chemistry of low-molecular-weight carboxylic acids and carbonyl compounds. The major inorganic species in cloud and fogwater samples were NH_4^+, H ^+, NO_3^-, and SO_4^{2-}. Concentrations in fogwater samples were 1-10 times 10^ {-3} M; pH values ranged from ~eq2 to 6. Nitrate usually exceeded sulfate. Acidity depended on the availability of of NH_3 from agricultural operations. Stratus cloudwater had somewhat lower concentrations; pH values were in the range 3-4. The major factors accounting for variation in fog- or cloudwater composition were the preexisting aerosol and gas concentrations and variations in liquid water content. Deposition and entrainment or advection of different air masses were also important during extended cloud or fog episodes. The droplet size dependence of cloudwater composition was investigated on one occasion in an intercepted coastal stratus clouds. The observations were consistent with the hypothesis that small droplets form on small secondary aerosol composed of H_2SO _4, HNO_3, and their NH_4^+ salts, while large droplets form on large sea-salt and soil-dust aerosol. Species that can exist in the gas phase, such as HCl and HNO _3, may be found in either droplet-size fraction. Concentrations of S(IV) and CH_2 O in the range 100-1000 μm were observed in fogwater from urban sites in Southern California. Lower concentrations were observed in stratus clouds. The high levels of S(IV) and CH_2 O were attributed to the formation of hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMSA), the S(IV) adduct of CH_2O. Direct measurement of HMSA in fogwater samples from Bakersfield, CA were made by ion-pairing chromatography. Glyoxal and methylglyoxal

Urbanization Causes Increased Cloud Base Height and Decreased Fog in Coastal Southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, A. Park; Schwartz, Rachel E.; Iacobellis, Sam; Seager, Richard; Cook, Benjamin I.; Still, Christopher J.; Husak, Gregory; Michaelsen, Joel

2015-01-01

Subtropical marine stratus clouds regulate coastal and global climate, but future trends in these clouds are uncertain. In coastal Southern California (CSCA), interannual variations in summer stratus cloud occurrence are spatially coherent across 24 airfields and dictated by positive relationships with stability above the marine boundary layer (MBL) and MBL height. Trends, however, have been spatially variable since records began in the mid-1900s due to differences in nighttime warming. Among CSCA airfields, differences in nighttime warming, but not daytime warming, are strongly and positively related to fraction of nearby urban cover, consistent with an urban heat island effect. Nighttime warming raises the near-surface dew point depression, which lifts the altitude of condensation and cloud base height, thereby reducing fog frequency. Continued urban warming, rising cloud base heights, and associated effects on energy and water balance would profoundly impact ecological and human systems in highly populated and ecologically diverse CSCA.

Cloud shading and fog drip influence the metabolism of a coastal pine ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Carbone, Mariah S; Park Williams, A; Ambrose, Anthony R; Boot, Claudia M; Bradley, Eliza S; Dawson, Todd E; Schaeffer, Sean M; Schimel, Joshua P; Still, Christopher J

2013-02-01

Assessing the ecological importance of clouds has substantial implications for our basic understanding of ecosystems and for predicting how they will respond to a changing climate. This study was conducted in a coastal Bishop pine forest ecosystem that experiences regular cycles of stratus cloud cover and inundation in summer. Our objective was to understand how these clouds impact ecosystem metabolism by contrasting two sites along a gradient of summer stratus cover. The site that was under cloud cover ~15% more of the summer daytime hours had lower air temperatures and evaporation rates, higher soil moisture content, and received more frequent fog drip inputs than the site with less cloud cover. These cloud-driven differences in environmental conditions translated into large differences in plant and microbial activity. Pine trees at the site with greater cloud cover exhibited less water stress in summer, larger basal area growth, and greater rates of sap velocity. The difference in basal area growth between the two sites was largely due to summer growth. Microbial metabolism was highly responsive to fog drip, illustrated by an observed ~3-fold increase in microbial biomass C with increasing summer fog drip. In addition, the site with more cloud cover had greater total soil respiration and a larger fractional contribution from heterotrophic sources. We conclude that clouds are important to the ecological functioning of these coastal forests, providing summer shading and cooling that relieve pine and microbial drought stress as well as regular moisture inputs that elevate plant and microbial metabolism. These findings are important for understanding how these and other seasonally dry coastal ecosystems will respond to predicted changes in stratus cover, rainfall, and temperature. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

SlipStream: automated provisioning and continuous deployment in the cloud

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

Cloud technology is now everywhere. Beyond the hype, it provides a real opportunity to improve the engineering of software systems. Lately the DevOps movement has also gain momentum, which take an agile approach at bringing developers and system administrators closer together to better engineer software systems. In this context, this presentation focuses on new tools for exploiting cloud services (private and public) in order to create a continuous flow between software commits and fully deployed and configured software systems, automatically and on-demand. To illustrate this, we present SlipStream and StratusLab. SlipStream is a new product developed by SixSq, able to create virtual machines and orchestrate multi-machine deployments.  SlipStream started from an idea developed in the context of the ETICS project, led by CERN. StratusLab is an open-source IaaS distribution, able to create public and private clouds. This presentation will also describe a case study where SlipStream dep...

Aerosol microphysical and radiative effects on continental cloud ensembles

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yuan; Vogel, Jonathan M.; Lin, Yun; Pan, Bowen; Hu, Jiaxi; Liu, Yangang; Dong, Xiquan; Jiang, Jonathan H.; Yung, Yuk L.; Zhang, Renyi

2018-02-01

Aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions represent one of the largest uncertainties in the current climate assessment. Much of the complexity arises from the non-monotonic responses of clouds, precipitation and radiative fluxes to aerosol perturbations under various meteorological conditions. In this study, an aerosol-aware WRF model is used to investigate the microphysical and radiative effects of aerosols in three weather systems during the March 2000 Cloud Intensive Observational Period campaign at the US Southern Great Plains. Three simulated cloud ensembles include a low-pressure deep convective cloud system, a collection of less-precipitating stratus and shallow cumulus, and a cold frontal passage. The WRF simulations are evaluated by several ground-based measurements. The microphysical properties of cloud hydrometeors, such as their mass and number concentrations, generally show monotonic trends as a function of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. Aerosol radiative effects do not influence the trends of cloud microphysics, except for the stratus and shallow cumulus cases where aerosol semi-direct effects are identified. The precipitation changes by aerosols vary with the cloud types and their evolving stages, with a prominent aerosol invigoration effect and associated enhanced precipitation from the convective sources. The simulated aerosol direct effect suppresses precipitation in all three cases but does not overturn the aerosol indirect effect. Cloud fraction exhibits much smaller sensitivity (typically less than 2%) to aerosol perturbations, and the responses vary with aerosol concentrations and cloud regimes. The surface shortwave radiation shows a monotonic decrease by increasing aerosols, while the magnitude of the decrease depends on the cloud type.

CGILS: Results from the First Phase of an International Project to Understand the Physical Mechanisms of Low Cloud Feedbacks in Single Column Models

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Minghua; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Blossey, Peter N.; Austin, Phillip H.; Bacmeister, Julio T.; Bony, Sandrine; Brient, Florent; Cheedela, Suvarchal K.; Cheng, Anning; DelGenio, Anthony;

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. McFarquhar

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The importance of Arctic mixed-phase clouds on radiation and the Arctic climate is well known. However, the development of mixed-phase cloud parameterization for use in large scale models is limited by lack of both related observations and numerical studies using multidimensional models with advanced microphysics that provide the basis for understanding the relative importance of different microphysical processes that take place in mixed-phase clouds. To improve the representation of mixed-phase cloud processes in the GISS GCM we use the GISS single-column model coupled to a bin resolved microphysics (BRM scheme that was specially designed to simulate mixed-phase clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions. Using this model with the microphysical measurements obtained from the DOE ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE campaign in October 2004 at the North Slope of Alaska, we investigate the effect of ice initiation processes and Bergeron-Findeisen process (BFP on glaciation time and longevity of single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds. We focus on observations taken during 9–10 October, which indicated the presence of a single-layer mixed-phase clouds. We performed several sets of 12-h simulations to examine model sensitivity to different ice initiation mechanisms and evaluate model output (hydrometeors' concentrations, contents, effective radii, precipitation fluxes, and radar reflectivity against measurements from the MPACE Intensive Observing Period. Overall, the model qualitatively simulates ice crystal concentration and hydrometeors content, but it fails to predict quantitatively the effective radii of ice particles and their vertical profiles. In particular, the ice effective radii are overestimated by at least 50%. However, using the same definition as used for observations, the effective radii simulated and that observed were more comparable. We find that for the single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds simulated, process

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

2009-07-01

The importance of Arctic mixed-phase clouds on radiation and the Arctic climate is well known. However, the development of mixed-phase cloud parameterization for use in large scale models is limited by lack of both related observations and numerical studies using multidimensional models with advanced microphysics that provide the basis for understanding the relative importance of different microphysical processes that take place in mixed-phase clouds. To improve the representation of mixed-phase cloud processes in the GISS GCM we use the GISS single-column model coupled to a bin resolved microphysics (BRM) scheme that was specially designed to simulate mixed-phase clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions. Using this model with the microphysical measurements obtained from the DOE ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) campaign in October 2004 at the North Slope of Alaska, we investigate the effect of ice initiation processes and Bergeron-Findeisen process (BFP) on glaciation time and longevity of single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds. We focus on observations taken during 9-10 October, which indicated the presence of a single-layer mixed-phase clouds. We performed several sets of 12-h simulations to examine model sensitivity to different ice initiation mechanisms and evaluate model output (hydrometeors' concentrations, contents, effective radii, precipitation fluxes, and radar reflectivity) against measurements from the MPACE Intensive Observing Period. Overall, the model qualitatively simulates ice crystal concentration and hydrometeors content, but it fails to predict quantitatively the effective radii of ice particles and their vertical profiles. In particular, the ice effective radii are overestimated by at least 50%. However, using the same definition as used for observations, the effective radii simulated and that observed were more comparable. We find that for the single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds simulated, process of ice phase initiation

Comparison of Cloud and Aerosol Detection between CERES Edition 3 Cloud Mask and CALIPSO Version 2 Data Products

Science.gov (United States)

Trepte, Qing; Minnis, Patrick; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Trepte, Charles

Clouds and aerosol play important roles in the global climate system. Accurately detecting their presence, altitude, and properties using satellite radiance measurements is a crucial first step in determining their influence on surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes. This paper presents a comparison analysis of a new version of the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Edition 3 cloud detection algorithms using Aqua MODIS data with the recently released Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Version 2 Vertical Feature Mask (VFM). Improvements in CERES Edition 3 cloud mask include dust detection, thin cirrus tests, enhanced low cloud detection at night, and a smoother transition from mid-latitude to polar regions. For the CALIPSO Version 2 data set, changes to the lidar calibration can result in significant improvements to its identification of optically thick aerosol layers. The Aqua and CALIPSO satellites, part of the A-train satellite constellation, provide a unique opportunity for validating passive sensor cloud and aerosol detection using an active sensor. In this paper, individual comparison cases will be discussed for different types of clouds and aerosols over various surfaces, for daytime and nighttime conditions, and for regions ranging from the tropics to the poles. Examples will include an assessment of the CERES detection algorithm for optically thin cirrus, marine stratus, and polar night clouds as well as its ability to characterize Saharan dust plumes off the African coast. With the CALIPSO lidar's unique ability to probe the vertical structure of clouds and aerosol layers, it provides an excellent validation data set for cloud detection algorithms, especially for polar nighttime clouds.

Equilibrium configuration of a stratus floating above accretion disks: Full-disk calculation

Science.gov (United States)

Itanishi, Yusuke; Fukue, Jun

2017-06-01

We examine floating strati above a luminous accretion disk, supported by the radiative force from the entire disk, and calculate the equilibrium locus, which depends on the disk luminosity and the optical depth of the stratus. Due to the radiative transfer effect (albedo effect), the floating height of the stratus with a finite optical depth generally becomes high, compared with the particle case. In contrast to the case of the near-disk approximation, moreover, the floating height becomes yet higher in the present full-disk calculation, since the intense radiation from the inner disk is taken into account. As a result, when the disk luminosity normalized by the Eddington luminosity is ˜0.3 and the stratus optical depth is around unity, the stable configuration disappears at around r ˜ 50 rg, rg being the Schwarzschild radius, and the stratus would be blown off as a cloudy wind consisting of many strati with appropriate conditions. This luminosity is sufficiently smaller than the Eddington one, and the present results suggest that the radiation-driven cloudy wind can be easily blown off from the sub-Eddington disk, and this can explain various outflows observed in ultra-fast outflow objects as well as in broad-absorption-line quasars.

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.

Relative spectral absorption of solar radiation by water vapor and cloud droplets

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, R.; Ridgway, W. L.

1983-01-01

A moderate (20/cm) spectral resolution model which accounts for both the highly variable spectral transmission of solar radiation through water vapor within and above cloud, as well as the more slowly varying features of absorption and anisotropic multiple scattering by the cloud droplets, is presented. Results from this model as applied to the case of a typical 1 km thick stratus cloud in a standard atmosphere, with cloud top altitude of 2 km and overhead sun, are discussed, showing the relative importance of water vapor above the cloud, water vapor within the cloud, and cloud droplets on the spectral absorption of solar radiation.

Comparison and interchangeability of macular thickness measured with Cirrus OCT and Stratus OCT in myopic eyes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geng Wang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available AIM: To investigate the difference of macular thickness measurements between stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT and Cirrus OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA, USA in the same myopic patient and to develop a conversion equation to interchange macular thickness obtained with these two OCT devices. METHODS: Eighty-nine healthy Chinese adults with spherical equivalent (SE ranging from -1.13 D to -9.63 D were recruited. The macular thickness was measured by Cirrus OCT and Stratus OCT. The correlation between macular thickness and axial length and the agreement between two OCT measurements were evaluated. A formula was generated to interchange macular thickness obtained with two OCT devices. RESULTS: Average macular thickness measured with Stratus OCT (r=-0.280, P=0.008 and Cirrus OCT (r=-0.224, P=0.034 were found to be negatively correlated with axial length. No statistically significant correlation was found between axial length and central subfield macular thickness (CMT measured with Stratus OCT (r=0.191, P=0.073 and Cirrus OCT (r=0.169, P=0.113. The mean CMT measured with Cirrus OCT was 53.63±7.94 μm thicker than with Stratus OCT. The formula CMTCirrus OCT=78.328+0.874×CMTStratus OCT was generated to interchange macular thickness obtained with two OCT devices. CONCLUSION: Macular thickness measured with Cirrus OCT were thicker than with Stratus OCT in myopic eyes. A formula can be used to interchange macular thickness measured with two OCT devices in myopic eyes. Studies with different OCT devices and larger samples are warranted to enable the comparison of macular values measured with different OCT devices.

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.

Modeling of clouds and radiation for development of parameterizations for general circulation models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Westphal, D.; Toon, B.; Jensen, E.; Kinne, S.; Ackerman, A.; Bergstrom, R.; Walker, A.

1994-01-01

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program research at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) includes radiative transfer modeling, cirrus cloud microphysics, and stratus cloud modeling. These efforts are designed to provide the basis for improving cloud and radiation parameterizations in our main effort: mesoscale cloud modeling. The range of non-convective cloud models used by the ARM modeling community can be crudely categorized based on the number of predicted hydrometers such as cloud water, ice water, rain, snow, graupel, etc. The simplest model has no predicted hydrometers and diagnoses the presence of clouds based on the predicted relative humidity. The vast majority of cloud models have two or more predictive bulk hydrometers and are termed either bulk water (BW) or size-resolving (SR) schemes. This study compares the various cloud models within the same dynamical framework, and compares results with observations rather than climate statistics

Ubiquity and impact of thin mid-level clouds in the tropics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgeois, Quentin; Ekman, Annica M L; Igel, Matthew R; Krejci, Radovan

2016-08-17

Clouds are crucial for Earth's climate and radiation budget. Great attention has been paid to low, high and vertically thick tropospheric clouds such as stratus, cirrus and deep convective clouds. However, much less is known about tropospheric mid-level clouds as these clouds are challenging to observe in situ and difficult to detect by remote sensing techniques. Here we use Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) satellite observations to show that thin mid-level clouds (TMLCs) are ubiquitous in the tropics. Supported by high-resolution regional model simulations, we find that TMLCs are formed by detrainment from convective clouds near the zero-degree isotherm. Calculations using a radiative transfer model indicate that tropical TMLCs have a cooling effect on climate that could be as large in magnitude as the warming effect of cirrus. We conclude that more effort has to be made to understand TMLCs, as their influence on cloud feedbacks, heat and moisture transport, and climate sensitivity could be substantial.

Atmospheric radon daughters concentration inside and outside of cloud

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishikawa, Tsuguo; Okabe, Shigeru; Aoki, Masayoshi; Imamura, Takakazu; Iwata, Yoshitomo; Tamura, Yukihide; Tsuboguchi, Masayasu

1987-01-01

The measurements of the atmospheric radon daughters concentration in and out of the cloud were carried out on the top of the mountain, and in the upper air of the sea by using the airplane. The difference of the concentrations between inside and outside of the stratus measured on the top of the mountain was not clear. The atmospheric radon daughters concentration at the top of the mountain decreased when the amount of precipitation at that point was large. Concerning the cumulus investigated by using the airplane, the concentration in the cloud was a little higher than the concentration out of the cloud. Results of the measurements show that the cloud seems to be constructed of the various air masses whose radon daughters concentrations are different from each other even though it appears to be uniform. (author)

Exploiting Virtualization and Cloud Computing in ATLAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harald Barreiro Megino, Fernando; Van der Ster, Daniel; Benjamin, Doug; De, Kaushik; Gable, Ian; Paterson, Michael; Taylor, Ryan; Hendrix, Val; Vitillo, Roberto A; Panitkin, Sergey; De Silva, Asoka; Walker, Rod

2012-01-01

The ATLAS Computing Model was designed around the concept of grid computing; since the start of data-taking, this model has proven very successful in the federated operation of more than one hundred Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) sites for offline data distribution, storage, processing and analysis. However, new paradigms in computing, namely virtualization and cloud computing, present improved strategies for managing and provisioning IT resources that could allow ATLAS to more flexibly adapt and scale its storage and processing workloads on varied underlying resources. In particular, ATLAS is developing a “grid-of-clouds” infrastructure in order to utilize WLCG sites that make resources available via a cloud API. This work will present the current status of the Virtualization and Cloud Computing R and D project in ATLAS Distributed Computing. First, strategies for deploying PanDA queues on cloud sites will be discussed, including the introduction of a “cloud factory” for managing cloud VM instances. Next, performance results when running on virtualized/cloud resources at CERN LxCloud, StratusLab, and elsewhere will be presented. Finally, we will present the ATLAS strategies for exploiting cloud-based storage, including remote XROOTD access to input data, management of EC2-based files, and the deployment of cloud-resident LCG storage elements.

A climatological study of sea breeze clouds in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Alicante, Spain)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Azorin-Molina, C. [Grupo de Climatologia, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Cataluna (Spain)]. E-mail: cazorin@ceam.es; Sanchez-Lorenzo, A. [Grupo de Climatologia, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Cataluna (Spain); Calbo, J. [Grupo de Fisica Ambiental, Universidad de Girona, Campus Montilivi, Cataluna (Spain)

2009-01-15

Sea breezes blow under anticyclonic weather types, weak surface pressure gradients, intense solar radiation and relatively cloud-free skies. Generally, total cloud cover must be less than 4/8 in order to cause a thermal and pressure difference between land and sea air which allows the development of this local wind circulation. However, many numerical and observational studies have analyzed the ability of sea breezes to generate clouds in the convective internal boundary layer and in the sea breeze convergence zone. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to statistically analyze the impact of sea breezes on cloud types in the convective internal boundary layer and in the sea breeze convergence zone. The study area is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (province of Alicante, Spain) and the survey corresponds to a 6-yr study period (2000-2005). This climatological study is mainly based on surface cloud observations at the Alicante-Ciudad Jardin station (central coastal plain) and on an extensive cloud observation field campaign at the Villena-Ciudad station (Prebetic mountain ranges) over a 3-yr study period (2003-2005). The results confirm the hypothesis that the effect of sea breezes on cloud genera is to increase the frequency of low (Stratus) and convective (Cumulus) clouds. Sea breezes trigger the formation of thunderstorm clouds (Cumulonimbus) at the sea breeze convergence zone, which also have a secondary impact on high-level (Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus), medium-level (Altostratus, Altocumulus) and low-level clouds (Stratus, Stratocumulus, Nimbostratus) associated with the Cumulonimbus clouds (e.g., Cumulonimbus anvil). [Spanish] Las brisas marinas soplan bajo tipos de tiempo anticiclonicos, debiles gradientes de presion atmosferica, radiacion solar intensa y cielos practicamente despejados. Por lo general, la cobertura nubosa total debe ser inferior a 4/8 para que se genere un diferencial termico y de presion entre el aire sobre las

Practical cloud evaluation from a Nordic eScience user perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edlund, Åke; Koopmans, Maarten; Shah, Zeeshan Ali

2011-01-01

In this paper, we describe the findings of the NEON project - a cross-Nordic - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - project evaluating the usefulness of private versus public cloud services for HPC users. Our findings are briefly that private cloud technology is not mature enough yet...... to provide a transparent user experience. It is expected that this will be the case mid 2012. The cost efficiency of both public and private cloud should be continuously monitored as there is a strong downward trend. This conclusion is supported by NEON experimenting as well as larger initiatives e.......g. StratusLab reports. Public cloud technology is mature enough but lacks certain features that will be necessary to include cloud resources in a transparent manner in a national infrastructure like the Norwegian NOTUR (www.notur.no) case, e.g. with respect to quota management. These features are expected...

Radiative budget and cloud radiative effect over the Atlantic from ship-based observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Kalisch

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to determine cloud-type resolved cloud radiative budgets and cloud radiative effects from surface measurements of broadband radiative fluxes over the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, based on simultaneous observations of the state of the cloudy atmosphere, a radiative closure study has been performed by means of the ECHAM5 single column model in order to identify the model's ability to realistically reproduce the effects of clouds on the climate system.

An extensive database of radiative and atmospheric measurements has been established along five meridional cruises of the German research icebreaker Polarstern. Besides pyranometer and pyrgeometer for downward broadband solar and thermal radiative fluxes, a sky imager and a microwave radiometer have been utilized to determine cloud fraction and cloud type on the one hand and temperature and humidity profiles as well as liquid water path for warm non-precipitating clouds on the other hand.

Averaged over all cruise tracks, we obtain a total net (solar + thermal radiative flux of 144 W m⁻² that is dominated by the solar component. In general, the solar contribution is large for cirrus clouds and small for stratus clouds. No significant meridional dependencies were found for the surface radiation budgets and cloud effects. The strongest surface longwave cloud effects were shown in the presence of low level clouds. Clouds with a high optical density induce strong negative solar radiative effects under high solar altitudes. The mean surface net cloud radiative effect is −33 W m⁻².

For the purpose of quickly estimating the mean surface longwave, shortwave and net cloud effects in moderate, subtropical and tropical climate regimes, a new parameterisation was created, considering the total cloud amount and the solar zenith angle.

The ECHAM5 single column model provides a surface net cloud effect that is more

Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20 deg S, 85 deg W) Mooring Recovery and Deployment Cruise, R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 06-07, October 9-October 27, 2006

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Bigorre, Sebastien; Weller, Robert; Lord, Jeff; Whelan, Sean; Galbraith, Nancy; Wolfe, Dan; Bariteau, Ludovic; Ghate, Virendra; Zajaczkovski, Uriel; Vera, Alvaro

2007-01-01

.... During the October 2006 cruise of NOAA's R/V Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities where recovery of the Stratus 6 WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October...

The Continuation of Cloud Statistics for NASA Climate Change Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Wylie, Donald P.

2001-01-01

expected, from 69-86% of the time. Satellite data also indicate frequent stratus, altostratus, and cirrus clouds (occurring 61% of the time) above the expected boundary layer fog and Arctic stratus clouds.

Detection of polar stratospheric clouds with ERS2/GOME data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meerkoetter, R.; Schumann, U.

1994-01-01

Based on radiative transfer calculations it is studied whether Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs) can be detected by the new Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) onboard the second European Research Satellite (ERS-2) planned to be launched in winter 1994/95. It is proposed to identify PSC covered areas by use of an indicator, the Normalized Radiance Difference (NRD), which relates the difference of two spectral radiances at 0.5 μm and 0.7 μm to one radiance measured in the center of the oxygen A-band at 0.76 μm. The presence of PSCs and under conditions of large solar zenith angles Θ>80 the NRD values are clearly below those derived under conditions of a cloud free stratosphere. In this case the method is successful for PSCs with optical depths greater than 0.03 at 0.55 μm. It is not affected by existing tropospheric clouds and by different tropospheric aerosol loadings or surface albedoes. For solar zenith angles Θ<80 PSCs located above a cloud free troposphere are detectable. PSC detection becomes difficult for Θ<80 when highly reflecting tropospheric clouds like dense cirrus or stratus clouds affect spectral radiances measured at the top of the atmosphere. (orig.)

Simulation of cloud/radiation interaction using a second-order turbulence radiative-convective model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, C.Y.; Smith, W.S.

1994-01-01

Extended sheets of low-level stratus and stratocumulus clouds are a persistent feature over the eastern parts of the major ocean basins associated with the quasi-permanent subtropical high-pressure systems. These clouds exert a strong influence on climate through their high albedo, compared with the underlying surface, and their low altitude. The former leads to a reduction of the net shortwave flux entering the atmosphere, and the latter leads to an infrared loss in a way essentially the same as the cloud-free conditions. This paper is a modeling study with the current understanding of the important physical processes associated with a cloud-capped boundary layer. The numerical model is a high-resolution one-dimensional version of the second-order turbulence convective/radiative model developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Future work includes sensitivity tests to ascertain the model validity as well as to systematically include all the possible ambient atmospheric and surface conditions. Detailed budget analyses are also useful in categorizing the cloud-capped boundary layers into a few classes

Impact of Arctic sea-ice retreat on the recent change in cloud-base height during autumn

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, K.; Inoue, J.; Kodama, Y.; Overland, J. E.

2012-12-01

Cloud-base observations over the ice-free Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in autumn were conducted using a shipboard ceilometer and radiosondes during the 1999-2010 cruises of the Japanese R/V Mirai. To understand the recent change in cloud base height over the Arctic Ocean, these cloud-base height data were compared with the observation data under ice-covered situation during SHEBA (the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project in 1998). Our ice-free results showed a 30 % decrease (increase) in the frequency of low clouds with a ceiling below (above) 500 m. Temperature profiles revealed that the boundary layer was well developed over the ice-free ocean in the 2000s, whereas a stable layer dominated during the ice-covered period in 1998. The change in surface boundary conditions likely resulted in the difference in cloud-base height, although it had little impact on air temperatures in the mid- and upper troposphere. Data from the 2010 R/V Mirai cruise were investigated in detail in terms of air-sea temperature difference. This suggests that stratus cloud over the sea ice has been replaced as stratocumulus clouds with low cloud fraction due to the decrease in static stability induced by the sea-ice retreat. The relationship between cloud-base height and air-sea temperature difference (SST-Ts) was analyzed in detail using special section data during 2010 cruise data. Stratus clouds near the sea surface were predominant under a warm advection situation, whereas stratocumulus clouds with a cloud-free layer were significant under a cold advection situation. The threshold temperature difference between sea surface and air temperatures for distinguishing the dominant cloud types was 3 K. Anomalous upward turbulent heat fluxes associated with the sea-ice retreat have likely contributed to warming of the lower troposphere. Frequency distribution of the cloud-base height (km) detected by a ceilometer/lidar (black bars) and radiosondes (gray bars), and profiles of potential

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.

Global cloud database from VIRS and MODIS for CERES

Science.gov (United States)

Minnis, Patrick; Young, David F.; Wielicki, Bruce A.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Trepte, Qing Z.; Chen, Yan; Heck, Patrick W.; Dong, Xiquan

2003-04-01

The NASA CERES Project has developed a combined radiation and cloud property dataset using the CERES scanners and matched spectral data from high-resolution imagers, the Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua. The diurnal cycle can be well-characterized over most of the globe using the combinations of TRMM, Aqua, and Terra data. The cloud properties are derived from the imagers using state-of-the-art methods and include cloud fraction, height, optical depth, phase, effective particle size, emissivity, and ice or liquid water path. These cloud products are convolved into the matching CERES fields of view to provide simultaneous cloud and radiation data at an unprecedented accuracy. Results are available for at least 3 years of VIRS data and 1 year of Terra MODIS data. The various cloud products are compared with similar quantities from climatological sources and instantaneous active remote sensors. The cloud amounts are very similar to those from surface observer climatologies and are 6-7% less than those from a satellite-based climatology. Optical depths are 2-3 times smaller than those from the satellite climatology, but are within 5% of those from the surface remote sensing. Cloud droplet sizes and liquid water paths are within 10% of the surface results on average for stratus clouds. The VIRS and MODIS retrievals are very consistent with differences that usually can be explained by sampling, calibration, or resolution differences. The results should be extremely valuable for model validation and improvement and for improving our understanding of the relationship between clouds and the radiation budget.

Wet season water distribution in a tropical Andean cloud forest of Boyacá (Colombia) during the dry climate of El Niño

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Santos, G.; Berdugo, M. B.

2010-07-01

Fog has been demonstrated as the only source of moisture during the dry climate of El Niño in the tropical Andean cloud forest of Boyacá region in Colombia, yet its importance for the forest is virtually unknown. We assessed fog water distribution during the wet season inside the forest and outside in a practically deforested area. Water intercepted by plant was measured at different vertical stratus. Soil moisture in the first centimetres was also measured. During the anomalous drier wet season there was lack of rainfall and the total recorded cloud water was lower compared with the same period during the previous year. Our results indicated that the upper part of the forest mass intercepts most of the fog water compared with lower stratus when the fog event starts. However upper most stratus became rapidly drier after the event, which is explained because water is released to the atmosphere due to high heat atmosphere-leaves interface fluctuations caused by wind and solar radiation, flows towards a different water potential and drips from the leaves. Low amount of fog dripped from tree foliage into the soil, indicating a large water storage capacity of the epiphyte and bryophyte vegetation. Despite the small amount of throughfall, understory vegetation and litter remained wet, which might be explained by the water flowing through the epiphyte vegetation or the high capacity of the understory to absorb moisture from the air. Soil water did not infiltrate in depth, which underlines the importance of fog as water and cool source for seedling growth and shallow rooted understory species, especially during drier conditions.

Relationship between macular thickness measurement and signal strength using Stratus optical coherence tomography

OpenAIRE

Segal, Ori; Shapira, Yinon; Gershoni, Assaf; Vainer, Igor; Nemet, Arie Y; Geffen, Noa; Mimouni, Michael

2016-01-01

Ori Segal,1 Yinon Shapira,2 Assaf Gershoni,1 Igor Vainer,2 Arie Y Nemet,1 Noa Geffen,1 Michael Mimouni2 1Department of Ophthalmology, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel and the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 2Department of Ophthalmology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel Purpose: To examine the relationship between signal strength and macular thickness as measured by Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT)’s fast macular thickness protocol...

Determining Best Estimates and Uncertainties in Cloud Microphysical Parameters from ARM Field Data: Implications for Models, Retrieval Schemes and Aerosol-Cloud-Radiation Interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McFarquhar, Greg [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)

2015-12-28

We proposed to analyze in-situ cloud data collected during ARM/ASR field campaigns to create databases of cloud microphysical properties and their uncertainties as needed for the development of improved cloud parameterizations for models and remote sensing retrievals, and for evaluation of model simulations and retrievals. In particular, we proposed to analyze data collected over the Southern Great Plains (SGP) during the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), the Storm Peak Laboratory Cloud Property Validation Experiment (STORMVEX), the Small Particles in Cirrus (SPARTICUS) Experiment and the Routine AAF Clouds with Low Optical Water Depths (CLOWD) Optical Radiative Observations (RACORO) field campaign, over the North Slope of Alaska during the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), and over the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) during The Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE), to meet the following 3 objectives; derive statistical databases of single ice particle properties (aspect ratio AR, dominant habit, mass, projected area) and distributions of ice crystals (size distributions SDs, mass-dimension m-D, area-dimension A-D relations, mass-weighted fall speeds, single-scattering properties, total concentrations N, ice mass contents IWC), complete with uncertainty estimates; assess processes by which aerosols modulate cloud properties in arctic stratus and mid-latitude cumuli, and quantify aerosol’s influence in context of varying meteorological and surface conditions; and determine how ice cloud microphysical, single-scattering and fall-out properties and contributions of small ice crystals to such properties vary according to location, environment, surface, meteorological and aerosol conditions, and develop parameterizations of such effects.In this report we describe the accomplishments that we made on all 3 research objectives.

Cloud-Scale Numerical Modeling of the Arctic Boundary Layer

Science.gov (United States)

Krueger, Steven K.

1998-01-01

The interactions between sea ice, open ocean, atmospheric radiation, and clouds over the Arctic Ocean exert a strong influence on global climate. Uncertainties in the formulation of interactive air-sea-ice processes in global climate models (GCMs) result in large differences between the Arctic, and global, climates simulated by different models. Arctic stratus clouds are not well-simulated by GCMs, yet exert a strong influence on the surface energy budget of the Arctic. Leads (channels of open water in sea ice) have significant impacts on the large-scale budgets during the Arctic winter, when they contribute about 50 percent of the surface fluxes over the Arctic Ocean, but cover only 1 to 2 percent of its area. Convective plumes generated by wide leads may penetrate the surface inversion and produce condensate that spreads up to 250 km downwind of the lead, and may significantly affect the longwave radiative fluxes at the surface and thereby the sea ice thickness. The effects of leads and boundary layer clouds must be accurately represented in climate models to allow possible feedbacks between them and the sea ice thickness. The FIRE III Arctic boundary layer clouds field program, in conjunction with the SHEBA ice camp and the ARM North Slope of Alaska and Adjacent Arctic Ocean site, will offer an unprecedented opportunity to greatly improve our ability to parameterize the important effects of leads and boundary layer clouds in GCMs.

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

Fractional activation of accumulation-mode particles in warm continental stratiform clouds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gillani, N.V.; Daum, P.H.; Schwartz, S.E.; Leaitch, W.R.; Strapp, J.W.; Isaac, G.A.

1991-07-01

The degree of activation of accumulation-mode particles (AMP) in clouds has been studied using continuous (1 second average) aircraft measurements of the number concentrations of cloud droplets (N cd , 2 to 35 μm diameter) and of unactivated AMP (N amp , 0.17 to 2.07 μm diameter) in cloud interstitial air. The magnitude and spatial variation of the activated fraction (F) of all measured particles (defined as F triple-bond N cd /N tot , where N tot = N cd + N amp ) are investigated, based on measurements made during ten aircraft flights in non-precipitating warm continental stratiform clouds near Syracuse NY in the fall of 1984. Based on instantaneous observations throughout the clouds, the spatial distribution of F was found to be quite nonuniform. In general, F was low in cloud edges and where total particle loading was high and/or cloud convective activity was low. In the interior of clouds, the value of F exceeded 0.9 for 36% of the data, but was below 0.6 for 28%. Factors influencing F the most were the total particle loading (N tot ) and the thermal stability of the cloud layer. The dependence of F on N tot in cloud interior was characterized by two distinct regimes. For N tot -3 , F was generally close to unity and relatively insensitive to N tot . For N tot > 800 cm -3 , F tended to decrease with increasing N tot . This decrease was greatest in a stable stratus deck embedded in a warm moist airmass. The results suggest that, in warm continental stratiform clouds, the process of particle activation becomes nonlinear and self-limiting at high particle loading. The degree of this nonlinearity depends on cloud convective activity (thermal instability)

Balloon-borne aerosol measurements in the planetary boundary layer: particle production associated with a continental stratiform cloud

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuetz, S. [Inst. for Tropospheric Res., Leipzig (Germany); Dubois, R. [Inst. for Tropospheric Res., Leipzig (Germany)

1997-05-01

Vertical profiles of submicrometer Aitken nuclei (AN), temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction have been measured using a tethered balloon as a platform for the instrumentation. Daytime soundings up to 700 m above ground were done over Eastern Germany during a strong and persistent wintertime temperature inversion on 18th January 1996. The inversion at 650 m above ground topped a closed stratus deck with a diffuse cloud base at 250 m. The profiles of temperature, humidity and AN concentrations indicate that the layer below the inversion was well mixed. An upper limit to cloud droplet number concentration of 700 p/cm{sup 3} was inferred from the AN measurements. At the top of the cloud distinct AN concentration maxima were observed. Their evolution as a function of time and space with respect to the profiles of temperature, humidity and wind indicated new particle production. Concurrent with the balloon soundings, continuous ground based measurements of wind by SODAR and of SO{sub 2} were also performed. (orig.)

Comparison of CERES-MODIS cloud microphysical properties with surface observations over Loess Plateau

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Hongru; Huang, Jianping; Minnis, Patrick; Yi, Yuhong; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Wang, Tianhe; Nakajima, Takashi Y.

2015-03-01

To enhance the utility of satellite-derived cloud properties for studying the role of clouds in climate change and the hydrological cycle in semi-arid areas, it is necessary to know their uncertainties. This paper estimates the uncertainties of several cloud properties by comparing those derived over the China Loess Plateau from the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua by the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) with surface observations at the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL). The comparisons use data from January 2008 to June 2010 limited to single layer and overcast stratus conditions during daytime. Cloud optical depths (τ) and liquid water paths (LWP) from both Terra and Aqua generally track the variation of the surface counterparts with modest correlation, while cloud effective radius (re) is only weakly correlated with the surface retrievals. The mean differences between Terra and the SACOL retrievals are -4.7±12.9, 2.1±3.2 μm and 30.2±85.3 g m-2 for τ, re and LWP, respectively. The corresponding differences for Aqua are 2.1±8.4, 1.2±2.9 μm and 47.4±79.6 g m-2, respectively. Possible causes for biases of satellite retrievals are discussed through statistical analysis and case studies. Generally, the CERES-MODIS cloud properties have a bit larger biases over the Loess Plateau than those in previous studies over other locations.

iConnected use AirPlay, iCloud, apps, and more to bring your Apple devices together

CERN Document Server

Harvell, Ben

2013-01-01

Bring your Apple products together and enjoy an orchard of intelligent, unified technology! Whether at work or at home, syncing multiple Apple devices can help you achieve an organized, streamlined, harmonized life. With this unique resource, you discover how to get the most out of AirPlay and iCloud, Apple's streaming and cloud services. Featuring a four-color design and packed with helpful codes, tips, and tricks, this accessible book shows you how to write a document on an iMac at home and then continue editing it on an iPad while on the go without worrying about synching the de

Plane-parallel biases computed from inhomogeneous Arctic clouds and sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Rozwadowska, Anna; Cahalan, Robert F.

2002-10-01

Monte Carlo simulations of the expected influence of nonuniformity in cloud structure and surface albedo on shortwave radiative fluxes in the Arctic atmosphere are presented. In particular, plane-parallel biases in cloud albedo and transmittance are studied for nonabsorbing, low-level, all-liquid stratus clouds over sea ice. The "absolute bias" is defined as the difference between the cloud albedo or transmittance for the uniform or plane-parallel case, and the albedo or transmittance for nonuniform conditions with the same mean cloud optical thickness and the same mean surface albedo, averaged over a given area (i.e., bias > 0 means plane-parallel overestimates). Ranges of means and standard deviations of input parameters typical of Arctic conditions are determined from the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional Experiment Artic Cloud Experiment (FIRE/ACE)/Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA)/Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) experiment, a cooperative effort of the Department of Energy, NASA, NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Naval Research, and the Atmospheric Environment Service. We determine the sensitivity of the bias with respect to the following: domain averaged means and spatial variances of cloud optical thickness and surface albedo, shape of the surface reflectance function, presence of a scattering layer under the clouds, and solar zenith angle. The simulations show that the biases in Arctic conditions are generally lower than in subtropical stratocumulus. The magnitudes of the absolute biases are unlikely to exceed 0.02 for albedo and 0.05 for transmittance. The "relative bias" expresses the absolute bias as a percentage of the actual cloud albedo or transmittance. The magnitude of the relative bias in albedo is typically below 2% over the reflective Arctic surface, while the magnitude of the relative bias in transmittance can exceed 10%.

76 FR 70520 - Rovac Corp., RS Group of Companies, Inc., Rymer Foods, Inc. Stratus Services Group, Inc., Sun Cal...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-14

...., Rymer Foods, Inc. Stratus Services Group, Inc., Sun Cal Energy, Inc., Sun Motor International, Inc... current and accurate information concerning the securities of Sun Cal Energy, Inc. because it has not... Sun Motor International, Inc. because it has not filed any periodic reports since the period ended...

Low clouds suppress Arctic air formation and amplify high-latitude continental winter warming.

Science.gov (United States)

Cronin, Timothy W; Tziperman, Eli

2015-09-15

High-latitude continents have warmed much more rapidly in recent decades than the rest of the globe, especially in winter, and the maintenance of warm, frost-free conditions in continental interiors in winter has been a long-standing problem of past equable climates. We use an idealized single-column atmospheric model across a range of conditions to study the polar night process of air mass transformation from high-latitude maritime air, with a prescribed initial temperature profile, to much colder high-latitude continental air. We find that a low-cloud feedback--consisting of a robust increase in the duration of optically thick liquid clouds with warming of the initial state--slows radiative cooling of the surface and amplifies continental warming. This low-cloud feedback increases the continental surface air temperature by roughly two degrees for each degree increase of the initial maritime surface air temperature, effectively suppressing Arctic air formation. The time it takes for the surface air temperature to drop below freezing increases nonlinearly to ∼ 10 d for initial maritime surface air temperatures of 20 °C. These results, supplemented by an analysis of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 climate model runs that shows large increases in cloud water path and surface cloud longwave forcing in warmer climates, suggest that the "lapse rate feedback" in simulations of anthropogenic climate change may be related to the influence of low clouds on the stratification of the lower troposphere. The results also indicate that optically thick stratus cloud decks could help to maintain frost-free winter continental interiors in equable climates.

Using a second-order turbulence radiative-convective model to study the cloud/radiation interaction with the FIRE data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, C.Y.J.

1992-01-01

It is well recognized that extended sheets of low-level stratus and stratocumulus clouds are a persistent feature over the eastern parts of the major ocean basins associated with the quasipermanent subtropical high-pressure systems. These clouds exert a strong influence on climate through their high albedo, compared with the underlying surface, and their low altitude. The former leads to a reduction of the net incoming shortwave flux into the atmosphere and the latter leads to an infrared loss in a way essentially the same as the cloud-free conditions. Randall et al.[1984] estimated that an increase of a few percent of global low-level stratiform clouds may offset the warming caused by a doubling of the atmos-pheric CO 2 . The Atmospheric Radiation Measure-ment (ARM) Program, sponsored by the US Department of Energy, is envisioning a locale in the Eastern North Pacific for extensive measure-ments of stratiform boundary-layer clouds and their interaction with atmospheric radiation. Thus, a physically-based parameterization sheme for marine low-level stratiform clouds can be developed for general circulation models (GCMs). This paper is a modeling study with the current understanding of the important physical processes associated with a cloud-capped boundary layer. The numerical model is a high-resolution one-dimensional version of the second-order turbulence convective/radiative model developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Daytime sea fog retrieval based on GOCI data: a case study over the Yellow Sea.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Yibo; Qiu, Zhongfeng; Sun, Deyong; Wang, Shengqiang; Yue, Xiaoyuan

2016-01-25

In this paper, a new daytime sea fog detection algorithm has been developed by using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data. Based on spectral analysis, differences in spectral characteristics were found over different underlying surfaces, which include land, sea, middle/high level clouds, stratus clouds and sea fog. Statistical analysis showed that the Rrc (412 nm) (Rayleigh Corrected Reflectance) of sea fog pixels is approximately 0.1-0.6. Similarly, various band combinations could be used to separate different surfaces. Therefore, three indices (SLDI, MCDI and BSI) were set to discern land/sea, middle/high level clouds and fog/stratus clouds, respectively, from which it was generally easy to extract fog pixels. The remote sensing algorithm was verified using coastal sounding data, which demonstrated that the algorithm had the ability to detect sea fog. The algorithm was then used to monitor an 8-hour sea fog event and the results were consistent with observational data from buoys data deployed near the Sheyang coast (121°E, 34°N). The goal of this study was to establish a daytime sea fog detection algorithm based on GOCI data, which shows promise for detecting fog separately from stratus.

Examining the impact of overlying aerosols on the retrieval of cloud optical properties from passive remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Coddington, O. M.; Pilewskie, P.; Redemann, J.; Platnick, S.; Russell, P. B.; Schmidt, K. S.; Gore, W. J.; Livingston, J.; Wind, G.; Vukicevic, T.

2010-05-01

Haywood et al. (2004) show that an aerosol layer above a cloud can cause a bias in the retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius. Monitoring for this potential bias is difficult because space-based passive remote sensing cannot unambiguously detect or characterize aerosol above cloud. We show that cloud retrievals from aircraft measurements above cloud and below an overlying aerosol layer are a means to test this bias. The data were collected during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-A) study based out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States, above extensive, marine stratus cloud banks affected by industrial outflow. Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) irradiance measurements taken along a lower level flight leg above cloud and below aerosol were unaffected by the overlying aerosol. Along upper level flight legs, the irradiance reflected from cloud top was transmitted through an aerosol layer. We compare SSFR cloud retrievals from below-aerosol legs to satellite retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in order to detect an aerosol-induced bias. In regions of small variation in cloud properties, we find that SSFR and MODIS-retrieved cloud optical thickness compares within the uncertainty range for each instrument while SSFR effective radius tend to be smaller than MODIS values (by 1-2 μm) and at the low end of MODIS uncertainty estimates. In regions of large variation in cloud properties, differences in SSFR and MODIS-retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius can reach values of 10 and 10 μm, respectively. We include aerosols in forward modeling to test the sensitivity of SSFR cloud retrievals to overlying aerosol layers. We find an overlying absorbing aerosol layer biases SSFR cloud retrievals to smaller effective radii and optical thickness while nonabsorbing aerosols had no impact.

Examining the Impact of Overlying Aerosols on the Retrieval of Cloud Optical Properties from Passive Remote Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Coddington, O. M.; Pilewskie, P.; Redemann, J.; Platnick, S.; Russell, P. B.; Schmidt, K. S.; Gore, W. J.; Livingston, J.; Wind, G.; Vukicevic, T.

2010-01-01

Haywood et al. (2004) show that an aerosol layer above a cloud can cause a bias in the retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius. Monitoring for this potential bias is difficult because space ]based passive remote sensing cannot unambiguously detect or characterize aerosol above cloud. We show that cloud retrievals from aircraft measurements above cloud and below an overlying aerosol layer are a means to test this bias. The data were collected during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-A) study based out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States, above extensive, marine stratus cloud banks affected by industrial outflow. Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) irradiance measurements taken along a lower level flight leg above cloud and below aerosol were unaffected by the overlying aerosol. Along upper level flight legs, the irradiance reflected from cloud top was transmitted through an aerosol layer. We compare SSFR cloud retrievals from below ]aerosol legs to satellite retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in order to detect an aerosol ]induced bias. In regions of small variation in cloud properties, we find that SSFR and MODIS-retrieved cloud optical thickness compares within the uncertainty range for each instrument while SSFR effective radius tend to be smaller than MODIS values (by 1-2 microns) and at the low end of MODIS uncertainty estimates. In regions of large variation in cloud properties, differences in SSFR and MODIS ]retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius can reach values of 10 and 10 microns, respectively. We include aerosols in forward modeling to test the sensitivity of SSFR cloud retrievals to overlying aerosol layers. We find an overlying absorbing aerosol layer biases SSFR cloud retrievals to smaller effective radii and optical thickness while nonabsorbing aerosols had no impact.

Aircraft-based investigation of Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in Southern West Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Flamant, Cyrille

2017-04-01

The EU-funded project DACCIWA (Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa, http://www.dacciwa.eu) is investigating the relationship between weather, climate and air pollution in southern West Africa. The air over the coastal region of West Africa is a unique mixture of natural and anthropogenic gases, liquids and particles, emitted in an environment, in which multi-layer cloud decks frequently form. These exert a large influence on the local weather and climate, mainly due to their impact on radiation, the surface energy balance and thus the diurnal cycle of the atmospheric boundary layer. The main objective for the aircraft detachment was to build robust statistics of cloud properties in southern West Africa in different chemical landscapes to investigate the physical processes involved in their life cycle in such a complex chemical environment. As part of the DACCIWA field campaigns, three European aircraft (the German DLR Falcon 20, the French SAFIRE ATR 42 and the British BAS Twin Otter) conducted a total of 50 research flights across Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin from 27 June to 16 July 2016 for a total of 155 flight hours, including hours sponsored through 3 EUFAR projects. The aircraft were used in different ways based on their strengths, but all three had comparable instrumentation with the the capability to do gas-phase chemistry, aerosol and clouds, thereby generating a rich dataset of atmospheric conditions across the region. Eight types of flight objectives were conducted to achieve the goals of the DACCIWA: (i) Stratus clouds, (ii) Land-sea breeze clouds, (iii) Mid-level clouds, (iv) Biogenic emission, (v) City emissions, (vi) Flaring and ship emissions, (vii) Dust and biomass burning aerosols, and (viii) air-sea interactions. An overview of the DACCIWA aircraft campaign as well as first highlights from the airborne observations will be presented.

The influence of summertime fog and overcast clouds on the growth of a coastal Californian pine: a tree-ring study.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, A Park; Still, Christopher J; Fischer, Douglas T; Leavitt, Steven W

2008-06-01

The coast of California is home to numerous rare, endemic conifers and other plants that are limited in distribution by drought sensitivity and the summer-dry climate that prevails across most of the state. Ecologists have long assumed that some coastal plant populations survived the early Pleistocene transition to a warmer and drier environment because they benefit from frequent fog and stratus clouds that provide water and shade during the rainless summer. One such population is that of Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana ssp. Insularis) on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park. Here we report that the tree-ring width record from this population indicates strong growth sensitivities to summer fog drip and cloud shading. We quantified the effects of summer cloud cover by comparing ring-width indices to coastal airport cloud-frequency records (1944-2004). For the first time observed, summertime cloud frequency correlated positively with ring-width indices, regardless of whether the effect of rainfall was first removed from the ring-width record. The effect of ground-level fog was strongest in July early mornings (03:00 PST, R(2) = 0.262, P clouds high enough to provide shade but not fog water was also strongest in July, but climbed steadily throughout the day before becoming strongest in late afternoon (16:00-18:00 PST, R(2) = 0.148, P clouds is strongly affected by pre-summer rainfall. A change in the height and/or timing of coastal cloud formation with climate change would likely affect this and other populations of California's coastal vegetation.

Final technical Report DE-FG02-06ER65187

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eloranta, Edwin

2009-01-01

Simulations from the University of Wisconsin Non-Hydrostatic Modeling System (UW-NMS) along with those from other models indicate a strong tendency to overproduce ice, resulting in a decimation of the liquid portion of mixed-phase stratus through the Bergeron-Findeissen process. Immersion freezing was illustrated to be a major contributor to ice production within these cloud layers, and aerosol properties were illustrated to be an important consideration in the simulation of this process. In particular, the soluble mass fraction and aerosol insoluble mass type were demonstrated to influence simulation of the immersion freezing process, Data collected by the Arctic High Spectral Resolution Lidar and Millimeter Cloud Radar during the M-PACE period was analyzed in order to provide a statistical dataset for validation of simulations of mixed-phase stratus. 270 hours of single-layer cases were reviewed, and mean values for cloud base height, cloud thickness, cloud optical thickness, cloud temperature, wind direction, and liquid and ice particle size, particle number density, and water content were derived.

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…

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

Observational constraints on Arctic boundary-layer clouds, surface moisture and sensible heat fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, D. L.; Boisvert, L.; Klaus, D.; Dethloff, K.; Ganeshan, M.

2016-12-01

-driven turbulence appear to be dominant. Contrary to previous speculation, the efficiency of turbulent heat exchange is low. The SSHF contribution to ABL mixing is significant during the uplift (low-pressure) followed by the highly stable (stratus cloud) regime.

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.

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.)

Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20 deg. S, 85 deg. W) : Mooring Recovery and Deployment Cruise, R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 05-05, September 26, 2005-October 21, 2005

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hutto, Lara; Weller, Robert; Lord, Jeff; Smith, Jason; Bouchard, Paul; Fairall, Chris; Pezoa, Sergio; Bariteau, Ludovic; Lundquist, Jessica; Ghate, Virendra

2006-01-01

.... During the October 2005 cruise of NOAA's R/V Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were recovery of the WHOl surface mooring that had been deployed in December 2004, deployment of a new...

Trusted Silicon Stratus (TSS) Workshop

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-01

business case for a proposed Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS)/ Software -as-a- Service ( SaaS ) cloud architecture. User desires for innovative pricing and...Public Physically Unclonable Function PUF Physically Unclonable Function SaaS Software -as-a- Service SIP Semiconductor Intellectual Property SNL...WORKSHOP NIMBIS SERVICES INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 2011 FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT  ROME, NY 13441 UNITED STATES AIR FORCE  AIR FORCE

Mixed phase clouds: observations and theoretical advances (overview)

Science.gov (United States)

Korolev, Alexei

2013-04-01

Mixed phase clouds play important role in precipitation formation and radiation budget of the Earth. The microphysical measurements in mixed phase clouds are notoriously difficult due to many technical challenges. The airborne instrumentation for characterization of the microstructure of mixed phase clouds is discussed. The results multiyear airborne observations and measurements of frequency of occurrence of mixed phase, characteristic spatial scales, humidity in mixed phase and ice clouds are presented. A theoretical framework describing the thermodynamics and phase transformation of a three phase component system consisting of ice particles, liquid droplets and water vapor is discussed. It is shown that the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process plays different role in clouds with different dynamics. The problem of maintenance and longevity of mixed phase clouds is discussed.

An Overview of Cloud Computing in Distributed Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Divakarla, Usha; Kumari, Geetha

2010-11-01

Cloud computing is the emerging trend in the field of distributed computing. Cloud computing evolved from grid computing and distributed computing. Cloud plays an important role in huge organizations in maintaining huge data with limited resources. Cloud also helps in resource sharing through some specific virtual machines provided by the cloud service provider. This paper gives an overview of the cloud organization and some of the basic security issues pertaining to the cloud.

Aerosols, cloud physics and radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Twomey, S.

1990-01-01

Some aspects of climate physics are discussed with special attention given to cases where cloud physics is relevant for the phase and microstructure of clouds and, therefore, in the optical properties of the planet. It is argued that aerosol particles, through their strong effect on cloud microphysics, influence the shortwave energy input to earth, and that cloud microphysics strongly influence rain formation. Therefore, through their influence on microphysics, the aerosols play a central role in the atmospheric water cycle and, thus, on the planet's outgoing radiation. 20 refs

Evidence of Chemical Cloud Processing from In Situ Measurements in the Polluted Marine Environment

Science.gov (United States)

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

2017-12-01

Chemical cloud processing alters activated cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Aqueous oxidation of trace gases dissolved within cloud droplets adds soluble material. As most cloud droplets evaporate, the residual material produces CCN that are larger and with a different hygroscopicity (κ). This improves the CCN, lowering the critical supersaturation (Sc), making it more easily activated. This process separates the processed (accumulation) and unprocessed (Aitken) modes creating bimodal CCN distributions (Hudson et al., 2015). Various measurements made during the MArine Stratus/stratocumulus Experiment (MASE), including CCN, exhibited aqueous processing signals. Particle size distributions; measured by a differential mobility analyzer; were compared with CCN distributions; measured by the Desert Research Institute CCN spectrometer; by converting size to Sc using κ to overlay concurrent distributions. By tuning each mode to the best agreement, κ for each mode is determined; processed κ (κp), unprocessed κ (κu). In MASE, 59% of bimodal distributions had different κ for the two modes indicating dominance of chemical processing via aqueous oxidation. This is consistent with Hudson et al. (2015). Figure 1A also indicates chemical processing with larger κp between 0.35-0.75. Processed CCN had an influx of soluble material from aqueous oxidation which increased κp versus κu. Above 0.75 κp is lower than κu (Fig. 1A). When κu is high and sulfate material is added, κp tends towards κ of the added material. Thus, κp is reduced by additional material that is less soluble than the original material. Chemistry measurements in MASE also indicate in-cloud aqueous oxidation (Fig. 1B and 1C). Higher fraction of CCN concentrations in the processed mode are also associated with larger amounts of sulfates (Fig. 1B, red) and nitrates (Fig. 1C, orange) while SO2 (Fig. 1B, black) and O3 (Fig. 1C, blue) have lower amounts. This larger amount of sulfate is at the expense of

CloudOrch: A Portable SoundCard in the Cloud

OpenAIRE

Hindle, Abram

2014-01-01

One problem with live computer music performance is the transport of computers to a venue and the following setup of the computers used in playing and rendering music. The more computers involved the longer the setup and tear-down of a performance. Each computer adds power and cabling requirements that the venue must accommodate. Cloud computing can change of all this by simplifying the setup of many (10s, 100s) of machines at the click of a button. But there's a catch, the cloud is not physi...

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.

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....

Aerosols, clouds and radiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Twomey, S [University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (USA). Inst. of Atmospheric Physics

1991-01-01

Most of the so-called 'CO{sub 2} effect' is, in fact, an 'H{sub 2}O effect' brought into play by the climate modeler's assumption that planetary average temperature dictates water-vapor concentration (following Clapeyron-Clausius). That assumption ignores the removal process, which cloud physicists know to be influenced by the aerosol, since the latter primarily controls cloud droplet number and size. Droplet number and size are also influential for shortwave (solar) energy. The reflectance of many thin to moderately thick clouds changes when nuclei concentrations change and make shortwave albedo susceptible to aerosol influence.

Cloud CRM: State-of-the-Art and Security Challenges

OpenAIRE

Amin Shaqrah

2016-01-01

Security undoubtedly play the main role of cloud CRM deployment, since the agile firms utilized cloud services in the providers infrastructures to perform acute CRM operations. In this paper researcher emphasis on the cloud CRM themes, security threads the most concern. Some aspects of security discussed concern on deployment the cloud CRM like: Access customers’ database and control; secure data transfer over the cloud; trust among the enterprise and cloud service provider; confidentiality, ...

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;

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.

Cloud Security in 21st Century: Current Key Issues in Service Models on Cloud Computing and how to overcome them

OpenAIRE

Sharma, Supern

2011-01-01

Cloud computing is a disruptive innovation which offers new ways to increase capacity and capabilities of the organization’s IT infrastructure. In last few years cloud computing has taken computing industry by storm and many organizations are using cloud computing services to increase the efficiency, decrease their IT budgets and play an important role in defining the IT strategy of their business. Cloud computing offers various benefits such as scalability, elasticity, reducing IT expenditur...

Forty-year (1971-2010) semiquantitative observations of visibility-cloud-precipitation in Korea and its implication for aerosol effects on regional climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hyo-Jung; Kang, Jeong-Eon; Kim, Cheol-Hee

2015-07-01

Forty-year (1971-2010) observations of cloud cover and types have been analyzed, and implications on the effects of aerosol-cloud feedback were explored. Cloud cover and types have been observed over Korea on the basis of visible (human-eye) attributes without any change in official observing instructions. Visibility has been used as an ongoing proxy measure of aerosol concentrations, and observed meteorological variables such as sunshine duration and precipitation have been employed to analyze aerosol causes and implications for urban and regional climate. The analysis revealed persistent decade-long patterns in Korea: steadily reduced visibility (-0.37 km/yr), consistently decreasing sunshine duration (-0.06 %/hr), and declining occurrence of light precipitation. Spatial distributions of sunshine duration and visibility exhibited more localized variations in the early period (1971-1990), and tended to be more uniform throughout Korea over more recent years (1991-2010), implying the recent regional-scale impact of cloud change over northeast Asia. Cloud analysis results showed that the five most common types were stratocumulus (Sc), cirrus (Ci), altostratus (As), stratus (St), and nimbostratus (Ns), with occurrences of 33%, 17%, 17%, 9%, and 8%, respectively. Occurrence of rarely precipitating or nonprecipitating low-level Sc clouds showed an increasing (+0.34%/yr), but no (or only minor) effects of aerosols on heavy precipitation such as cumulus cloud types were found. Cloud cover in the range of 6/10 to 8/10 units has increased by 31.5±6.5%, and occurrences of both cloud-free (~2/10 units) and overcast (~8/10 units) conditions have decreased. Aerosol-cloud-precipitations interaction is highly nonlinear due to feedback mechanisms. One reason for our poor understanding of the aerosol-cloud feedback study is the variety of cloud types with their complicated responses to variations of the aerosol. Our study on the response of precipitation-cloud to long

Soft Clouding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Morten; Markussen, Thomas; Wetton, Barnabas

2012-01-01

Soft Clouding is a blended concept, which describes the aim of a collaborative and transdisciplinary project. The concept is a metaphor implying a blend of cognitive, embodied interaction and semantic web. Furthermore, it is a metaphor describing our attempt of curating a new semantics of sound...... archiving. The Soft Clouding Project is part of LARM - a major infrastructure combining research in and access to sound and radio archives in Denmark. In 2012 the LARM infrastructure will consist of more than 1 million hours of radio, combined with metadata who describes the content. The idea is to analyse...... the concept of ‘infrastructure’ and ‘interface’ on a creative play with the fundamentals of LARM (and any sound archive situation combining many kinds and layers of data and sources). This paper will present and discuss the Soft clouding project from the perspective of the three practices and competencies...

Evaluating Surface Radiation Fluxes Observed From Satellites in the Southeastern Pacific Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Pinker, R. T.; Zhang, B.; Weller, R. A.; Chen, W.

2018-03-01

This study is focused on evaluation of current satellite and reanalysis estimates of surface radiative fluxes in a climatically important region. It uses unique observations from the STRATUS Ocean Reference Station buoy in a region of persistent marine stratus clouds 1,500 km off northern Chile during 2000-2012. The study shows that current satellite estimates are in better agreement with buoy observations than model outputs at a daily time scale and that satellite data depict well the observed annual cycle in both shortwave and longwave surface radiative fluxes. Also, buoy and satellite estimates do not show any significant trend over the period of overlap or any interannual variability. This verifies the stability and reliability of the satellite data and should make them useful to examine El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability influences on surface radiative fluxes at the STRATUS site for longer periods for which satellite record is available.

PC-Cluster based Storage System Architecture for Cloud Storage

OpenAIRE

Yee, Tin Tin; Naing, Thinn Thu

2011-01-01

Design and architecture of cloud storage system plays a vital role in cloud computing infrastructure in order to improve the storage capacity as well as cost effectiveness. Usually cloud storage system provides users to efficient storage space with elasticity feature. One of the challenges of cloud storage system is difficult to balance the providing huge elastic capacity of storage and investment of expensive cost for it. In order to solve this issue in the cloud storage infrastructure, low ...

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)

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.

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.

Towards Trust Engineering for Opportunistic Cloud Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuada, Eric

2014-01-01

The systematic review methodology has been employed to review trust related studies in cloud computing. It was observed that trusted computing technologies and reputation based approaches are the main approaches to trust engineering in cloud computing. Also, trusted third party approaches...... and the deployment model play a significant role in enhancing trust between service providers and consumers. It was observed that the concept of trust is used loosely without any formal specification in cloud computing discussions and trust engineering in general. As a first step towards addressing this problem, we...... have contextualized the formal trust specification in multi-agent environments for cloud computing....

Cloud computing in medical imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Kagadis, George C; Kloukinas, Christos; Moore, Kevin; Philbin, Jim; Papadimitroulas, Panagiotis; Alexakos, Christos; Nagy, Paul G; Visvikis, Dimitris; Hendee, William R

2013-07-01

Over the past century technology has played a decisive role in defining, driving, and reinventing procedures, devices, and pharmaceuticals in healthcare. Cloud computing has been introduced only recently but is already one of the major topics of discussion in research and clinical settings. The provision of extensive, easily accessible, and reconfigurable resources such as virtual systems, platforms, and applications with low service cost has caught the attention of many researchers and clinicians. Healthcare researchers are moving their efforts to the cloud, because they need adequate resources to process, store, exchange, and use large quantities of medical data. This Vision 20/20 paper addresses major questions related to the applicability of advanced cloud computing in medical imaging. The paper also considers security and ethical issues that accompany cloud computing.

Modeling, Design, and Implementation of a Cloud Workflow Engine Based on Aneka

OpenAIRE

Zhou, Jiantao; Sun, Chaoxin; Fu, Weina; Liu, Jing; Jia, Lei; Tan, Hongyan

2014-01-01

This paper presents a Petri net-based model for cloud workflow which plays a key role in industry. Three kinds of parallelisms in cloud workflow are characterized and modeled. Based on the analysis of the modeling, a cloud workflow engine is designed and implemented in Aneka cloud environment. The experimental results validate the effectiveness of our approach of modeling, design, and implementation of cloud workflow.

Retrieval of effective cloud field parameters from radiometric data

Science.gov (United States)

Paulescu, Marius; Badescu, Viorel; Brabec, Marek

2017-06-01

Clouds play a key role in establishing the Earth's climate. Real cloud fields are very different and very complex in both morphological and microphysical senses. Consequently, the numerical description of the cloud field is a critical task for accurate climate modeling. This study explores the feasibility of retrieving the effective cloud field parameters (namely the cloud aspect ratio and cloud factor) from systematic radiometric measurements at high frequency (measurement is taken every 15 s). Two different procedures are proposed, evaluated, and discussed with respect to both physical and numerical restrictions. None of the procedures is classified as best; therefore, the specific advantages and weaknesses are discussed. It is shown that the relationship between the cloud shade and point cloudiness computed using the estimated cloud field parameters recovers the typical relationship derived from measurements.

Polar clouds and radiation in satellite observations, reanalyses, and climate models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lenaerts, JTM; Van Tricht, Kristof; Lhermitte, S.L.M.; L'Ecuyer, T.S.

2017-01-01

Clouds play a pivotal role in the surface energy budget of the polar regions. Here we use two largely independent data sets of cloud and surface downwelling radiation observations derived by satellite remote sensing (2007–2010) to evaluate simulated clouds and radiation over both polar ice sheets

Longwave indirect effect of mineral dusts on ice clouds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Q. Min

2010-08-01

Full Text Available In addition to microphysical changes in clouds, changes in nucleation processes of ice cloud due to aerosols would result in substantial changes in cloud top temperature as mildly supercooled clouds are glaciated through heterogenous nucleation processes. Measurements from multiple sensors on multiple observing platforms over the Atlantic Ocean show that the cloud effective temperature increases with mineral dust loading with a slope of +3.06 °C per unit aerosol optical depth. The macrophysical changes in ice cloud top distributions as a consequence of mineral dust-cloud interaction exert a strong cooling effect (up to 16 Wm⁻² of thermal infrared radiation on cloud systems. Induced changes of ice particle size by mineral dusts influence cloud emissivity and play a minor role in modulating the outgoing longwave radiation for optically thin ice clouds. Such a strong cooling forcing of thermal infrared radiation would have significant impacts on cloud systems and subsequently on climate.

Statistical properties of the ice particle distribution in stratiform clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Delanoe, J.; Tinel, C.; Testud, J.

2003-04-01

This paper presents an extensive analysis of several microphysical data bases CEPEX, EUCREX, CLARE and CARL to determine statistical properties of the Particle Size Distribution (PSD). The data base covers different type of stratiform clouds : tropical cirrus (CEPEX), mid-latitude cirrus (EUCREX) and mid-latitude cirrus and stratus (CARL,CLARE) The approach for analysis uses the concept of normalisation of the PSD developed by Testud et al. (2001). The normalization aims at isolating three independent characteristics of the PSD : its "intrinsic" shape, the "average size" of the spectrum and the ice water content IWC, "average size" is meant the mean mass weighted diameter. It is shown that concentration should be normalized by N_0^* proportional to IWC/D_m^4. The "intrinsic" shape is defined as F(Deq/D_m)=N(Deq)/N_0^* where Deq is the equivalent melted diameter. The "intrinsic" shape is found to be very stable in the range 001.5, more scatter is observed, but future analysis should decide if it is representative of real physical variation or statistical "error" due to counting problem. Considering an overall statistics over the full data base, a large scatter of the N_0^* against Dm plot is found. But in the case of a particular event or a particular leg of a flight, the N_0^* vs. Dm plot is much less scattered and shows a systematic trend for decaying of N_0^* when Dm increases. This trend is interpreted as the manifestation of the predominance of the aggregation process. Finally an important point for cloud remote sensing is investigated : the normalised relationships IWC/N_0^* against Z/N_0^* is much less scattered that the classical IWC against Z the radar reflectivity factor.

Distributed Pseudo-Random Number Generation and Its Application to Cloud Database

OpenAIRE

Chen, Jiageng; Miyaji, Atsuko; Su, Chunhua

2014-01-01

Cloud database is now a rapidly growing trend in cloud computing market recently. It enables the clients run their computation on out-sourcing databases or access to some distributed database service on the cloud. At the same time, the security and privacy concerns is major challenge for cloud database to continue growing. To enhance the security and privacy of the cloud database technology, the pseudo-random number generation (PRNG) plays an important roles in data encryptions and privacy-pr...

The interaction between deep convective clouds and their environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Böing, S.J.

2014-01-01

Deep convective clouds play a key role in tropical weather patterns, summertime rainfall, and the global transport of energy from the tropics to higher latitudes. Current weather and climate models struggle to realistically represent the development and behavior of these clouds. Both the timing of

Flux and polarisation spectra of water clouds on exoplanets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karalidi, T.; Stam, D.M.; Hovenier, J.W.

2011-01-01

Context. A crucial factor for a planet’s habitability is its climate. Clouds play an important role in planetary climates. Detecting and characterising clouds on an exoplanet is therefore crucial when addressing this planet’s habitability. Aims. We present calculated flux and polarisation spectra of

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

PARTICAL SWARM OPTIMIZATION OF TASK SCHEDULING IN CLOUD COMPUTING

OpenAIRE

Payal Jaglan*, Chander Diwakar

2016-01-01

Resource provisioning and pricing modeling in cloud computing makes it an inevitable technology both on developer and consumer end. Easy accessibility of software and freedom of hardware configuration increase its demand in IT industry. It’s ability to provide a user-friendly environment, software independence, quality, pricing index and easy accessibility of infrastructure via internet. Task scheduling plays an important role in cloud computing systems. Task scheduling in cloud computing mea...

The impact of a non-uniform land surface on the radiation environment over an Arctic fjord - a study with a 3D radiative transfer model for stratus clouds over the Hornsund fjord, Spitsbergen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Izabela Górecka

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This paper estimates the influence of land topography and cover on 3D radiativeeffects under overcast skies in the Arctic coastal environment, in particular in theHornsund fjord region, Spitsbergen. The authors focus on the impact of anon-uniform surface on: (1 the spatial distribution of solar fluxesreaching the fjord surface, (2 spectral shortwave cloud radiative forcing atthe fjord surface, (3 the solar flux anomaly at the domain surface resultingfrom the assumption of a uniform surface, i.e. the error due to plane parallelassumptions in climate models, and (4 remote sensing of cloud opticalthickness over the fjord. Their dependence on spectral channel, cloud opticalthickness, cloud type, cloud base height, surface albedo and solar zenithangle is discussed. The analysis is based on Monte Carlo simulations of solarradiation transfer over a heterogeneous surface for selected channels of theMODIS radiometer. The simulations showed a considerable impact of the landsurrounding the fjord on the solar radiation over the fjord. The biggestdifferences between atmospheric transmittances over the fjord surface and over theocean were found for a cloud optical thickness τ = 12, low solar zenith angle θ, high cloud base and snow-covered land. For τ = 12, θ = 53°, cloud base height 1.8 km andwavelength λ = 469 nm, the enhancement in irradiance transmittanceover the fjord was 0.19 for the inner fjords and 0.10 for the whole fjord(λ = 469 nm. The land surrounding the Hornsund fjord also hada considerable impact on the spectral cloud radiative forcing on the fjordsurface and the solar flux anomaly at the domain surface due to the uniformsurface assumption. For the mouth and central part of the fjord the error dueto the use of channel 2 of the MODIS radiometer (λ = 858 nm forcloud optical thickness retrieval was < 1 in the case of low-level clouds(cloud base height 1 km, nadir radiance, θ = 53°, cloudoptical thickness retrieved solely from MODIS

3D Cloud Tomography, Followed by Mean Optical and Microphysical Properties, with Multi-Angle/Multi-Pixel Data

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, A. B.; von Allmen, P. A.; Marshak, A.; Bal, G.

2010-12-01

The geometrical assumption in all operational cloud remote sensing algorithms is that clouds are plane-parallel slabs, which applies relatively well to the most uniform stratus layers. Its benefit is to justify using classic 1D radiative transfer (RT) theory, where angular details (solar, viewing, azimuthal) are fully accounted for and precise phase functions can be used, to generate the look-up tables used in the retrievals. Unsurprisingly, these algorithms catastrophically fail when applied to cumulus-type clouds, which are highly 3D. This is unfortunate for the cloud-process modeling community that may thrive on in situ airborne data, but would very much like to use satellite data for more than illustrations in their presentations and publications. So, how can we obtain quantitative information from space-based observations of finite aspect ratio clouds? Cloud base/top heights, vertically projected area, mean liquid water content (LWC), and volume-averaged droplet size would be a good start. Motivated by this science need, we present a new approach suitable for sparse cumulus fields where we turn the tables on the standard procedure in cloud remote sensing. We make no a priori assumption about cloud shape, save an approximately flat base, but use brutal approximations about the RT that is necessarily 3D. Indeed, the first order of business is to roughly determine the cloud's outer shape in one of two ways, which we will frame as competing initial guesses for the next phase of shape refinement and volume-averaged microphysical parameter estimation. Both steps use multi-pixel/multi-angle techniques amenable to MISR data, the latter adding a bi-spectral dimension using collocated MODIS data. One approach to rough cloud shape determination is to fit the multi-pixel/multi-angle data with a geometric primitive such as a scalene hemi-ellipsoid with 7 parameters (translation in 3D space, 3 semi-axes, 1 azimuthal orientation); for the radiometry, a simple radiosity

Cloud Macroscopic Organization: Order Emerging from Randomness

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Tianle

2011-01-01

Clouds play a central role in many aspects of the climate system and their forms and shapes are remarkably diverse. Appropriate representation of clouds in climate models is a major challenge because cloud processes span at least eight orders of magnitude in spatial scales. Here we show that there exists order in cloud size distribution of low-level clouds, and that it follows a power-law distribution with exponent gamma close to 2. gamma is insensitive to yearly variations in environmental conditions, but has regional variations and land-ocean contrasts. More importantly, we demonstrate this self-organizing behavior of clouds emerges naturally from a complex network model with simple, physical organizing principles: random clumping and merging. We also demonstrate symmetry between clear and cloudy skies in terms of macroscopic organization because of similar fundamental underlying organizing principles. The order in the apparently complex cloud-clear field thus has its root in random local interactions. Studying cloud organization with complex network models is an attractive new approach that has wide applications in climate science. We also propose a concept of cloud statistic mechanics approach. This approach is fully complementary to deterministic models, and the two approaches provide a powerful framework to meet the challenge of representing clouds in our climate models when working in tandem.

Risk Management Considerations in Cloud Computing Adoption

OpenAIRE

Doherty, Eileen; Carcary, Marian; Conway, Gerard

2012-01-01

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a pivotal role in enabling organizational capability and productivity, and in initiating and facilitating innovation across all industry sectors. In recent years, cloud computing has emerged as a growing trend because it serves as an enabler of scalable, flexible and powerful computing. Consequently, each year significant global investment is made in migrating to the cloud environment. However, despite its growing po...

The use of marine cloud water samples as a diagnostic tool for aqueous chemistry, cloud microphysical processes and dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Crosbie, E.; Ziemba, L. D.; Moore, R.; Shook, M.; Jordan, C.; Thornhill, K. L., II; Winstead, E.; Shingler, T.; Brown, M.; MacDonald, A. B.; Dadashazar, H.; Sorooshian, A.; Weiss-Penzias, P. S.; Anderson, B.

2017-12-01

Clouds play several roles in the Earth's climate system. In addition to their clear significance to the hydrological cycle, they strongly modulate the shortwave and longwave radiative balance of the atmosphere, with subsequent feedback on the atmospheric circulation. Furthermore, clouds act as a conduit for the fate and emergence of important trace chemical species and are the predominant removal mechanism for atmospheric aerosols. Marine boundary layer clouds cover large swaths of the global oceans. Because of their global significance, they have attracted significant attention into understanding how changes in aerosols are translated into changes in cloud macro- and microphysical properties. The circular nature of the influence of clouds-on-aerosols and aerosols-on-clouds has been used to explain the chaotic patterns often seen in marine clouds, however, this feedback also presents a substantial hurdle in resolving the uncertain role of anthropogenic aerosols on climate. Here we discuss ways in which the chemical constituents found in cloud water can offer insight into the physical and chemical processes inherent in marine clouds, through the use of aircraft measurements. We focus on observational data from cloud water samples collected during flights conducted over the remote North Atlantic and along coastal California across multiple campaigns. We explore topics related to aqueous processing, wet scavenging and source apportionment.

Aerosol Effects on Instability, Circulations, Clouds, and Precipitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seoung-Soo Lee

2014-01-01

Full Text Available It is well known that increasing aerosol and associated changes in aerosol-cloud interactions and precipitation since industrialization have been playing an important role in climate change, but this role has not been well understood. This prevents us from predicting future climate with a good confidence. This review paper presents recent studies on the changes in the aerosol-cloud interactions and precipitation particularly in deep convective clouds. In addition, this review paper discusses how to improve our understanding of these changes by considering feedbacks among aerosol, cloud dynamics, cloud and its embedded circulations, and microphysics. Environmental instability basically determines the dynamic intensity of clouds and thus acts as one of the most important controls on these feedbacks. As a first step to the improvement of the understanding, this paper specifically elaborates on how to link the instability to the feedbacks.

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

An overview of cloud services adoption challenges in higher education institutions

OpenAIRE

Alharthi, Abdulrahman; Yahya, Fara; Walters, Robert John; Wills, Gary

2015-01-01

Information Technology (IT) plays an important role in enabling education services be delivered to users. Most education online services in universities have been run on the cloud to provide services to support students, lecturers, researchers and administration staff. These are enabled with the emergence of cloud computing in the world of IT. Cloud computing offers on demand Internet-based computing services. This paper presents an overview of cloud computing adoption in higher education, ma...

Dynamics of the Marine Cloud Layers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Chi, Joseph

1999-01-01

Goals of this research have been to identify physical processes that determine the dynamics of marine cloud layers and to quantify roles of turbulence, convection and thermal radiation that play in formation...

Is ozone model bias driven by errors in cloud predictions? A quantitative assessment using satellite cloud retrievals in WRF-Chem

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Y. H.; Hodzic, A.; Barré, J.; Descombes, G.; Minnis, P.

2017-12-01

Clouds play a key role in radiation and hence O3 photochemistry by modulating photolysis rates and light-dependent emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). It is not well known, however, how much of the bias in O3 predictions is caused by inaccurate cloud predictions. This study quantifies the errors in surface O3 predictions associated with clouds in summertime over CONUS using the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model. Cloud fields used for photochemistry are corrected based on satellite cloud retrievals in sensitivity simulations. It is found that the WRF-Chem model is able to detect about 60% of clouds in the right locations and generally underpredicts cloud optical depths. The errors in hourly O3 due to the errors in cloud predictions can be up to 60 ppb. On average in summertime over CONUS, the errors in 8-h average O3 of 1-6 ppb are found to be attributable to those in cloud predictions under cloudy sky conditions. The contribution of changes in photolysis rates due to clouds is found to be larger ( 80 % on average) than that of light-dependent BVOC emissions. The effects of cloud corrections on O­3 are about 2 times larger in VOC-limited than NOx-limited regimes, suggesting that the benefits of accurate cloud predictions would be greater in VOC-limited than NOx-limited regimes.

The representation of low-level clouds during the West African monsoon in weather and climate models

Science.gov (United States)

Kniffka, Anke; Hannak, Lisa; Knippertz, Peter; Fink, Andreas

2016-04-01

The West African monsoon is one of the most important large-scale circulation features in the tropics and the associated seasonal rainfalls are crucial to rain-fed agriculture and water resources for hundreds of millions of people. However, numerical weather and climate models still struggle to realistically represent salient features of the monsoon across a wide range of scales. Recently it has been shown that substantial errors in radiation and clouds exist in the southern parts of West Africa (8°W-8°E, 5-10°N) during summer. This area is characterised by strong low-level jets associated with the formation of extensive ultra-low stratus clouds. Often persisting long after sunrise, these clouds have a substantial impact on the radiation budget at the surface and thus the diurnal evolution of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Here we present some first results from a detailed analysis of the representation of these clouds and the associated PBL features across a range of weather and climate models. Recent climate model simulations for the period 1991-2010 run in the framework of the Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) offer a great opportunity for this analysis. The models are those used for the latest Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but for YOTC the model output has a much better temporal resolution, allowing to resolve the diurnal cycle, and includes diabatic terms, allowing to much better assess physical reasons for errors in low-level temperature, moisture and thus cloudiness. These more statistical climate model analyses are complemented by experiments using ICON (Icosahedral non-hydrostatic general circulation model), the new numerical weather prediction model of the German Weather Service and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. ICON allows testing sensitivities to model resolution and numerical schemes. These model simulations are validated against (re-)analysis data, satellite observations (e.g. CM SAF cloud and

Fragmentation of rotating protostellar clouds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tohline, J.E.

1980-01-01

We examine, with a three-dimensional hydrodynamic computer code, the behavior of rotating, isothermal gas clouds as they collapse from Jeans unstable configurations, in order to determine whether they are susceptible to fragmentation during the initial dynamic collapse phase of their evolution. We find that a gas cloud will not fragment unless (a) it begins collapsing from a radius much smaller than the Jeans radius (i.e., the cloud initially encloses many Jeans masses) and (b) irregularities in the cloud's initial structure (specifically, density inhomogeneities) enclose more than one Jeans mass of material. Gas pressure smooths out features that are not initially Jeans unstable while rotation plays no direct role in damping inhomogeneities. Instead of fragmenting, most of our models collapse to a ring configuration (as has been observed by other investigators in two-dimensional, axisymmetric models). The rings appear to be less susceptible to gragmentation from arbitrary perturbations in their structure than has previously been indicated in other work. Because our models, which include the effects of gas pressure, do not readily fragment during a phase of dynamic collapse, we suggest that gas clouds in the galactic disk undergo fragmentation only during quasi-equilibrium phases of their evolution

The Role of Clouds in the Long-Term Habitability of Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Toon, Owen B.; Tolbert, Margaret

2000-01-01

We proposed to conduct theoretical and laboratory investigations of the role that clouds play in the long-term climate history of the Earth and other habitable planets. We made significant progress in the first area we proposed to consider- the properties of carbon dioxide clouds in atmospheres that are rich in carbon dioxide. We submitted a modeling paper on the microphysical properties of the clouds to Icarus showing that such clouds are unlikely to play an important role in the early greenhouses on Earth or Mars. The model was based on lab studies of the nucleation and growth of carbon dioxide. We have also submitted a manuscript describing these lab studies to Icarus. These lab studies are critical not only to the ancient Mars atmosphere, but also to the current one. We also submitted a paper to Nature describing modeling of current Martian CO2 clouds. We will also model the properties of water clouds in the early history of Earth. Early in Earth's history the atmosphere contained no free oxygen. Without oxygen, sulfate aerosols that are currently the dominant cloud nuclei, cannot form. Without such nuclei the cloud structure would have been far different than it is now. We initiated studies of the aerosols on Titan as part of this work. We reported these studies in a short paper on nucleation and in several conferences.

Visualization and labeling of point clouds in virtual reality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stets, Jonathan Dyssel; Sun, Yongbin; Greenwald, Scott W.

2017-01-01

We present a Virtual Reality (VR) application for labeling and handling point cloud data sets. A series of room-scale point clouds are recorded as a video sequence using a Microsoft Kinect. The data can be played and paused, and frames can be skipped just like in a video player. The user can walk...

Pluggable SaaS Integration: Quality Characteristics for Cloud Based Application Services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aulkemeier, Fabian; Iacob, Maria Eugenia; van Hillegersberg, Jos

2015-01-01

Cloud services have recently gained popularity and play an increasing role in enterprise architectures. Organizations adopting cloud services expect not only improvements in flexibility and scalability, but also a means of outsourcing IT tasks. In contrast to custom or packaged applications,

Laboratory study of orographic cloud-like flow

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Kanwar Nain; Sreenivas, K. R.

2013-11-01

Clouds are one of the major sources of uncertainty in climate prediction, listed in ``the most urgent scientific problems requiring attention'' IPCC. Also, convective clouds are of utmost importance to study the dynamics of tropical meteorology and therefore, play a key role in understanding monsoons. The present work is to study the dynamics of orographic clouds. Parameterization of these clouds will help in forecasting the precipitation accurately. Also, one could validate laboratory results from our study by actually measuring cloud development along a sloping terrain. In this context a planar buoyant turbulent wall jet is considered as an appropriate low order fluid-dynamical model for studying the turbulence and entrainment in orographic-clouds. Flow is volumetrically heated to mimic the latent heat release due to condensation in an actual cloud. This is the first step in studying the entrainment dynamics of the evolving orographic cloud. We are going to present some results on the cloud development using techniques that allows us to construct a 3-dimensional flow field at each instance and its development over the time. By combining velocity field from PIV and flow volume from PLIF at successive instances, we estimate the entrainment coefficient. Since the life-cycle of a cloud is determined by the entrainment of ambient air, these results could be extremely helpful in understanding the dynamics of the clouds. Detailed results will be presented at the conference.

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.

Cosmic rays, clouds, and climate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marsh, N.; Svensmark, Henrik

2000-01-01

cloud radiative properties. Thus, a moderate influence on atmospheric aerosol distributions from cosmic ray ionisation would have a strong influence on the Earth's radiation budget. Historical evidence over the past 1000 years indicates that changes in climate have occurred in accord with variability......A correlation between a global average of low cloud cover and the flux of cosmic rays incident in the atmosphere has been observed during the last solar cycle. The ionising potential of Earth bound cosmic rays are modulated by the state of the heliosphere, while clouds play an important role...... in the Earth's radiation budget through trapping outgoing radiation and reflecting incoming radiation. If a physical link between these two features can be established, it would provide a mechanism linking solar activity and Earth's climate. Recent satellite observations have further revealed a correlation...

Global distributions of cloud properties for CERES

Science.gov (United States)

Sun-Mack, S.; Minnis, P.; Heck, P.; Young, D.

2003-04-01

The microphysical and macrophysical properties of clouds play a crucial role in the earth's radiation budget. Simultaneous measurement of the radiation and cloud fields on a global basis has long been recognized as a key component in understanding and modeling the interaction between clouds and radiation at the top of the atmosphere, at the surface, and within the atmosphere. With the implementation of the NASA Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) in 1998, this need is being met. Broadband shortwave and longwave radiance measurements taken by the CERES scanners at resolutions between 10 and 20 km on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Terra, and Aqua satellites are matched to simultaneous retrievals of cloud height, phase, particle size, water path, and optical depth from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua. The combined cloud-radiation product has already been used for developing new, highly accurate anisotropic directional models for converting broadband radiances to flux. They also provide a consistent measure of cloud properties at different times of day over the globe since January 1998. These data will be valuable for determining the indirect effects of aerosols and for linking cloud water to cloud radiation. This paper provides an overview of the CERES cloud products from the three satellites including the retrieval methodology, validation, and global distributions. Availability and access to the datasets will also be discussed.

Aerosols, clouds and their climatic impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kulmala, M; Laaksonen, A; Korhonen, P [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Physics

1996-12-31

The increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane may drive a significant warming of the earth`s climate. However, a topic of more recent attention is the possibility that increased atmospheric concentrations of aerosol particles might drive a cooling of the planet. There are two distinct cooling mechanisms related to the enhanced concentrations of aerosol particles: the increase in the direct reflection of solar radiation (the direct effect), and the increase in cloud reflectivity caused by greater numbers of cloud condensation nuclei available (the indirect effect). Aerosols and clouds play a major role in the scattering and absorption of radiation in the Earth`s atmosphere. Locally the net effect can vary because of different kinds of surfaces. But according to measurements, the global net effect of clouds (and aerosols) on the atmosphere is net cooling and thus in opposition to the effect of greenhouse gases. The prediction of the future evolution of the climate involves substantial uncertainties. Clouds have a major effect on the radiation balance of the Earth and the prediction of amount and radiative properties of clouds is very difficult. Also the formation mechanisms and residence times of aerosol particles in the atmosphere involve large uncertainties. Thus the most serious difficulties arise in the area of the physics of clouds and aerosols

Aerosols, clouds and their climatic impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kulmala, M.; Laaksonen, A.; Korhonen, P. [Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Physics

1995-12-31

The increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane may drive a significant warming of the earth`s climate. However, a topic of more recent attention is the possibility that increased atmospheric concentrations of aerosol particles might drive a cooling of the planet. There are two distinct cooling mechanisms related to the enhanced concentrations of aerosol particles: the increase in the direct reflection of solar radiation (the direct effect), and the increase in cloud reflectivity caused by greater numbers of cloud condensation nuclei available (the indirect effect). Aerosols and clouds play a major role in the scattering and absorption of radiation in the Earth`s atmosphere. Locally the net effect can vary because of different kinds of surfaces. But according to measurements, the global net effect of clouds (and aerosols) on the atmosphere is net cooling and thus in opposition to the effect of greenhouse gases. The prediction of the future evolution of the climate involves substantial uncertainties. Clouds have a major effect on the radiation balance of the Earth and the prediction of amount and radiative properties of clouds is very difficult. Also the formation mechanisms and residence times of aerosol particles in the atmosphere involve large uncertainties. Thus the most serious difficulties arise in the area of the physics of clouds and aerosols

Using polarimetry to retrieve the cloud coverage of Earth-like exoplanets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rossi, L.C.G.; Stam, D.M.

2017-01-01

Context. Clouds have already been detected in exoplanetary atmospheres. They play crucial roles in a planet’s atmosphere and climate and can also create ambiguities in the determination of atmospheric parameters such as trace gas mixing ratios. Knowledge of cloud properties is required when

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...

Clouds, Wind and the Biogeography of Central American Cloud Forests: Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Modeling, and Walking in the Jungle

Science.gov (United States)

Lawton, R.; Nair, U. S.

2011-12-01

Cloud forests stand at the core of the complex of montane ecosystems that provide the backbone to the multinational Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, which seeks to protect a biodiversity conservation "hotspot" of global significance in an area of rapidly changing land use. Although cloud forests are generally defined by frequent and prolonged immersion in cloud, workers differ in their feelings about "frequent" and "prolonged", and quantitative assessments are rare. Here we focus on the dry season, in which the cloud and mist from orographic cloud plays a critical role in forest water relations, and discuss remote sensing of orographic clouds, and regional and atmospheric modeling at several scales to quantitatively examine the distribution of the atmospheric conditions that characterize cloud forests. Remote sensing using data from GOES reveals diurnal and longer scale patterns in the distribution of dry season orographic clouds in Central America at both regional and local scales. Data from MODIS, used to calculate the base height of orographic cloud banks, reveals not only the geographic distributon of cloud forest sites, but also striking regional variation in the frequency of montane immersion in orographic cloud. At a more local scale, wind is known to have striking effects on forest structure and species distribution in tropical montane ecosystems, both as a general mechanical stress and as the major agent of ecological disturbance. High resolution regional atmospheric modeling using CSU RAMS in the Monteverde cloud forests of Costa Rica provides quantitative information on the spatial distribution of canopy level winds, insight into the spatial structure and local dynamics of cloud forest communities. This information will be useful in not only in local conservation planning and the design of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, but also in assessments of the sensitivity of cloud forests to global and regional climate changes.

Collaborative Research: Cloudiness transitions within shallow marine clouds near the Azores

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mechem, David B. [Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States). Atmospheric Science Program. Dept. of Geography and Atmospheric Science; de Szoeke, Simon P. [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Yuter, Sandra E. [North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States). Dept. of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences

2017-01-15

Marine stratocumulus clouds are low, persistent, liquid phase clouds that cover large areas and play a significant role in moderating the climate by reflecting large quantities of incoming solar radiation. The deficiencies in simulating these clouds in global climate models are widely recognized. Much of the uncertainty arises from sub-grid scale variability in the cloud albedo that is not accurately parameterized in climate models. The Clouds, Aerosol and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP–MBL) observational campaign and the ongoing ARM site measurements on Graciosa Island in the Azores aim to sample the Northeast Atlantic low cloud regime. These data represent, the longest continuous research quality cloud radar/lidar/radiometer/aerosol data set of open-ocean shallow marine clouds in existence. Data coverage from CAP–MBL and the series of cruises to the southeast Pacific culminating in VOCALS will both be of sufficient length to contrast the two low cloud regimes and explore the joint variability of clouds in response to several environmental factors implicated in cloudiness transitions. Our research seeks to better understand cloud system processes in an underexplored but climatologically important maritime region. Our primary goal is an improved physical understanding of low marine clouds on temporal scales of hours to days. It is well understood that aerosols, synoptic-scale forcing, surface fluxes, mesoscale dynamics, and cloud microphysics all play a role in cloudiness transitions. However, the relative importance of each mechanism as a function of different environmental conditions is unknown. To better understand cloud forcing and response, we are documenting the joint variability of observed environmental factors and associated cloud characteristics. In order to narrow the realm of likely parameter ranges, we assess the relative importance of parameter conditions based primarily on two criteria: how often the condition occurs (frequency

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.

An investigation of cloud base height in Chiang Mai

Science.gov (United States)

Peengam, S.; Tohsing, K.

2017-09-01

Clouds play very important role in the variation of surface solar radiation and rain formation. To understand this role, it is necessary to know the physical and geometrical of properties of cloud. However, clouds vary with location and time, which lead to a difficulty to obtain their properties. In this work, a ceilometer was installed at a station of the Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation Department in Chiang Mai (17.80° N, 98.43° E) in order to measure cloud base height. The cloud base height data from this instrument were compared with those obtained from LiDAR, a more sophisticated instrument installed at the same site. It was found that the cloud base height from both instruments was in reasonable agreement, with root mean square difference (RMSD) and mean bias difference (MBD) of 19.21% and 1.58%, respectively. Afterward, a six-month period (August, 2016-January, 2017) of data from the ceilometer was analyzed. The results show that mean cloud base height during this period is 1.5 km, meaning that most clouds are in the category of low-level cloud.

Mobile Cloud Computing for C2 - Operating in DIL Network Conditions

OpenAIRE

Ling, Yu Xian; Wee, Toon Joo; Shing, Man-Tak; Singh, Gurminder; Gibson, John H.

2015-01-01

Cloud computing is emerging as the mainstream platform for a range of on-demand applications, services, and infrastructure. It is already playing an important role in the communication, and the processing, mining, and fusing of information in distributed command and control. A major benefit of cloud computing is improved net-centric capability. Before the full benefits of cloud computing are realized, several technology challenges must be addressed. Operating in intermittent and austere netwo...

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...

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

. Furthermore, it is found that neither a decrease in cloud droplet coalescence nor a decrease in riming necessarily implies a decrease in precipitation due to compensation effects by other microphysical pathways. The simulations suggest that mixed-phase conditions play an important role in buffering the effect of aerosol perturbations on cloud microphysics and reducing the overall susceptibility of clouds and precipitation to changes in the aerosol number concentrations. As a consequence the aerosol effect on precipitation is suggested to be less pronounced or even inverted in regions with high terrain (e.g., the Alps or Rocky Mountains) or in regions where mixed-phase microphysics is important for the climatology of orographic precipitation.

The Research of Dr. Joanne Simpson: Fifty Years Investigating Hurricanes, Tropical Clouds and Cloud Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, W. -K.; Halverson, J.; Adler, R.; Garstang, M.; Houze, R., Jr.; LeMone, M.; Pielke, R., Sr.; Woodley, W.; O'C.Starr, David (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This AMS Meteorological Monographs is dedicated to Dr. Joanne Simpson for her many pioneering research efforts in tropical meteorology during her fifty-year career. Dr. Simpson's major areas of scientific research involved the "hot tower" hypothesis and its role in hurricanes, structure and maintenance of trade winds, air-sea interaction, and observations and the mechanism for hurricanes and waterspouts. She was also a pioneer in cloud modeling with the first one-dimensional model and had the first cumulus model on a computer. She also played a major role in planning and leading observational experiments on convective cloud systems. The launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, a joint U.S.-Japan project, in November of 1997 made it possible for quantitative measurements of tropical rainfall to be obtained on a continuous basis over the entire global tropics. Dr. Simpson was the TRAM Project Scientist from 1986 until its launch in 1997. Her efforts during this crucial period ensured that the mission was both well planned scientifically and well engineered as well as within budget. In this paper, Dr. J. Simpson's nine specific accomplishments during her fifty-year career: (1) hot tower hypothesis, (2) hurricanes, (3) airflow and clouds over heated islands, (4) cloud models, (5) trade winds and their role in cumulus development, (6) air-sea interaction, (7) cloud-cloud interactions and mergers, (8) waterspouts, and (9) TRMM science, will be described and discussed.

Security Framework for Agent-Based Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K Venkateshwaran

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Agent can play a key role in bringing suitable cloud services to the customer based on their requirements. In agent based cloud computing, agent does negotiation, coordination, cooperation and collaboration on behalf of the customer to make the decisions in efficient manner. However the agent based cloud computing have some security issues like (a. addition of malicious agent in the cloud environment which could demolish the process by attacking other agents, (b. denial of service by creating flooding attacks on other involved agents. (c. Some of the exceptions in the agent interaction protocol such as Not-Understood and Cancel_Meta protocol can be misused and may lead to terminating the connection of all the other agents participating in the negotiating services. Also, this paper proposes algorithms to solve these issues to ensure that there will be no intervention of any malicious activities during the agent interaction.

Integrating Cloud-Computing-Specific Model into Aircraft Design

Science.gov (United States)

Zhimin, Tian; Qi, Lin; Guangwen, Yang

Cloud Computing is becoming increasingly relevant, as it will enable companies involved in spreading this technology to open the door to Web 3.0. In the paper, the new categories of services introduced will slowly replace many types of computational resources currently used. In this perspective, grid computing, the basic element for the large scale supply of cloud services, will play a fundamental role in defining how those services will be provided. The paper tries to integrate cloud computing specific model into aircraft design. This work has acquired good results in sharing licenses of large scale and expensive software, such as CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), UG, CATIA, and so on.

Benefits and Challenges of the Adoption of Cloud Computing in Business

OpenAIRE

Colin Ting Si Xue; Felicia Tiong Wee Xin

2016-01-01

The loss of business and downturn of economics almost occur every day. Thus technology is needed in every organization. Cloud computing has played a major role in solving the inefficiencies problem in organizations and increase the growth of business thus help the organizations to stay competitive. It is required to improve and automate the traditional ways of doing business. Cloud computing has been considered as an innovative way to improve business. Overall, cloud computing enables the org...

Cloud Computing Services: Benefits, Risks and Intellectual Property Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

IONELA BĂLŢĂTESCU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Major software players of the global market, such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft are developing cloud computing solutions, providing cloud services on demand: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS and Software as a service (SaaS. In software industry and also in ICT services market, cloud computing is playing an increasingly important role. Moreover, the expansion of cloud services indirectly contributed to the development and improvement of other types of services on the market – financial and accounting services, human resources services, educational services etc. – in terms of quality and affordability. Given the fact that cloud computing applications proved to be more affordable for small and medium enterprises (SME, an increasing number of companies in almost all the fields of activity have chosen cloud based solutions, such as Enterprise Resource Management (ERP software and Customer Relationship Management (CRM software. However, cloud computing services involve also some risks concerning privacy, security of data and lack of interoperability between cloud platforms. Patent strategy of certain proprietary software companies leaded to a veritable “patent war” and “patent arm race” endangering the process of standardization in software industry, especially in cloud computing. Intellectual property (IP legislation and court ruling in patent litigations is likely to have a significant impact on the development of cloud computing industry and cloud services.

Case studies of radiation in the cloud-capped atmospheric boundary layer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmetz, J.; Raschke, E.

1983-01-01

This review presents observations of marine stratocumulus obtained by the three research aircraft that participated in the Joint Air-Sea Interaction Project (JASIN). Detailed measurements were made of the thermodynamic, cloud physics and radiation fields for a uniform cloud sheet on 8 August 1978. These show a well mixed boundary layer with cloud liquid water contents close to their adiabatic values. The longwave and shortwave radiative components of the cloud layer energy budget were measured and good agreement was obtained between the observations and several radiation schemes. In particular, the measured cloud shortwave absorption was close to the theoretical values. Observations of shortwave fluxes made from the Falcon aircraft beneath broken stratocumulus are also shown and compared with calculations made by using a Monte Carlo model. It is concluded that the radiative cloud-cloud interactions do not play a dominant role in the bulk radiative properties of cloud fields. These are mainly determined by cloud amount and the vertical and horizontal optical depths of the clouds within the field. (author)

Scientific Services on the Cloud

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, David; Joshi, Karuna P.; Yesha, Yelena; Halem, Milt; Yesha, Yaacov; Nguyen, Phuong

Scientific Computing was one of the first every applications for parallel and distributed computation. To this date, scientific applications remain some of the most compute intensive, and have inspired creation of petaflop compute infrastructure such as the Oak Ridge Jaguar and Los Alamos RoadRunner. Large dedicated hardware infrastructure has become both a blessing and a curse to the scientific community. Scientists are interested in cloud computing for much the same reason as businesses and other professionals. The hardware is provided, maintained, and administrated by a third party. Software abstraction and virtualization provide reliability, and fault tolerance. Graduated fees allow for multi-scale prototyping and execution. Cloud computing resources are only a few clicks away, and by far the easiest high performance distributed platform to gain access to. There may still be dedicated infrastructure for ultra-scale science, but the cloud can easily play a major part of the scientific computing initiative.

Clouds and the Near-Earth Environment: Possible Links

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Condurache-Bota Simona

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Climate variability is a hot topic not only for scientists and policy-makers, but also for each and every one of us. The anthropogenic activities are considered to be responsible for most climate change, however there are large uncertainties about the magnitude of effects of solar variability and other extraterrestrial influences, such as galactic cosmic rays on terrestrial climate. Clouds play an important role due to feedbacks of the radiation budget: variation of cloud cover/composition affects climate, which, in turn, affects cloud cover via atmospheric dynamics and sea temperature variations. Cloud formation and evolution are still under scientific scrutiny, since their microphysics is still not understood. Besides atmospheric dynamics and other internal climatic parameters, extraterrestrial sources of cloud cover variation are considered. One of these is the solar wind, whose effect on cloud cover might be modulated by the global atmospheric electrical circuit. Clouds height and composition, their seasonal variation and latitudinal distribution should be considered when trying to identify possible mechanisms by which solar energy is transferred to clouds. The influence of the solar wind on cloud formation can be assessed also through the ap index - the geomagnetic storm index, which can be readily connected with interplanetary magnetic field, IMF structure. This paper proposes to assess the possible relationship between both cloud cover and solar wind proxies, as the ap index, function of cloud height and composition and also through seasonal studies. The data covers almost three solar cycles (1984-2009. Mechanisms are looked for by investigating observed trends or correlation at local/seasonal scale

A Wing Pod-based Millimeter Wave Cloud Radar on HIAPER

Science.gov (United States)

Vivekanandan, Jothiram; Tsai, Peisang; Ellis, Scott; Loew, Eric; Lee, Wen-Chau; Emmett, Joanthan

2014-05-01

observed sensitivity as low as -37 dBZ at 1 km range and resolved linear depolarization ratio (LDR) signature better than -29 dB during its latest test flights. References: Kollias, P., and B. A. Albrecht, 2000: The turbulence structure in a continental stratocumulus cloud from millimeter wavelength radar observation. J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 2417-2434. Kollias, P., B.A. Albrecht, R. Lhermitte, and A. Savtchenko, 2001: Radar observations of updrafts, downdrafts, and turbulence in fair weather cumuli. J. Atmos. Sci. 58, 1750-1766. Laursen, K. K., D. P. Jorgensen, G. P. Brasseur, S. L. Ustin, and J. Hunning, 2006: HIAPER: The next generation NSF/NCAR research aircraft. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 87, 896-909. Pazmany, A. L., R. E. McIntosh, R. Kelly, and V. G., 1994: An airborne 95-GHz dual-polarized radar for cloud studies. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 32, 731-739. Vali, G., Kelly, R.D., French, J., Haimov, S., Leon, D., McIntosh, R., Pazmany, A., 1998. Fine-scale structure and microphysics of coastal stratus. J. Atmos. Sci. 55, 3540-3564.

Characteristics of vertical velocity in marine stratocumulus: comparison of large eddy simulations with observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Huan; Liu Yangang; Daum, Peter H; Senum, Gunnar I; Tao, W-K

2008-01-01

We simulated a marine stratus deck sampled during the Marine Stratus/Stratocumulus Experiment (MASE) with a three-dimensional large eddy simulation (LES) model at different model resolutions. Various characteristics of the vertical velocity from the model simulations were evaluated against those derived from the corresponding aircraft in situ observations, focusing on standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, probability density function (PDF), power spectrum, and structure function. Our results show that although the LES model captures reasonably well the lower-order moments (e.g., horizontal averages and standard deviations), it fails to simulate many aspects of the higher-order moments, such as kurtosis, especially near cloud base and cloud top. Further investigations of the PDFs, power spectra, and structure functions reveal that compared to the observations, the model generally underestimates relatively strong variations on small scales. The results also suggest that increasing the model resolutions improves the agreements between the model results and the observations in virtually all of the properties that we examined. Furthermore, the results indicate that a vertical grid size <10 m is necessary for accurately simulating even the standard-deviation profile, posing new challenges to computer resources.

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.

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.

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.

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...

A radiative transfer module for calculating photolysis rates and solar heating in climate models: Solar-J v7.5

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Juno; Prather, Michael J.; Cameron-Smith, Philip; Veidenbaum, Alex; Nicolau, Alex

2017-07-01

Solar-J is a comprehensive radiative transfer model for the solar spectrum that addresses the needs of both solar heating and photochemistry in Earth system models. Solar-J is a spectral extension of Cloud-J, a standard in many chemical models that calculates photolysis rates in the 0.18-0.8 µm region. The Cloud-J core consists of an eight-stream scattering, plane-parallel radiative transfer solver with corrections for sphericity. Cloud-J uses cloud quadrature to accurately average over correlated cloud layers. It uses the scattering phase function of aerosols and clouds expanded to eighth order and thus avoids isotropic-equivalent approximations prevalent in most solar heating codes. The spectral extension from 0.8 to 12 µm enables calculation of both scattered and absorbed sunlight and thus aerosol direct radiative effects and heating rates throughout the Earth's atmosphere.The Solar-J extension adopts the correlated-k gas absorption bins, primarily water vapor, from the shortwave Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for general circulation model (GCM) applications (RRTMG-SW). Solar-J successfully matches RRTMG-SW's tropospheric heating profile in a clear-sky, aerosol-free, tropical atmosphere. We compare both codes in cloudy atmospheres with a liquid-water stratus cloud and an ice-crystal cirrus cloud. For the stratus cloud, both models use the same physical properties, and we find a systematic low bias of about 3 % in planetary albedo across all solar zenith angles caused by RRTMG-SW's two-stream scattering. Discrepancies with the cirrus cloud using any of RRTMG-SW's three different parameterizations are as large as about 20-40 % depending on the solar zenith angles and occur throughout the atmosphere.Effectively, Solar-J has combined the best components of RRTMG-SW and Cloud-J to build a high-fidelity module for the scattering and absorption of sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere, for which the three major components - wavelength integration, scattering, and

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…

A Report of Clouds on Titan

Science.gov (United States)

Corlies, Paul; Hayes, Alexander; Adamkovics, Mate; Rodriguez, Sebastien; Kelland, John; Turtle, Elizabeth P.; Mitchell, Jonathan; Lora, Juan M.; Rojo, Patricio; Lunine, Jonathan I.

2017-10-01

We present in this work a detailed analysis of many of the clouds in the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) dataset in order to understand their global and seasonal properties. Clouds are one of the few direct observables in Titan’s atmosphere (Griffith et al 2009, Rodriguez et al 2009, Adamkovics et al 2010), and so determining their characteristics allows for a better understanding of surface atmosphere interactions, winds, transport of volatile material, and general circulation. We find the clouds on Titan generally reside in at 5-15km altitude, which agrees with previous modelling efforts (Rafkin et al. 2015), as well as a power law distribution for cloud optical depth. We assume an average cloud droplet size of 100um. No seasonal dependence is observed with either cloud altitude or optical depth, suggesting there is no preferred seasonal formation mechanisms. Combining these characteristics with cloud size (Kelland et al 2017) can trace the transport of volatiles in Titan’s atmosphere, which can be compared against general circulation models (GCMs) (Lora et al 2015). We also present some specific analysis of interesting cloud systems including hypothesized surface fogs (Brown et al 2009) and orographic cloud formation (Barth et al 2010, Corlies et al 2017). In this analysis we use a correlation between Cassini VIMS and RADAR observations as well as an updated topographic map of Titan’s southern hemisphere to better understand the role that topography plays in influencing and driving atmospheric phenomena.Finally, with the end of the Cassini mission, ground based observing now acts as the only means with which to observe clouds on Titan. We present an update of an ongoing cloud campaign to search for clouds on Titan and to understand their seasonal evolution.References:Adamkovics et al. 2010, Icarus 208:868Barth et al. 2010, Planet. Space Sci. 58:1740Corlies et al. 2017, 48th LPSC, 2870CGriffith et al. 2009, ApJ 702:L105Kelland et al

+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.

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.

An Overview of Cloud Implementation in the Manufacturing Process Life Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Kassim, Noordiana; Yusof, Yusri; Hakim Mohamad, Mahmod Abd; Omar, Abdul Halim; Roslan, Rosfuzah; Aryanie Bahrudin, Ida; Ali, Mohd Hatta Mohamed

2017-08-01

The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the structure and functions of various sectors and it has also started to play a significant role in modern manufacturing in terms of computerized machining and cloud manufacturing. It is important for industries to keep up with the current trend of ICT for them to be able survive and be competitive. Cloud manufacturing is an approach that wanted to realize a real-world manufacturing processes that will apply the basic concept from the field of Cloud computing to the manufacturing domain called Cloud-based manufacturing (CBM) or cloud manufacturing (CM). Cloud manufacturing has been recognized as a new paradigm for manufacturing businesses. In cloud manufacturing, manufacturing companies need to support flexible and scalable business processes in the shop floor as well as the software itself. This paper provides an insight or overview on the implementation of cloud manufacturing in the modern manufacturing processes and at the same times analyses the requirements needed regarding process enactment for Cloud manufacturing and at the same time proposing a STEP-NC concept that can function as a tool to support the cloud manufacturing concept.

Dissolution process of atmospheric aerosol particles into cloud droplets; Processus de dissolution des aerosols atmospheriques au sein des gouttes d'eau nuageuses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Desboeufs, K

2001-01-15

Clouds affect both climate via the role they play in the Earth's radiation balance and tropospheric chemistry since they are efficient reaction media for chemical transformation of soluble species. Cloud droplets are formed in the atmosphere by condensation of water vapour onto aerosol particles, the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The water soluble fraction of these CCN governs the cloud micro-physics, which is the paramount factor playing on the radiative properties of clouds. Moreover, this soluble fraction is the source of species imply in the oxidation/reduction reactions in the aqueous phase. Thus, it is of particular importance to understand the process controlling the solubilization of aerosols in the cloud droplets. The main purpose of this work is to investigate experimentally and theoretically the dissolution of particles incorporated in the aqueous phase. From the studies conducted up to now, we have identify several factors playing on the dissolution reaction of aerosols. However, the quantification of the effects of these factors is difficult since the current means of study are not adapted to the complexity of cloud systems. First, this work consisted to perform a experimental system, compound by an open flow reactor, enabling to follow the kinetic of dissolution in conditions representative of cloud. This experimental device is used to a systematic characterisation of the known factors playing on the dissolution, i.e. pH, aerosol nature, aerosol weathering... and also for the identification and the quantification of the effects of other factors: ionic strength, acid nature, clouds processes. These experiments gave quantitative results, which are used to elaborate a simple model of aerosol dissolution in the aqueous phase. This model considers the main factors playing on the dissolution and results in a general mechanism of aerosol dissolution extrapolated to the cloud droplets. (author)

Influence of the liquid layer within mixed-phase clouds on radar observations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pfitzenmaier, L.; Dufournet, Y.; Unal, C.M.H.; Russchenberg, H.W.J.

2014-01-01

Mixed-phase clouds play an important role in the earth system. They affect earth radiative balance and the climate (Comstock et al., 2007; Solomon et al., 2007) as well as the formation of precipitation (de Boer et al., 2009; Fan et al., 2011; Lamb and Verlinde, 2011). Within such mixed-phase clouds

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....

Dense interstellar cloud chemistry: Basic issues and possible dynamical solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prasad, S.S.; Heere, K.R.; Tarafdar, S.P.

1989-01-01

Standing at crossroad of enthusiasm and frustration, dense intertellar cloud chemistry has a squarely posed fundamental problem: Why do the grains appear to play at best a minor role in the chemistry? Grain surface chemistry creates considerable difficulties when the authors treat dense clouds as static objects and ignore the implications of the processes by which the clouds became dense in the first place. A new generation of models which treat chemical and dynamical evolutions concurrently are therefore presented as possible solution to the current frustrations. The proposed modeling philosophy and agenda could make the next decade quite exciting for interstellar chemistry

Behavior of explosion debris clouds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1986-01-01

In the normal course of events the behavior of debris clouds created by explosions will be of little concern to the atomic energy industry. However, two situations, one of them actual and one postulated, exist where the rise and spread of explosion clouds can affect site operations. The actual occurrence would be the detonation of nuclear weapons and the resultant release and transport of radioactive debris across the various atomic energy installations. Although the activity of the diffusing cloud is not of biological concern, it may still be sufficiently above background to play havoc with the normal readings of sensitive monitoring instruments. If it were not known that these anomalous readings resulted from explosion debris, considerable time and expense might be required for on-site testing and tracing. Fortunately it is usually possible, with the use of meteorological data and forecasts, to predict when individual sites are affected by nuclear weapon debris effects. The formation rise, and diffusion of weapon clouds will be discussed. The explosion of an atomic reactor is the postulated situation. It is common practice in reactor hazard analysis to assume a combination of circumstances which might result in a nuclear incident with a release of material to the atmosphere. It is not within the scope of this report to examine the manifold plausibilities that might lead to an explosion or the possible methods of release of gaseous and/or particulates from such an occurrence. However, if the information of a cloud is assumed and some idea of its energy content is obtainable, estimates of the cloud behavior in the atmosphere can be made

Golden Jubilee Photos: Theorists at play

CERN Multimedia

2004-01-01

Alvaro De Rújula and John Ellis, two of the best-known theorists at CERN, on stage for the 1983 Theory Division play. The stereotype of theoretical physicists has them with their heads in the clouds. But CERN theorists have turned this notion on its head with their annual satirical plays. The first, in 1978, poked fun at the conflict between two competing groups who wanted the chance to perform the second experiment with the then-new Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Theorist John Ellis, who has been involved with most of the plays over the years, says the theorists "came up with the idea of defusing the tension by having the play." Each year, they base the play on a theme or symbol that will resonate with people from any culture. This first play was loosely based on l'Escalade, Geneva's annual celebration of having repelled the Duke of Savoy's attack in 1602. In the 1980s they staged "CERN lake," inspired by the ballet "Swan Lake"-and by the problems in digging the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider's tu...

Three-dimensional image reconstruction of macula from stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) for diagnosis of macular degeneration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arinilhaq; Widita, R

2016-01-01

Diagnosis of macular degeneration using a Stratus OCT with a fast macular thickness map (FMTM) method produced six B-scan images of macula from different angles. The images were converted into a retinal thickness chart to be evaluated by normal distribution percentile of data so that it can be classified as normal thickness of macula or as experiencing abnormality (e.g. thickening and thinning). Unfortunately, the diagnostic images only represent the retinal thickness in several areas of the macular region. Thus, this study is aims to obtain the entire retinal thickness in the macula area from Status OCT's output images. Basically, the volumetric image is obtained by combining each of the six images. Reconstruction consists of a series of processes such as pre-processing, segmentation, and interpolation. Linear interpolation techniques are used to fill the empty pixels in reconstruction matrix. Based on the results, this method is able to provide retinal thickness maps on the macula surface and the macula 3D image. Retinal thickness map can display the macula area which experienced abnormalities. The macula 3D image can show the layers of tissue in the macula that is abnormal. The system built cannot replace ophthalmologist in decision making in term of diagnosis. (paper)

Three-dimensional image reconstruction of macula from stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) for diagnosis of macular degeneration

Science.gov (United States)

Arinilhaq; Widita, R.

2016-03-01

Diagnosis of macular degeneration using a Stratus OCT with a fast macular thickness map (FMTM) method produced six B-scan images of macula from different angles. The images were converted into a retinal thickness chart to be evaluated by normal distribution percentile of data so that it can be classified as normal thickness of macula or as experiencing abnormality (e.g. thickening and thinning). Unfortunately, the diagnostic images only represent the retinal thickness in several areas of the macular region. Thus, this study is aims to obtain the entire retinal thickness in the macula area from Status OCT's output images. Basically, the volumetric image is obtained by combining each of the six images. Reconstruction consists of a series of processes such as pre-processing, segmentation, and interpolation. Linear interpolation techniques are used to fill the empty pixels in reconstruction matrix. Based on the results, this method is able to provide retinal thickness maps on the macula surface and the macula 3D image. Retinal thickness map can display the macula area which experienced abnormalities. The macula 3D image can show the layers of tissue in the macula that is abnormal. The system built cannot replace ophthalmologist in decision making in term of diagnosis.

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

Broadening of cloud droplet spectra through turbulent entrainment and eddy hopping

Science.gov (United States)

Abade, Gustavo; Grabowski, Wojciech; Pawlowska, Hanna

2017-11-01

This work discusses the effect of cloud turbulence and turbulent entrainment on the evolution of the cloud droplet-size spectrum. We simulate an ensemble of idealized turbulent cloud parcels that are subject to entrainment events, modeled as a random Poisson process. Entrainment events, subsequent turbulent mixing inside the parcel, supersaturation fluctuations, and the resulting stochastic droplet growth by condensation are simulated using a Monte Carlo scheme. Quantities characterizing the turbulence intensity, entrainment rate and the mean fraction of environmental air entrained in an event are specified as external parameters. Cloud microphysics is described by applying Lagrangian particles, the so-called superdroplets. They are either unactivated cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or cloud droplets that form from activated CCN. The model accounts for the transport of environmental CCN into the cloud by the entraining eddies at the cloud edge. Turbulent mixing of the entrained dry air with cloudy air is described using a linear model. We show that turbulence plays an important role in aiding entrained CCN to activate, providing a source of small cloud droplets and thus broadening the droplet size distribution. Further simulation results will be reported at the meeting.

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.

Dissolution process of atmospheric aerosol particles into cloud droplets; Processus de dissolution des aerosols atmospheriques au sein des gouttes d'eau nuageuses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Desboeufs, K.

2001-01-15

Clouds affect both climate via the role they play in the Earth's radiation balance and tropospheric chemistry since they are efficient reaction media for chemical transformation of soluble species. Cloud droplets are formed in the atmosphere by condensation of water vapour onto aerosol particles, the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The water soluble fraction of these CCN governs the cloud micro-physics, which is the paramount factor playing on the radiative properties of clouds. Moreover, this soluble fraction is the source of species imply in the oxidation/reduction reactions in the aqueous phase. Thus, it is of particular importance to understand the process controlling the solubilization of aerosols in the cloud droplets. The main purpose of this work is to investigate experimentally and theoretically the dissolution of particles incorporated in the aqueous phase. From the studies conducted up to now, we have identify several factors playing on the dissolution reaction of aerosols. However, the quantification of the effects of these factors is difficult since the current means of study are not adapted to the complexity of cloud systems. First, this work consisted to perform a experimental system, compound by an open flow reactor, enabling to follow the kinetic of dissolution in conditions representative of cloud. This experimental device is used to a systematic characterisation of the known factors playing on the dissolution, i.e. pH, aerosol nature, aerosol weathering... and also for the identification and the quantification of the effects of other factors: ionic strength, acid nature, clouds processes. These experiments gave quantitative results, which are used to elaborate a simple model of aerosol dissolution in the aqueous phase. This model considers the main factors playing on the dissolution and results in a general mechanism of aerosol dissolution extrapolated to the cloud droplets. (author)

Reproducibility of measurements and variability of the classification algorithm of Stratus OCT in normal, hypertensive, and glaucomatous patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfonso Antón

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Alfonso Antón1,2,3, Marta Castany1,2, Marta Pazos-Lopez1,2, Ruben Cuadrado3, Ana Flores3, Miguel Castilla11Hospital de la Esperanza-Hospital del Mar (IMAS, Barcelona, Spain; 2Institut Català de la Retina (ICR, Barcelona, Spain. Glaucoma Department; 3Instituto Universitario de Oftalmobiología Aplicada (IOBA, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, EspañaPurpose: To assess the reproducibility of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL measurements and the variability of the probabilistic classification algorithm in normal, hypertensive and glaucomatous eyes using Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT.Methods: Forty-nine eyes (13 normal, 17 ocular hypertensive [OHT] and 19 glaucomatous of 49 subjects were included in this study. RNFL was determined with Stratus OCT using the standard protocol RNFL thickness 3.4. Three different images of each eye were taken consecutively during the same session. To evaluate OCT reproducibility, coefficient of variation (COV and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC were calculated for average thickness (AvgT, superior average thickness (Savg, and inferior average thickness (Iavg parameters. The variability of the results of the probabilistic classification algorithm, based on the OCT normative database, was also analyzed. The percentage of eyes with changes in the category assigned was calculated for each group.Results: The 50th percentile of COV was 2.96%, 4.00%, and 4.31% for AvgT, Savg, and Iavg, respectively. Glaucoma group presented the largest COV for all three parameters (3.87%, 5.55%, 7.82%. ICC were greater than 0.75 for almost all measures (except from the inferior thickness parameter in the normal group; ICC = 0.64, 95% CI 0.334–0.857. Regarding the probabilistic classification algorithm for the three parameters (AvgT, Savg, Iavg, the percentage of eyes without color-code category changes among the three images was as follows: normal group, 100%, 84.6% and 92%; OHT group, 89.5%, 52.7%, 79%; and

Synergetic cloud fraction determination for SCIAMACHY using MERIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Schlundt

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Since clouds play an essential role in the Earth's climate system, it is important to understand the cloud characteristics as well as their distribution on a global scale using satellite observations. The main scientific objective of SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY onboard the ENVISAT satellite is the retrieval of vertical columns of trace gases.

On the one hand, SCIAMACHY has to be sensitive to low variations in trace gas concentrations which means the ground pixel size has to be large enough. On the other hand, such a large pixel size leads to the problem that SCIAMACHY spectra are often contaminated by clouds. SCIAMACHY spectral measurements are not well suitable to derive a reliable sub-pixel cloud fraction that can be used as input parameter for subsequent retrievals of cloud properties or vertical trace gas columns. Therefore, we use MERIS/ENVISAT spectral measurements with its high spatial resolution as sub-pixel information for the determination of MerIs Cloud fRation fOr Sciamachy (MICROS. Since MERIS covers an even broader swath width than SCIAMACHY, no problems in spatial and temporal collocation of measurements occur. This enables the derivation of a SCIAMACHY cloud fraction with an accuracy much higher as compared with other current cloud fractions that are based on SCIAMACHY's PMD (Polarization Measurement Device data.

We present our new developed MICROS algorithm, based on the threshold approach, as well as a qualitative validation of our results with MERIS satellite images for different locations, especially with respect to bright surfaces such as snow/ice and sands. In addition, the SCIAMACHY cloud fractions derived from MICROS are intercompared with other current SCIAMACHY cloud fractions based on different approaches demonstrating a considerable improvement regarding geometric cloud fraction determination using the MICROS algorithm.

Climatology analysis of cirrus cloud in ARM site: South Great Plain

Science.gov (United States)

Olayinka, K.

2017-12-01

Cirrus cloud play an important role in the atmospheric energy balance and hence in the earth's climate system. The properties of optically thin clouds can be determined from measurements of transmission of the direct solar beam. The accuracy of cloud optical properties determined in this way is compromised by contamination of the direct transmission by light that is scattered into the sensors field of view. With the forward scattering correction method developed by Min et al., (2004), the accuracy of thin cloud retrievals from MFRSR has been improved. Our result shows over 30% of cirrus cloud present in the atmosphere are within optical depth between (1-2). In this study, we do statistics studies on cirrus clouds properties based on multi-years cirrus cloud measurements from MFRSR at ARM site from the South Great Plain (SGP) site due to its relatively easy accessibility, wide variability of climate cloud types and surface flux properties, large seasonal variation in temperature and specific humidity. Through the statistic studies, temporal and spatial variations of cirrus clouds are investigated. Since the presence of cirrus cloud increases the effect of greenhouse gases, we will retrieve the aerosol optical depth in all the cirrus cloud regions using a radiative transfer model for atmospheric correction. Calculate thin clouds optical depth (COD), and aerosol optical depth (AOD) using a radiative transfer model algorithm, e.g.: MODTRAN (MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission)

Partial pressure (or fugacity) of carbon dioxide, salinity and other variables collected from time series observations using Bubble type equilibrator for autonomous carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement, Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas analyzer and other instruments from MOORING STRATUS_85W_20S, in the South Pacific Ocean from 2006-10-16 to 2015-04-03 (NODC Accession 0100075)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — NCEI Accession 0100075 includes chemical, meteorological, physical and time series data collected from MOORING STRATUS_85W_20S in the South Pacific Ocean from...

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.

A holistic image segmentation framework for cloud detection and extraction

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Dan; Xu, Haotian; Blasch, Erik; Horvath, Gregory; Pham, Khanh; Zheng, Yufeng; Ling, Haibin; Chen, Genshe

2013-05-01

Atmospheric clouds are commonly encountered phenomena affecting visual tracking from air-borne or space-borne sensors. Generally clouds are difficult to detect and extract because they are complex in shape and interact with sunlight in a complex fashion. In this paper, we propose a clustering game theoretic image segmentation based approach to identify, extract, and patch clouds. In our framework, the first step is to decompose a given image containing clouds. The problem of image segmentation is considered as a "clustering game". Within this context, the notion of a cluster is equivalent to a classical equilibrium concept from game theory, as the game equilibrium reflects both the internal and external (e.g., two-player) cluster conditions. To obtain the evolutionary stable strategies, we explore three evolutionary dynamics: fictitious play, replicator dynamics, and infection and immunization dynamics (InImDyn). Secondly, we use the boundary and shape features to refine the cloud segments. This step can lower the false alarm rate. In the third step, we remove the detected clouds and patch the empty spots by performing background recovery. We demonstrate our cloud detection framework on a video clip provides supportive results.

Aerosol-cloud interactions in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus

Science.gov (United States)

Solomon, A.

2017-12-01

Reliable climate projections require realistic simulations of Arctic cloud feedbacks. Of particular importance is accurately simulating Arctic mixed-phase stratocumuli (AMPS), which are ubiquitous and play an important role in regional climate due to their impact on the surface energy budget and atmospheric boundary layer structure through cloud-driven turbulence, radiative forcing, and precipitation. AMPS are challenging to model due to uncertainties in ice microphysical processes that determine phase partitioning between ice and radiatively important cloud liquid water. Since temperatures in AMPS are too warm for homogenous ice nucleation, ice must form through heterogeneous nucleation. In this presentation we discuss a relatively unexplored source of ice production-recycling of ice nuclei in regions of ice subsaturation. AMPS frequently have ice-subsaturated air near the cloud-driven mixed-layer base where falling ice crystals can sublimate, leaving behind IN. This study provides an idealized framework to understand feedbacks between dynamics and microphysics that maintain phase-partitioning in AMPS. In addition, the results of this study provide insight into the mechanisms and feedbacks that may maintain cloud ice in AMPS even when entrainment of IN at the mixed-layer boundaries is weak.

Comparison of convective clouds observed by spaceborne W-band radar and simulated by cloud-resolving atmospheric models

Science.gov (United States)

Dodson, Jason B.

Deep convective clouds (DCCs) play an important role in regulating global climate through vertical mass flux, vertical water transport, and radiation. For general circulation models (GCMs) to simulate the global climate realistically, they must simulate DCCs realistically. GCMs have traditionally used cumulus parameterizations (CPs). Much recent research has shown that multiple persistent unrealistic behaviors in GCMs are related to limitations of CPs. Two alternatives to CPs exist: the global cloud-resolving model (GCRM), and the multiscale modeling framework (MMF). Both can directly simulate the coarser features of DCCs because of their multi-kilometer horizontal resolutions, and can simulate large-scale meteorological processes more realistically than GCMs. However, the question of realistic behavior of simulated DCCs remains. How closely do simulated DCCs resemble observed DCCs? In this study I examine the behavior of DCCs in the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) and Superparameterized Community Atmospheric Model (SP-CAM), the latter with both single-moment and double-moment microphysics. I place particular emphasis on the relationship between cloud vertical structure and convective environment. I also emphasize the transition between shallow clouds and mature DCCs. The spatial domains used are the tropical oceans and the contiguous United States (CONUS), the latter of which produces frequent vigorous convection during the summer. CloudSat is used to observe DCCs, and A-Train and reanalysis data are used to represent the large-scale environment in which the clouds form. The CloudSat cloud mask and radar reflectivity profiles for CONUS cumuliform clouds (defined as clouds with a base within the planetary boundary layer) during boreal summer are first averaged and compared. Both NICAM and SP-CAM greatly underestimate the vertical growth of cumuliform clouds. Then they are sorted by three large-scale environmental variables: total preciptable

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.

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

Corona discharge induced snow formation in a cloud chamber.

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Jingjing; Wang, Tie-Jun; Li, Ruxin; Du, Shengzhe; Sun, Haiyi; Liu, Yonghong; Tian, Ye; Bai, Yafeng; Liu, Yaoxiang; Chen, Na; Wang, Jingwei; Wang, Cheng; Liu, Jiansheng; Chin, S L; Xu, Zhizhan

2017-09-18

Artificial rainmaking is in strong demand especially in arid regions. Traditional methods of seeding various Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) into the clouds are costly and not environment friendly. Possible solutions based on ionization were proposed more than 100 years ago but there is still a lack of convincing verification or evidence. In this report, we demonstrated for the first time the condensation and precipitation (or snowfall) induced by a corona discharge inside a cloud chamber. Ionic wind was found to have played a more significant role than ions as extra CCN. In comparison with another newly emerging femtosecond laser filamentation ionization method, the snow precipitation induced by the corona discharge has about 4 orders of magnitude higher wall-plug efficiency under similar conditions.

Estimating Cloud optical thickness from SEVIRI, for air quality research, by implementing a semi-analytical cloud retrieval algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, Praveen; De Ridder, Koen; van Looy, Stijn; van Lipzig, Nicole

2010-05-01

Clouds play an important role in Earth's climate system. As they affect radiation hence photolysis rate coefficients (ozone formation),they also affect the air quality at the surface of the earth. Thus, a satellite remote sensing technique is used to retrieve the cloud properties for air quality research. The geostationary satellite, Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) has onboard, the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). The channels in the wavelength 0.6 µm and 1.64 µm are used to retrieve cloud optical thickness (COT). The study domain is over Europe covering a region between 35°N-70°N and 5°W-30°E, centred over Belgium. The steps involved in pre-processing the EUMETSAT level 1.5 images are described, which includes, acquisition of digital count number, radiometric conversion using offsets and slopes, estimation of radiance and calculation of reflectance. The Sun-earth-satellite geometry also plays an important role. A semi-analytical cloud retrieval algorithm (Kokhanovsky et al., 2003) is implemented for the estimation of COT. This approach doesn't involve the conventional look-up table approach, hence it makes the retrieval independent of numerical radiative transfer solutions. The semi-analytical algorithm is implemented on a monthly dataset of SEVIRI level 1.5 images. Minimum reflectance in the visible channel, at each pixel, during the month is accounted as the surface albedo of the pixel. Thus, monthly variation of COT over the study domain is prepared. The result so obtained, is compared with the COT products of Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). Henceforth, an approach to assimilate the COT for air quality research is presented. Address of corresponding author: Praveen Pandey, VITO- Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Boeretang 200, B 2400, Mol, Belgium E-mail: praveen.pandey@vito.be

Atmospheric System Research Marine Low Clouds Workshop Report, January 27-29,2016

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jensen, M. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Wang, J. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Wood, R. [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

2016-06-01

Marine low clouds are a major determinant of the Earth?s albedo and are a major source of uncertainty in how the climate responds to changing greenhouse gas levels and anthropogenic aerosol. Marine low clouds are particularly difficult to simulate accurately in climate models, and their remote locations present a significant observational challenge. A complex set of interacting controlling processes determine the coverage, condensate loading, and microphysical and radiative properties of marine low clouds. Marine low clouds are sensitive to atmospheric aerosol in several ways. Interactions at microphysical scales involve changes in the concentration of cloud droplets and precipitation, which induce cloud dynamical impacts including changes in entrainment and mesoscale organization. Marine low clouds are also impacted by atmospheric heating changes due to absorbing aerosols. The response of marine low clouds to aerosol perturbations depends strongly upon the unperturbed aerosol-cloud state, which necessitates greater understanding of processes controlling the budget of aerosol in the marine boundary layer. Entrainment and precipitation mediate the response of low clouds to aerosols but these processes also play leading roles in controlling the aerosol budget. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program are making major recent investments in observational data sets from fixed and mobile sites dominated by marine low clouds. This report provides specific action items for how these measurements can be used together with process modeling to make progress on understanding and quantifying the key cloud and aerosol controlling processes in the next 5-10 years. Measurements of aerosol composition and its variation with particle size are needed to advance a quantitative, process-level understanding of marine boundary-layer aerosol budget. Quantitative precipitation estimates

OH+ IN DIFFUSE MOLECULAR CLOUDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Porras, A. J.; Federman, S. R.; Welty, D. E.; Ritchey, A. M.

2014-01-01

Near ultraviolet observations of OH + and OH in diffuse molecular clouds reveal a preference for different environments. The dominant absorption feature in OH + arises from a main component seen in CH + (that with the highest CH + /CH column density ratio), while OH follows CN absorption. This distinction provides new constraints on OH chemistry in these clouds. Since CH + detections favor low-density gas with small fractions of molecular hydrogen, this must be true for OH + as well, confirming OH + and H 2 O + observations with the Herschel Space Telescope. Our observed correspondence indicates that the cosmic ray ionization rate derived from these measurements pertains to mainly atomic gas. The association of OH absorption with gas rich in CN is attributed to the need for a high enough density and molecular fraction before detectable amounts are seen. Thus, while OH + leads to OH production, chemical arguments suggest that their abundances are controlled by different sets of conditions and that they coexist with different sets of observed species. Of particular note is that non-thermal chemistry appears to play a limited role in the synthesis of OH in diffuse molecular clouds

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.

Molecular line observations of infrared dark clouds in the galaxy

Science.gov (United States)

Finn, Susanna C.

Although massive stars play many important roles in the universe, their formation is poorly understood. Recently, a class of interstellar clouds known as Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) has been identified as likely progenitors of massive stars and clusters. These clouds are dense (nH 2 > 105 cm--3), cold (T Nessie Nebula," an extreme case of a filamentary IRDC, with predictions from the theory of the fluid instability and then expand the sample to other filamentary IRDCs. The observations are consistent with theoretical predictions of clump spacing, clump masses, and linear mass density. Fragmentation of filaments due to the sausage instability might be the dominant mode of star formation in the Universe.

On the Dependence of Cloud Feedbacks on Physical Parameterizations in WRF Aquaplanet Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Cesana, Grégory; Suselj, Kay; Brient, Florent

2017-10-01

We investigate the effects of physical parameterizations on cloud feedback uncertainty in response to climate change. For this purpose, we construct an ensemble of eight aquaplanet simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. In each WRF-derived simulation, we replace only one parameterization at a time while all other parameters remain identical. By doing so, we aim to (i) reproduce cloud feedback uncertainty from state-of-the-art climate models and (ii) understand how parametrizations impact cloud feedbacks. Our results demonstrate that this ensemble of WRF simulations, which differ only in physical parameterizations, replicates the range of cloud feedback uncertainty found in state-of-the-art climate models. We show that microphysics and convective parameterizations govern the magnitude and sign of cloud feedbacks, mostly due to tropical low-level clouds in subsidence regimes. Finally, this study highlights the advantages of using WRF to analyze cloud feedback mechanisms owing to its plug-and-play parameterization capability.

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.

A radiative transfer module for calculating photolysis rates and solar heating in climate models: Solar-J v7.5

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Hsu

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Solar-J is a comprehensive radiative transfer model for the solar spectrum that addresses the needs of both solar heating and photochemistry in Earth system models. Solar-J is a spectral extension of Cloud-J, a standard in many chemical models that calculates photolysis rates in the 0.18–0.8 µm region. The Cloud-J core consists of an eight-stream scattering, plane-parallel radiative transfer solver with corrections for sphericity. Cloud-J uses cloud quadrature to accurately average over correlated cloud layers. It uses the scattering phase function of aerosols and clouds expanded to eighth order and thus avoids isotropic-equivalent approximations prevalent in most solar heating codes. The spectral extension from 0.8 to 12 µm enables calculation of both scattered and absorbed sunlight and thus aerosol direct radiative effects and heating rates throughout the Earth's atmosphere.The Solar-J extension adopts the correlated-k gas absorption bins, primarily water vapor, from the shortwave Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for general circulation model (GCM applications (RRTMG-SW. Solar-J successfully matches RRTMG-SW's tropospheric heating profile in a clear-sky, aerosol-free, tropical atmosphere. We compare both codes in cloudy atmospheres with a liquid-water stratus cloud and an ice-crystal cirrus cloud. For the stratus cloud, both models use the same physical properties, and we find a systematic low bias of about 3 % in planetary albedo across all solar zenith angles caused by RRTMG-SW's two-stream scattering. Discrepancies with the cirrus cloud using any of RRTMG-SW's three different parameterizations are as large as about 20–40 % depending on the solar zenith angles and occur throughout the atmosphere.Effectively, Solar-J has combined the best components of RRTMG-SW and Cloud-J to build a high-fidelity module for the scattering and absorption of sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere, for which the three major components – wavelength

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.

Contributions of Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation, Large-Scale Circulation, and Shallow Cumulus Detrainment to Cloud Phase Transition in Mixed-Phase Clouds with NCAR CAM5

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, X.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, D.; Wang, Z.

2016-12-01

Mixed-phase clouds consisting of both liquid and ice water occur frequently at high-latitudes and in mid-latitude storm track regions. This type of clouds has been shown to play a critical role in the surface energy balance, surface air temperature, and sea ice melting in the Arctic. Cloud phase partitioning between liquid and ice water determines the cloud optical depth of mixed-phase clouds because of distinct optical properties of liquid and ice hydrometeors. The representation and simulation of cloud phase partitioning in state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs) are associated with large biases. In this study, the cloud phase partition in mixed-phase clouds simulated from the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5) is evaluated against satellite observations. Observation-based supercooled liquid fraction (SLF) is calculated from CloudSat, MODIS and CPR radar detected liquid and ice water paths for clouds with cloud-top temperatures between -40 and 0°C. Sensitivity tests with CAM5 are conducted for different heterogeneous ice nucleation parameterizations with respect to aerosol influence (Wang et al., 2014), different phase transition temperatures for detrained cloud water from shallow convection (Kay et al., 2016), and different CAM5 model configurations (free-run versus nudged winds and temperature, Zhang et al., 2015). A classical nucleation theory-based ice nucleation parameterization in mixed-phase clouds increases the SLF especially at temperatures colder than -20°C, and significantly improves the model agreement with observations in the Arctic. The change of transition temperature for detrained cloud water increases the SLF at higher temperatures and improves the SLF mostly over the Southern Ocean. Even with the improved SLF from the ice nucleation and shallow cumulus detrainment, the low SLF biases in some regions can only be improved through the improved circulation with the nudging technique. Our study highlights the challenges of

CERES cloud property retrievals from imagers on TRMM, Terra, and Aqua

Science.gov (United States)

Minnis, Patrick; Young, David F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Heck, Patrick W.; Doelling, David R.; Trepte, Qing Z.

2004-02-01

The micro- and macrophysical properties of clouds play a crucial role in Earth"s radiation budget. The NASA Clouds and Earth"s Radiant Energy System (CERES) is providing simultaneous measurements of the radiation and cloud fields on a global basis to improve the understanding and modeling of the interaction between clouds and radiation at the top of the atmosphere, at the surface, and within the atmosphere. Cloud properties derived for CERES from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites are compared to ensure consistency between the products to ensure the reliability of the retrievals from multiple platforms at different times of day. Comparisons of cloud fraction, height, optical depth, phase, effective particle size, and ice and liquid water paths from the two satellites show excellent consistency. Initial calibration comparisons are also very favorable. Differences between the Aqua and Terra results are generally due to diurnally dependent changes in the clouds. Additional algorithm refinement is needed over the polar regions for Aqua and at night over those same areas for Terra. The results should be extremely valuable for model validation and improvement and for improving our understanding of the relationship between clouds and the radiation budget.

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

The Radiative Role of Free Tropospheric Aerosols and Marine Clouds over the Central North Atlantic

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mazzoleni, Claudio [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Kumar, Sumit [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Wright, Kendra [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Kramer, Louisa [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Mazzoleni, Lynn [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Owen, Robert [Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Helmig, Detlev [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

2014-12-09

microscope – were often very compacted, suggesting cloud processing and exhibiting different optical properties from fresh emissions. In addition, black carbon was found to be sometimes mixed with mineral dust, affecting its optical properties and potential forcing. c) Some aerosols collected at PMO acted as ice nuclei, potentially contributing to cirrus cloud formation during their transport in the upper free troposphere. Identified good ice nuclei were often mineral dust particles. d) The free tropospheric aerosols studied at PMO have relevance to low level marine clouds due, for example, to synoptic subsidence entraining free tropospheric aerosols into the marine boundary layer. This has potentially large consequences on cloud condensation nuclei concentrations and compositions in the marine boundary layer; therefore, having an effect on the marine stratus clouds, with potentially important repercussions on the radiative forcing. The scientific products of this project currently include contributions to two papers published in the Nature Publishing group (Nature Communications and Scientific Reports), one paper under revision for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, one in review in Geophysical Research Letters and one recently submitted to Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion. In addition, four manuscripts are in advanced state of preparation. Finally, twenty-eight presentations were given at international conferences, workshops and seminars.

The impact of radiatively active water-ice clouds on Martian mesoscale atmospheric circulations

Science.gov (United States)

Spiga, A.; Madeleine, J.-B.; Hinson, D.; Navarro, T.; Forget, F.

2014-04-01

Background and Goals Water ice clouds are a key component of the Martian climate [1]. Understanding the properties of the Martian water ice clouds is crucial to constrain the Red Planet's climate and hydrological cycle both in the present and in the past [2]. In recent years, this statement have become all the more true as it was shown that the radiative effects of water ice clouds is far from being as negligible as hitherto believed; water ice clouds plays instead a key role in the large-scale thermal structure and dynamics of the Martian atmosphere [3, 4, 5]. Nevertheless, the radiative effect of water ice clouds at lower scales than the large synoptic scale (the so-called meso-scales) is still left to be explored. Here we use for the first time mesoscale modeling with radiatively active water ice clouds to address this open question.

The response of filamentary and spherical clouds to the turbulence and magnetic field

Science.gov (United States)

Gholipour, Mahmoud

2018-05-01

Recent observations have revealed that there is a power-law relation between magnetic field and density in molecular clouds. Furthermore, turbulence has been observed in some regions of molecular clouds and the velocity dispersion resulting from the turbulence is found to correlate with to the cloud density. Relating to these observations, in this study, we model filamentary and spherical clouds in magnetohydrostatic equilibrium in two quiescent and turbulent regions. The proposed equations are expected to represent the impact of magnetic field and turbulence on the cloud structure and the relation of cloud mass with shape. The Virial theorem is applied to consider the cloud evolution leading to important conditions for equilibrium of the cloud over its lifetime. The obtained results indicate that under the same conditions of the magnetic field and turbulence, each shape presents different responses. The possible ways for the formation of massive cores or coreless clouds in some regions as well as the formation of massive stars or low-mass stars can be discussed based on the results of this study. It should be mentioned that the shape of the clouds plays an important role in the formation of the protostellar clouds as well as their structure and evolution. This role is due to the effects of magnetic fields and turbulence.

Effects of model resolution and parameterizations on the simulations of clouds, precipitation, and their interactions with aerosols

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seoung Soo; Li, Zhanqing; Zhang, Yuwei; Yoo, Hyelim; Kim, Seungbum; Kim, Byung-Gon; Choi, Yong-Sang; Mok, Jungbin; Um, Junshik; Ock Choi, Kyoung; Dong, Danhong

2018-01-01

This study investigates the roles played by model resolution and microphysics parameterizations in the well-known uncertainties or errors in simulations of clouds, precipitation, and their interactions with aerosols by the numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. For this investigation, we used cloud-system-resolving model (CSRM) simulations as benchmark simulations that adopt high-resolution and full-fledged microphysical processes. These simulations were evaluated against observations, and this evaluation demonstrated that the CSRM simulations can function as benchmark simulations. Comparisons between the CSRM simulations and the simulations at the coarse resolutions that are generally adopted by current NWP models indicate that the use of coarse resolutions as in the NWP models can lower not only updrafts and other cloud variables (e.g., cloud mass, condensation, deposition, and evaporation) but also their sensitivity to increasing aerosol concentration. The parameterization of the saturation process plays an important role in the sensitivity of cloud variables to aerosol concentrations. while the parameterization of the sedimentation process has a substantial impact on how cloud variables are distributed vertically. The variation in cloud variables with resolution is much greater than what happens with varying microphysics parameterizations, which suggests that the uncertainties in the NWP simulations are associated with resolution much more than microphysics parameterizations.

Airborne Measurements of CO2 Column Concentration and Range Using a Pulsed Direct-Detection IPDA Lidar

Science.gov (United States)

Abshire, James B.; Ramanathan, Anand; Riris, Haris; Mao, Jianping; Allan, Graham R.; Hasselbrack, William E.; Weaver, Clark J.; Browell, Edward V.

2013-01-01

We have previously demonstrated a pulsed direct detection IPDA lidar to measure range and the column concentration of atmospheric CO2. The lidar measures the atmospheric backscatter profiles and samples the shape of the 1,572.33 nm CO2 absorption line. We participated in the ASCENDS science flights on the NASA DC-8 aircraft during August 2011 and report here lidar measurements made on four flights over a variety of surface and cloud conditions near the US. These included over a stratus cloud deck over the Pacific Ocean, to a dry lake bed surrounded by mountains in Nevada, to a desert area with a coal-fired power plant, and from the Rocky Mountains to Iowa, with segments with both cumulus and cirrus clouds. Most flights were to altitudes >12 km and had 5-6 altitude steps. Analyses show the retrievals of lidar range, CO2 column absorption, and CO2 mixing ratio worked well when measuring over topography with rapidly changing height and reflectivity, through thin clouds, between cumulus clouds, and to stratus cloud tops. The retrievals shows the decrease in column CO2 due to growing vegetation when flying over Iowa cropland as well as a sudden increase in CO2 concentration near a coal-fired power plant. For regions where the CO2 concentration was relatively constant, the measured CO2 absorption lineshape (averaged for 50 s) matched the predicted shapes to better than 1% RMS error. For 10 s averaging, the scatter in the retrievals was typically 2-3 ppm and was limited by the received signal photon count. Retrievals were made using atmospheric parameters from both an atmospheric model and from in situ temperature and pressure from the aircraft. The retrievals had no free parameters and did not use empirical adjustments, and >70% of the measurements passed screening and were used in analysis. The differences between the lidar-measured retrievals and in situ measured average CO2 column concentrations were 6 km.

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.

Sensitivity of cloud albedo to aerosol concentration and spectral dispersion of cloud droplet size distribution

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Iorga, G. [Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, Bucharest (Romania)]. E-mail: giorga@gw-chimie.math.unibuc.ro; Stefan, S. [Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest (Romania)

2007-07-15

Both the enhancement of the aerosol number concentration and the relative dispersion of the cloud droplet size distribution (spectral dispersion) on a regional scale can modify the cloud reflectivity. This work is focused on the role that pre-cloud aerosol plays in cloud reflectivity. Log-normal aerosol size distributions were used to describe two aerosol types: marine and rural. The number of aerosols that activate to droplets was obtained based on Abdul-Razzak and Ghan's (2000) activation parameterization. The cloud albedo taking into account the spectral dispersion effect in the parameterization of cloud effective radius and in the scattering asymmetry factor has been estimated. Two different scaling factors to account for dispersion were used. The sensitivity of cloud albedo to spectral dispersion-cloud droplet number concentration relationship in connection to the changes in liquid water content (LWC), and the cloud droplet effective radius has been also investigated. We obtained higher values of effective radius when dispersion is taken into account, with respect to the base case (without considering dispersion). The inferred absolute differences in effective radius values between calculations with each of the scaling factors are below 0.8 {mu}m as LWC ranges between 0.1 and 1.0 g m-3. The optical depth decreased by up to 14% (marine), and up to 29% (continental) when dispersion is considered in both effective radius and asymmetry factor ({beta}LDR scaling factor). Correspondingly, the relative change in cloud albedo is up to 6% (marine) and up to 11% (continental) clouds. For continental clouds, the calculated effective radius when dispersion is considered fits well within the measured range of effective radius in SCAR-B project. The calculated cloud albedo when dispersion is considered shows better agreement with the estimated cloud albedo from measured effective radius in SCAR-B project than the cloud albedo calculated without dispersion. In cleaner

The Role of Emissivity in the Detection of Arctic Night Clouds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filomena Romano

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Detection of clouds over polar areas from satellite radiometric measurements in the visible and IR atmospheric window region is rather difficult because of the high albedo of snow, possible ice covered surfaces, very low humidity, and the usual presence of atmospheric temperature inversion. Cold and highly reflective polar surfaces provide little thermal and visible contrast between clouds and the background surface. Moreover, due to the presence of temperature inversion, clouds are not always identifiable as being colder than the background. In addition, low humidity often causes polar clouds to be optically thin. Finally, polar clouds are usually composed of a mixture of ice and water, which leads to an unclear spectral signature. Single and bi-spectral threshold methods are sometimes inappropriate due to a large variability of surface emissivity and cloud conditions. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the crucial role played by surface emissivity in the detection of polar winter clouds and the potential improvement offered by infrared hyperspectral observations, such as from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI. In this paper a new approach for cloud detection is proposed and validated exploiting active measurements from satellite sensors, i.e., the CloudSat cloud profiling radar (CPR and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP on board the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO. For a homogenous IASI field of view (FOVs, the proposed cloud detection scheme tallies with the combined CPR and CALIOP product in classifying 98.11% of the FOVs as cloudy and also classifies 97.54% of the FOVs as clear. The Hansen Kuipers discriminant reaches 0.95.

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.

The Measurement of cloud velocity using the pulsed laser and image tracking technique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwon, Seong-Ouk; Baik, Seung-Hoon; Park, Seung-Kyu; Park, Nak-Gyu; Kim, Dong-lyul; Ahn, Yong-Jin [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

The height of the clouds is also important for the three dimensional radiative interaction of aerosols and clouds, since the radiative effects vary strongly depending whether the cloud is above, below or even embedded in an aerosol layer. Clouds play an important role in climate change, in the prediction of local weather, and also in aviation safety when instrument assisted flying is unavailable. Presently, various ground-based instruments used for the measurements of the cloud base height or velocity. Lidar techniques are powerful and have many applications in climate studies, including the clouds' temperature measurement, the aerosol particle properties, etc. Otherwise, it is very circumscribed in cloud velocity measurements In this paper, we propose a new method to measure the cloud velocity. In this paper, we presented a method for the measurement of the cloud altitude and velocity using lidar's range detection and the tracking system. For the lidar system, we used an injection-seeded pulsed Nd:YAG laser as the transmitter to measure the distance to the target clouds. We used the DIC system to track the cloud image and calculate the actual displacement per unit time. The configured lidar system acquired the lidar signal of clouds at a distance of about 4 km. The developed fast correlation algorithm of the tracking, which is used to track the fast moving cloud relatively, was efficient for measuring the cloud velocity in real time. The measurement values had a linear distribution.

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.

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.

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.

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

Aerosol-cloud interactions in a multi-scale modeling framework

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, G.; Ghan, S. J.

2017-12-01

Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in changing the Earth's climate through scattering/absorbing solar and terrestrial radiation and interacting with clouds. However, quantification of the aerosol effects remains one of the most uncertain aspects of current and future climate projection. Much of the uncertainty results from the multi-scale nature of aerosol-cloud interactions, which is very challenging to represent in traditional global climate models (GCMs). In contrast, the multi-scale modeling framework (MMF) provides a viable solution, which explicitly resolves the cloud/precipitation in the cloud resolved model (CRM) embedded in the GCM grid column. In the MMF version of community atmospheric model version 5 (CAM5), aerosol processes are treated with a parameterization, called the Explicit Clouds Parameterized Pollutants (ECPP). It uses the cloud/precipitation statistics derived from the CRM to treat the cloud processing of aerosols on the GCM grid. However, this treatment treats clouds on the CRM grid but aerosols on the GCM grid, which is inconsistent with the reality that cloud-aerosol interactions occur on the cloud scale. To overcome the limitation, here, we propose a new aerosol treatment in the MMF: Explicit Clouds Explicit Aerosols (ECEP), in which we resolve both clouds and aerosols explicitly on the CRM grid. We first applied the MMF with ECPP to the Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME) model to have an MMF version of ACME. Further, we also developed an alternative version of ACME-MMF with ECEP. Based on these two models, we have conducted two simulations: one with the ECPP and the other with ECEP. Preliminary results showed that the ECEP simulations tend to predict higher aerosol concentrations than ECPP simulations, because of the more efficient vertical transport from the surface to the higher atmosphere but the less efficient wet removal. We also found that the cloud droplet number concentrations are also different between the

Properties of Arctic Aerosol Particles and Residuals of Warm Clouds: Cloud Activation Efficiency and the Aerosol Indirect Effect

Science.gov (United States)

Zelenyuk, A.; Imre, D. G.; Leaitch, R.; Ovchinnikov, M.; Liu, P.; Macdonald, A.; Strapp, W.; Ghan, S. J.; Earle, M. E.

2012-12-01

Single particle mass spectrometer, SPLAT II, was used to characterize the size, composition, number concentration, density, and shape of individual Arctic spring aerosol. Background particles, particles above and below the cloud, cloud droplet residuals, and interstitial particles were characterized with goal to identify the properties that separate cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) from background aerosol particles. The analysis offers a comparison between warm clouds formed on clean and polluted days, with clean days having maximum particle concentrations (Na) lower than ~250 cm-3, as compared with polluted days, in which maximum concentration was tenfold higher. On clean days, particles were composed of organics, organics mixed with sulfates, biomass burning (BB), sea salt (SS), and few soot and dust particles. On polluted days, BB, organics associated with BB, and their mixtures with sulfate dominated particle compositions. Based on the measured compositions and size distributions of cloud droplet residuals, background aerosols, and interstitial particles, we conclude that these three particle types had virtually the same compositions, which means that cloud activation probabilities were surprisingly nearly composition independent. Moreover, these conclusions hold in cases in which less than 20% or more than 90% of background particles got activated. We concluded that for the warm clouds interrogated in this study particle size played a more important factor on aerosol CCN activity. Comparative analysis of all studied clouds reveals that aerosol activation efficiency strongly depends on the aerosol concentrations, such that at Na <200 cm-3, nearly all particles activate, and at higher concentrations the activation efficiency is lower. For example, when Na was greater than 1500 cm-3, less than ~30% of particles activated. The data suggest that as the number of nucleated droplets increases, condensation on existing droplets effectively competes with particle

Impact of Aerosol Processing on Orographic Clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Pousse-Nottelmann, Sara; Zubler, Elias M.; Lohmann, Ulrike

2010-05-01

Aerosol particles undergo significant modifications during their residence time in the atmosphere. Physical processes like coagulation, coating and water uptake, and aqueous surface chemistry alter the aerosol size distribution and composition. At this, clouds play a primary role as physical and chemical processing inside cloud droplets contributes considerably to the changes in aerosol particles. A previous study estimates that on global average atmospheric particles are cycled three times through a cloud before being removed from the atmosphere [1]. An explicit and detailed treatment of cloud-borne particles has been implemented in the regional weather forecast and climate model COSMO-CLM. The employed model version includes a two-moment cloud microphysical scheme [2] that has been coupled to the aerosol microphysical scheme M7 [3] as described by Muhlbauer and Lohmann, 2008 [4]. So far, the formation, transfer and removal of cloud-borne aerosol number and mass were not considered in the model. Following the parameterization for cloud-borne particles developed by Hoose et al., 2008 [5], distinction between in-droplet and in-crystal particles is made to more physically account for processes in mixed-phase clouds, such as the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process and contact and immersion freezing. In our model, this approach has been extended to allow for aerosol particles in five different hydrometeors: cloud droplets, rain drops, ice crystals, snow flakes and graupel. We account for nucleation scavenging, freezing and melting processes, autoconversion, accretion, aggregation, riming and selfcollection, collisions between interstitial aerosol particles and hydrometeors, ice multiplication, sedimentation, evaporation and sublimation. The new scheme allows an evaluation of the cloud cycling of aerosol particles by tracking the particles even when scavenged into hydrometeors. Global simulations of aerosol processing in clouds have recently been conducted by Hoose et al

A Reference Architecture for a Cloud-Based Tools as a Service Workspace

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chauhan, Aufeef; Babar, Muhammad Ali; Sheng, Quan Z.

2015-01-01

Software Architecture (SA) plays a critical role in developing and evolving cloud-based applications. We present a Reference Architecture (RA) for designing Cloud-based Tools as a service work SPACE (TSPACE) - a platform for provisioning chain of tools following the Software as a Service (SaaS...... evaluate the RA in terms of completeness and feasibility. Our proposed RA can provide valuable guidance and insights for designing and implementing concrete software architectures of TSPACE....

Linkage of anthropogenic aerosol to clouds and climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hudson, J.G.

1992-01-01

During the first year of this project equipment was built to obtain direct droplet measurement data from a mobile platform in fog (or mountain impacted stratum) and to characterize CCN according to particle volatility (thermal processing). Since the start date, July 15, 1990, was during the California stratus season and it was necessary to complete the construction of equipment and allow time before a field project it was not possible to begin field work until the summer of 1991. This report discusses surface measurements made in 1991 and 1992 as well as the SEAHUNT (Shiptrail Evolution Above High Updraft Naval Targets) Project and the ASTEX (Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment) Project

Trust-Enhanced Cloud Service Selection Model Based on QoS Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Yuchen; Ding, Shuai; Fan, Wenjuan; Li, Jing; Yang, Shanlin

2015-01-01

Cloud computing technology plays a very important role in many areas, such as in the construction and development of the smart city. Meanwhile, numerous cloud services appear on the cloud-based platform. Therefore how to how to select trustworthy cloud services remains a significant problem in such platforms, and extensively investigated owing to the ever-growing needs of users. However, trust relationship in social network has not been taken into account in existing methods of cloud service selection and recommendation. In this paper, we propose a cloud service selection model based on the trust-enhanced similarity. Firstly, the direct, indirect, and hybrid trust degrees are measured based on the interaction frequencies among users. Secondly, we estimate the overall similarity by combining the experience usability measured based on Jaccard's Coefficient and the numerical distance computed by Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Then through using the trust degree to modify the basic similarity, we obtain a trust-enhanced similarity. Finally, we utilize the trust-enhanced similarity to find similar trusted neighbors and predict the missing QoS values as the basis of cloud service selection and recommendation. The experimental results show that our approach is able to obtain optimal results via adjusting parameters and exhibits high effectiveness. The cloud services ranking by our model also have better QoS properties than other methods in the comparison experiments.

Explicit prediction of ice clouds in general circulation models

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Martin

1999-11-01

Although clouds play extremely important roles in the radiation budget and hydrological cycle of the Earth, there are large quantitative uncertainties in our understanding of their generation, maintenance and decay mechanisms, representing major obstacles in the development of reliable prognostic cloud water schemes for General Circulation Models (GCMs). Recognizing their relative neglect in the past, both observationally and theoretically, this work places special focus on ice clouds. A recent version of the UCLA - University of Utah Cloud Resolving Model (CRM) that includes interactive radiation is used to perform idealized experiments to study ice cloud maintenance and decay mechanisms under various conditions in term of: (1) background static stability, (2) background relative humidity, (3) rate of cloud ice addition over a fixed initial time-period and (4) radiation: daytime, nighttime and no-radiation. Radiation is found to have major effects on the life-time of layer-clouds. Optically thick ice clouds decay significantly slower than expected from pure microphysical crystal fall-out (taucld = 0.9--1.4 h as opposed to no-motion taumicro = 0.5--0.7 h). This is explained by the upward turbulent fluxes of water induced by IR destabilization, which partially balance the downward transport of water by snowfall. Solar radiation further slows the ice-water decay by destruction of the inversion above cloud-top and the resulting upward transport of water. Optically thin ice clouds, on the other hand, may exhibit even longer life-times (>1 day) in the presence of radiational cooling. The resulting saturation mixing ratio reduction provides for a constant cloud ice source. These CRM results are used to develop a prognostic cloud water scheme for the UCLA-GCM. The framework is based on the bulk water phase model of Ose (1993). The model predicts cloud liquid water and cloud ice separately, and which is extended to split the ice phase into suspended cloud ice (predicted

Use of VMware for providing cloud infrastructure for the Grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Long, Robin; Storey, Matthew

2014-01-01

The need to maximise computing resources whilst maintaining versatile setups leads to the need for flexible on demand facilities through the use of cloud computing. GridPP is currently investigating the role that Cloud Computing, in the form of Virtual Machines, can play in supporting Particle Physics analyses. As part of this research we look at the ability of VMware's ESXi hyper-visors[6] to provide such an infrastructure through the use of Virtual Machines (VMs); the advantages of such systems and their potential performance compared to physical environments.

Added value of far-infrared radiometry for remote sensing of ice clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Libois, Quentin; Blanchet, Jean-Pierre

2017-06-01

Several cloud retrieval algorithms based on satellite observations in the infrared have been developed in the last decades. However, these observations only cover the midinfrared (MIR, λ transparent in the FIR, using FIR channels would reduce by more than 50% the uncertainties on retrieved values of optical thickness, effective particle diameter, and cloud top altitude. Notably, this would extend the range of applicability of current retrieval methods to the polar regions and to clouds with large optical thickness, where MIR algorithms perform poorly. The high performance of solar reflection-based algorithms would thus be reached in nighttime conditions. Since the sensitivity of ice cloud thermal emission to effective particle diameter is approximately 5 times larger in the FIR than in the MIR, using FIR observations is a promising venue for studying ice cloud microphysics and precipitation processes. This is highly relevant for cirrus clouds and convective towers. This is also essential to study precipitation in the driest regions of the atmosphere, where strong feedbacks are at play between clouds and water vapor. The deployment in the near future of a FIR spaceborne radiometer is technologically feasible and should be strongly supported.

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...

Investigation of tropical cirrus cloud properties using ground based lidar measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Dhaman, Reji K.; Satyanarayana, Malladi; Krishnakumar, V.; Mahadevan Pillai, V. P.; Jayeshlal, G. S.; Raghunath, K.; Venkat Ratnam, M.

2016-05-01

Cirrus clouds play a significant role in the Earths radiation budget. Therefore, knowledge of geometrical and optical properties of cirrus cloud is essential for the climate modeling. In this paper, the cirrus clouds microphysical and optical properties are made by using a ground based lidar measurements over an inland tropical station Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E), Andhra Pradesh, India. The variation of cirrus microphysical and optical properties with mid cloud temperature is also studied. The cirrus clouds mean height is generally observed in the range of 9-17km with a peak occurrence at 13- 14km. The cirrus mid cloud temperature ranges from -81°C to -46°C. The cirrus geometrical thickness ranges from 0.9- 4.5km. During the cirrus occurrence days sub-visual, thin and dense cirrus were at 37.5%, 50% and 12.5% respectively. The monthly cirrus optical depth ranges from 0.01-0.47, but most (<80%) of the cirrus have values less than 0.1. Optical depth shows a strong dependence with cirrus geometrical thickness and mid-cloud height. The monthly mean cirrus extinction ranges from 2.8E-06 to 8E-05 and depolarization ratio and lidar ratio varies from 0.13 to 0.77 and 2 to 52 sr respectively. A positive correlation exists for both optical depth and extinction with the mid-cloud temperature. The lidar ratio shows a scattered behavior with mid-cloud temperature.

An Efficient Interactive Model for On-Demand Sensing-As-A-Servicesof Sensor-Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thanh Dinh

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an efficient interactive model for the sensor-cloud to enable the sensor-cloud to efficiently provide on-demand sensing services for multiple applications with different requirements at the same time. The interactive model is designed for both the cloud and sensor nodes to optimize the resource consumption of physical sensors, as well as the bandwidth consumption of sensing traffic. In the model, the sensor-cloud plays a key role in aggregating application requests to minimize the workloads required for constrained physical nodes while guaranteeing that the requirements of all applications are satisfied. Physical sensor nodes perform their sensing under the guidance of the sensor-cloud. Based on the interactions with the sensor-cloud, physical sensor nodes adapt their scheduling accordingly to minimize their energy consumption. Comprehensive experimental results show that our proposed system achieves a significant improvement in terms of the energy consumption of physical sensors, the bandwidth consumption from the sink node to the sensor-cloud, the packet delivery latency, reliability and scalability, compared to current approaches. Based on the obtained results, we discuss the economical benefits and how the proposed system enables a win-win model in the sensor-cloud.

Analytic Closed-Form Solution of a Mixed Layer Model for Stratocumulus Clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Akyurek, Bengu Ozge

Stratocumulus clouds play an important role in climate cooling and are hard to predict using global climate and weather forecast models. Thus, previous studies in the literature use observations and numerical simulation tools, such as large-eddy simulation (LES), to solve the governing equations for the evolution of stratocumulus clouds. In contrast to the previous works, this work provides an analytic closed-form solution to the cloud thickness evolution of stratocumulus clouds in a mixed-layer model framework. With a focus on application over coastal lands, the diurnal cycle of cloud thickness and whether or not clouds dissipate are of particular interest. An analytic solution enables the sensitivity analysis of implicitly interdependent variables and extrema analysis of cloud variables that are hard to achieve using numerical solutions. In this work, the sensitivity of inversion height, cloud-base height, and cloud thickness with respect to initial and boundary conditions, such as Bowen ratio, subsidence, surface temperature, and initial inversion height, are studied. A critical initial cloud thickness value that can be dissipated pre- and post-sunrise is provided. Furthermore, an extrema analysis is provided to obtain the minima and maxima of the inversion height and cloud thickness within 24 h. The proposed solution is validated against LES results under the same initial and boundary conditions. Then, the proposed analytic framework is extended to incorporate multiple vertical columns that are coupled by advection through wind flow. This enables a bridge between the micro-scale and the mesoscale relations. The effect of advection on cloud evolution is studied and a sensitivity analysis is provided.

Microphysical effects determine macrophysical response for aerosol impacts on deep convective clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Jiwen; Leung, L. Ruby; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Chen, Qian; Li, Zhanqing; Zhang, Jinqiang; Yan, Hongru

2013-11-01

Deep convective clouds (DCCs) play a crucial role in the general circulation, energy, and hydrological cycle of our climate system. Aerosol particles can influence DCCs by altering cloud properties, precipitation regimes, and radiation balance. Previous studies reported both invigoration and suppression of DCCs by aerosols, but few were concerned with the whole life cycle of DCC. By conducting multiple monthlong cloud-resolving simulations with spectral-bin cloud microphysics that capture the observed macrophysical and microphysical properties of summer convective clouds and precipitation in the tropics and midlatitudes, this study provides a comprehensive view of how aerosols affect cloud cover, cloud top height, and radiative forcing. We found that although the widely accepted theory of DCC invigoration due to aerosol's thermodynamic effect (additional latent heat release from freezing of greater amount of cloud water) may work during the growing stage, it is microphysical effect influenced by aerosols that drives the dramatic increase in cloud cover, cloud top height, and cloud thickness at the mature and dissipation stages by inducing larger amounts of smaller but longer-lasting ice particles in the stratiform/anvils of DCCs, even when thermodynamic invigoration of convection is absent. The thermodynamic invigoration effect contributes up to ∼27% of total increase in cloud cover. The overall aerosol indirect effect is an atmospheric radiative warming (3-5 Wṡm-2) and a surface cooling (-5 to -8 Wṡm-2). The modeling findings are confirmed by the analyses of ample measurements made at three sites of distinctly different environments.

Microphysical effects determine macrophysical response for aerosol impacts on deep convective clouds.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Jiwen; Leung, L Ruby; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Chen, Qian; Li, Zhanqing; Zhang, Jinqiang; Yan, Hongru

2013-11-26

Deep convective clouds (DCCs) play a crucial role in the general circulation, energy, and hydrological cycle of our climate system. Aerosol particles can influence DCCs by altering cloud properties, precipitation regimes, and radiation balance. Previous studies reported both invigoration and suppression of DCCs by aerosols, but few were concerned with the whole life cycle of DCC. By conducting multiple monthlong cloud-resolving simulations with spectral-bin cloud microphysics that capture the observed macrophysical and microphysical properties of summer convective clouds and precipitation in the tropics and midlatitudes, this study provides a comprehensive view of how aerosols affect cloud cover, cloud top height, and radiative forcing. We found that although the widely accepted theory of DCC invigoration due to aerosol's thermodynamic effect (additional latent heat release from freezing of greater amount of cloud water) may work during the growing stage, it is microphysical effect influenced by aerosols that drives the dramatic increase in cloud cover, cloud top height, and cloud thickness at the mature and dissipation stages by inducing larger amounts of smaller but longer-lasting ice particles in the stratiform/anvils of DCCs, even when thermodynamic invigoration of convection is absent. The thermodynamic invigoration effect contributes up to ~27% of total increase in cloud cover. The overall aerosol indirect effect is an atmospheric radiative warming (3-5 W m(-2)) and a surface cooling (-5 to -8 W m(-2)). The modeling findings are confirmed by the analyses of ample measurements made at three sites of distinctly different environments.

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

Star-Forming Clouds Feed, Churn, and Fall

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-12-01

clouds, the authors zoom in and explore three clouds in high-resolution to learn more about the details.Watching Clouds EvolveIbez-Meja and collaborators find that mass accretion occurring after the molecular clouds form plays an important role in the clouds evolution, increasing the mass available to form stars and carrying kinetic energy into the cloud. The accretion process is driven both by background turbulent flows and gravitational attraction as the cloud draws in the gas in its nearby environment.Plots of the cloud mass and radius (top) and mass accretion rate (bottom) for one of the three zoomed-in clouds, shown as a function of time over the 10-Myr simulation. [Adapted from Ibez-Meja et al. 2017]The simulations show that nearby supernovae have two opposing effects on a cloud. On one hand, the blast waves from supernovae compress the envelope of the cloud, increasing the instantaneous rate of accretion. On the other hand, the blast waves disrupt parts of the envelope and erode mass from the clouds surface, decreasing accretion overall. These events ensure that the mass accretion rate of molecular clouds is non-uniform, regularly punctuated by sporadic increases and decreases as the clouds are battered by nearby explosions.Lastly, Ibez-Meja and collaborators show that mass accretion alone isnt enough to power the turbulent internal motions we observe inside molecular clouds. Instead, they conclude, the cloud motions must be primarily powered by gravitational potential energy being converted into kinetic energy as the cloud contracts.The authors simulations therefore show that molecular clouds exist in a state of precarious balance, prevented from collapsing by internal turbulence driven by interactions with their environment and by their own contraction. These results give us an intriguing glimpse into the complex environments in which stars are born.BonusCheck out the animated figure below, which displays how the clouds in the authors simulations evolve over the

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

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...

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...

REVISITING THE SCATTERING GREENHOUSE EFFECT OF CO2 ICE CLOUDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitzmann, D.

2016-01-01

Carbon dioxide ice clouds are thought to play an important role for cold terrestrial planets with thick CO 2 dominated atmospheres. Various previous studies showed that a scattering greenhouse effect by carbon dioxide ice clouds could result in a massive warming of the planetary surface. However, all of these studies only employed simplified two-stream radiative transfer schemes to describe the anisotropic scattering. Using accurate radiative transfer models with a general discrete ordinate method, this study revisits this important effect and shows that the positive climatic impact of carbon dioxide clouds was strongly overestimated in the past. The revised scattering greenhouse effect can have important implications for the early Mars, but also for planets like the early Earth or the position of the outer boundary of the habitable zone

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

The MSG-SEVIRI-based cloud property data record CLAAS-2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Benas

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Clouds play a central role in the Earth's atmosphere, and satellite observations are crucial for monitoring clouds and understanding their impact on the energy budget and water cycle. Within the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF, a new cloud property data record was derived from geostationary Meteosat Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI measurements for the time frame 2004–2015. The resulting CLAAS-2 (CLoud property dAtAset using SEVIRI, Edition 2 data record is publicly available via the CM SAF website (https://doi.org/10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/CLAAS/V002. In this paper we present an extensive evaluation of the CLAAS-2 cloud products, which include cloud fractional coverage, thermodynamic phase, cloud top properties, liquid/ice cloud water path and corresponding optical thickness and particle effective radius. Data validation and comparisons were performed on both level 2 (native SEVIRI grid and repeat cycle and level 3 (daily and monthly averages and histograms with reference datasets derived from lidar, microwave and passive imager measurements. The evaluation results show very good overall agreement with matching spatial distributions and temporal variability and small biases attributed mainly to differences in sensor characteristics, retrieval approaches, spatial and temporal samplings and viewing geometries. No major discrepancies were found. Underpinned by the good evaluation results, CLAAS-2 demonstrates that it is fit for the envisaged applications, such as process studies of the diurnal cycle of clouds and the evaluation of regional climate models. The data record is planned to be extended and updated in the future.

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....

Mobile Computing and Cloud maturity - Introducing Machine Learning for ERP Configuration Automation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Geanina ULARU

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays the smart phone market is clearly growing due to the new type of functionalities that mobile devices have and the role that they play in everyday life. Their utility and benefits rely on the applications that can be installed on the device (the so-called mobile apps. Cloud computing is a way to enhance the world of mobile application by providing disk space and freeing the user of the local storage needs, this way providing cheaper storage, wider acces-sibility and greater speed for business. In this paper we introduce various aspects of mobile computing and we stress the importance of obtaining cloud maturity by using machine learning for automating configurations of software applications deployed on cloud nodes using the open source application ERP5 and SlapOS, an open source operating system for Decentralized Cloud Computing.

Aerosol effects in radiation transfer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Binenko, V.I.; Harshvardhan, H.

1993-01-01

The radiative properties and effects of aerosols are assessed for the following aerosol sources: relatively clean background aerosol, dust storms and dust outbreaks, anthropogenic pollution, and polluted cloud layers. Studies show it is the submicron aerosol fraction that plays a dominant radiative role in the atmosphere. The radiative effect of the aerosol depends not only on its loading but also on the underlying surface albedo and on solar zenith angle. It is only with highly reflecting surfaces such as Arctic ice that aerosols have a warming effect. Radiometric, microphysical, mineral composition, and refractive index measurements are presented for dust and in particular for the Saharan aerosol layer (SAL). Short-wave radiative heating of the atmosphere is caused by the SAL and is due mainly to absorption. However, the SAL does not contribute significantly to the long-wave thermal radiation budget. Field program studies of the radiative effects of aerosols are described. Anthropogenic aerosols deplete the incoming solar radiation. A case field study for a regional Ukrainian center is discussed. The urban aerosol causes a cooling of metropolitan centers, compared with outlying areas, during the day, which is followed by a warming trend at night. In another study, an increase in turbidity by a factor of 3 due to increased industrialization for Mexico City is noted, together with a drop in atmospheric transmission by 10% over a 50-year period. Numerous studies are cited that demonstrate that anthropogenic aerosols affect both the microphysical and radiative properties of clouds, which in turn affect regional climate. Particles acting as cloud nuclei are considered to have the greatest indirect effect on cloud absorptivity of short-wave radiation. Satellite observations show that low-level stratus clouds contaminated by ship exhaust at sea lead to an increase in cloud albedo

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.

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

Damped summer warming accompanied with cloud cover increase over Eurasia from 1982 to 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang Qiuhong; Leng Guoyong

2012-01-01

The relationship between summer temperature, total cloud cover and precipitation over Eurasia was investigated using observation-based products of temperature and precipitation, and satellite-derived cloud cover and radiation products. We used a partial least squares regression approach to separate the local influences of cloud cover and precipitation on temperature variations. Our results suggest that the variance of summer temperature is partly explained by changes in summer cloudiness. The summer temperature dependence on cloud cover is strong at the high latitudes and in the middle latitude semi-humid area, while the dependence on precipitation is strong in the Central Asia arid area and the southern Asia humid area. During the period 1982–2009, the damped warming in extended West Siberia was accompanied with increases in cloud cover, and the pronounced warming in Europe and Mongolia was associated with a decrease in cloud cover and precipitation. Our results suggest that cloud cover may be the important local factor influencing the summer temperature variation in Eurasia while precipitation plays an important role at the middle latitudes. (letter)

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation footprint on global high cloud cover

Science.gov (United States)

Vaideanu, Petru; Dima, Mihai; Voiculescu, Mirela

2017-12-01

Due to the complexity of the physical processes responsible for cloud formation and to the relatively short satellite database of continuous data records, cloud behavior in a warming climate remains uncertain. Identifying physical links between climate modes and clouds would contribute not only to a better understanding of the physical processes governing their formation and dynamics, but also to an improved representation of the clouds in climate models. Here, we identify the global footprint of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) on high cloud cover, with focus on the tropical and North Atlantic, tropical Pacific and on the circum-Antarctic sector. In the tropical band, the sea surface temperature (SST) and high cloud cover (HCC) anomalies are positively correlated, indicating a dominant role played by convection in mediating the influence of the AMO-related SST anomalies on the HCC field. The negative SST-HCC correlation observed in North Atlantic could be explained by the reduced meridional temperature gradient induced by the AMO positive phase, which would be reflected in less storms and negative HCC anomalies. A similar negative SST-HCC correlation is observed around Antarctica. The corresponding negative correlation around Antarctica could be generated dynamically, as a response to the intensified upward motion in the Ferrel cell. Despite the inherent imperfection of the observed and reanalysis data sets, the AMO footprint on HCC is found to be robust to the choice of dataset, statistical method, and specific time period considered.

Chemical Speciation of Sulfur in Marine Cloud Droplets and Particles: Analysis of Individual Particles from Marine Boundary Layer over the California Current

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

William R. Wiley Environmental Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Gilles, Mary K; Hopkins, Rebecca J.; Desyaterik, Yury; Tivanski, Alexei V.; Zaveri, Rahul A.; Berkowitz, Carl M.; Tyliszczak, Tolek; Gilles, Mary K.; Laskin, Alexander

2008-03-12

Detailed chemical speciation of the dry residue particles from individual cloud droplets and interstitial aerosol collected during the Marine Stratus Experiment (MASE) was performed using a combination of complementary microanalysis techniques. Techniques include computer controlled scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersed analysis of X-rays (CCSEM/EDX), time-of-flight secondary ionization mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy with near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (STXM/NEXAFS). Samples were collected at the ground site located in Point Reyes National Seashore, approximately 1 km from the coast. This manuscript focuses on the analysis of individual particles sampled from air masses that originated over the open ocean and then passed through the area of the California current located along the northern California coast. Based on composition, morphology, and chemical bonding information, two externally mixed, distinct classes of sulfur containing particles were identified: chemically modified (aged) sea salt particles and secondary formed sulfate particles. The results indicate substantial heterogeneous replacement of chloride by methanesulfonate (CH3SO3-) and non-sea salt sulfate (nss-SO42-) in sea-salt particles with characteristic ratios of nss-S/Na>0.10 and CH3SO3-/nss-SO42->0.6.

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

Cloud Micro-sensors for Applications on Small UAVs and Balloons, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — One of the key areas of study of NASA's Earth Science enterprise is the role played by clouds in climate change. The duration of conventional research aircraft is...

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

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.

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

Models of surface convection and dust clouds in brown dwarfs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freytag, B; Allard, F; Ludwig, H-G; Homeier, D; Steffen, M

2008-01-01

The influence of dust grains on the atmospheres of brown dwarfs is visible in observed spectra. To investigate what prevents the dust grains from falling down, or how fresh condensable material is mixed up in the atmosphere to allow new grains to form, we performed 2D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations with CO5BOLD of the upper part of the convection zone and the atmosphere containing the dust cloud layers. We find that unlike in models of Cepheids, the convective overshoot does not play a major role. Instead, the mixing in the dust clouds is controlled by gravity waves.

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.

Statistics of optical and geometrical properties of cirrus cloud over tibetan plateau measured by lidar and radiosonde

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dai Guangyao

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Cirrus clouds affect the energy budget and hydrological cycle of the earth’s atmosphere. The Tibetan Plateau (TP plays a significant role in the global and regional climate. Optical and geometrical properties of cirrus clouds in the TP were measured in July-August 2014 by lidar and radiosonde. The statistics and temperature dependences of the corresponding properties are analyzed. The cirrus cloud formations are discussed with respect to temperature deviation and dynamic processes.

Laser-filamentation-induced condensation and snow formation in a cloud chamber.

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Jingjing; Liu, Jiansheng; Wang, Cheng; Sun, Haiyi; Wang, Wentao; Ge, Xiaochun; Li, Chuang; Chin, See Leang; Li, Ruxin; Xu, Zhizhan

2012-04-01

Using 1 kHz, 9 mJ femtosecond laser pulses, we demonstrate laser-filamentation-induced spectacular snow formation in a cloud chamber. An intense updraft of warm moist air is generated owing to the continuous heating by the high-repetition filamentation. As it encounters the cold air above, water condensation and large-sized particles spread unevenly across the whole cloud chamber via convection and cyclone like action on a macroscopic scale. This indicates that high-repetition filamentation plays a significant role in macroscopic laser-induced water condensation and snow formation.

Surface and Tethered-Balloon Observations of Actinic Flux: Effects of Arctic stratus, Surface Albedo and Solar Zenith Angle

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roode, S.R. de; Duynkerke, P.G.; Boot, Wim; Hage, Jeroen C.H. van der

2000-01-01

As part of the FIRE III (First ISCCP Regional Experiment) Arctic Cloud Experiment actinic flux measurements were made above the Arctic Sea ice during May 1998. FIRE III was designed to address questions concerning clouds, radiation and chemistry in the Arctic sea ice region. The actinic flux,

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

Brandburg Prominance, Namibia, Africa

Science.gov (United States)

1993-01-01

The Brandburg Prominance, Namibia (21.0S, 14.5E) is a round basaltic plug and is the highest feature (over 8,000 ft) in the country. Wind streaks on the surface of the coastal desert, aligned northeast to southwest, are the result of frequent sand storms. Coastal stratus clouds provide most of the life supporting moisture as fog droplets in this arid land where annual rainfall may be less than a quarter of an inch for decades at a time.

A Study of the Role of Clouds in the Relationship Between Land Use/Land Cover and the Climate and Air Quality of the Atlanta Area

Science.gov (United States)

Kidder, Stanley Q.; Hafner, Jan

2001-01-01

The goal of Project ATLANTA is to derive a better scientific understanding of how land cover changes associated with urbanization affect climate and air quality. In this project the role that clouds play in this relationship was studied. Through GOES satellite observations and RAMS modeling of the Atlanta area, we found that in Atlanta (1) clouds are more frequent than in the surrounding rural areas; (2) clouds cool the surface by shading and thus tend to counteract the warming effect of urbanization; (3) clouds reflect sunlight, which might other wise be used to produce ozone; and (4) clouds decrease biogenic emission of ozone precursors, and they probably decrease ozone concentration. We also found that mesoscale modeling of clouds, especially of small, summertime clouds, needs to be improved and that coupled mesoscale and air quality models are needed to completely understand the mediating role that clouds play in the relationship between land use/land cover change and the climate and air quality of Atlanta. It is strongly recommended that more cities be studied to strengthen and extend these results.

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

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

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

REVISITING THE SCATTERING GREENHOUSE EFFECT OF CO{sub 2} ICE CLOUDS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kitzmann, D., E-mail: daniel.kitzmann@csh.unibe.ch [Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Sidlerstr. 5, 3012 Bern (Switzerland)

2016-02-01

Carbon dioxide ice clouds are thought to play an important role for cold terrestrial planets with thick CO{sub 2} dominated atmospheres. Various previous studies showed that a scattering greenhouse effect by carbon dioxide ice clouds could result in a massive warming of the planetary surface. However, all of these studies only employed simplified two-stream radiative transfer schemes to describe the anisotropic scattering. Using accurate radiative transfer models with a general discrete ordinate method, this study revisits this important effect and shows that the positive climatic impact of carbon dioxide clouds was strongly overestimated in the past. The revised scattering greenhouse effect can have important implications for the early Mars, but also for planets like the early Earth or the position of the outer boundary of the habitable zone.

H2O2 modulates the energetic metabolism of the cloud microbiome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Wirgot

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Chemical reactions in clouds lead to oxidation processes driven by radicals (mainly HO⚫, NO3⚫, or HO2⚫ or strong oxidants such as H2O2, O3, nitrate, and nitrite. Among those species, hydrogen peroxide plays a central role in the cloud chemistry by driving its oxidant capacity. In cloud droplets, H2O2 is transformed by microorganisms which are metabolically active. Biological activity can therefore impact the cloud oxidant capacity. The present article aims at highlighting the interactions between H2O2 and microorganisms within the cloud system. First, experiments were performed with selected strains studied as a reference isolated from clouds in microcosms designed to mimic the cloud chemical composition, including the presence of light and iron. Biotic and abiotic degradation rates of H2O2 were measured and results showed that biodegradation was the most efficient process together with the photo-Fenton process. H2O2 strongly impacted the microbial energetic state as shown by adenosine triphosphate (ATP measurements in the presence and absence of H2O2. This ATP depletion was not due to the loss of cell viability. Secondly, correlation studies were performed based on real cloud measurements from 37 cloud samples collected at the PUY station (1465 m a.s.l., France. The results support a strong correlation between ATP and H2O2 concentrations and confirm that H2O2 modulates the energetic metabolism of the cloud microbiome. The modulation of microbial metabolism by H2O2 concentration could thus impact cloud chemistry, in particular the biotransformation rates of carbon compounds, and consequently can perturb the way the cloud system is modifying the global atmospheric chemistry.

H2O2 modulates the energetic metabolism of the cloud microbiome

Science.gov (United States)

Wirgot, Nolwenn; Vinatier, Virginie; Deguillaume, Laurent; Sancelme, Martine; Delort, Anne-Marie

2017-12-01

Chemical reactions in clouds lead to oxidation processes driven by radicals (mainly HO⚫, NO3⚫, or HO2⚫) or strong oxidants such as H2O2, O3, nitrate, and nitrite. Among those species, hydrogen peroxide plays a central role in the cloud chemistry by driving its oxidant capacity. In cloud droplets, H2O2 is transformed by microorganisms which are metabolically active. Biological activity can therefore impact the cloud oxidant capacity. The present article aims at highlighting the interactions between H2O2 and microorganisms within the cloud system. First, experiments were performed with selected strains studied as a reference isolated from clouds in microcosms designed to mimic the cloud chemical composition, including the presence of light and iron. Biotic and abiotic degradation rates of H2O2 were measured and results showed that biodegradation was the most efficient process together with the photo-Fenton process. H2O2 strongly impacted the microbial energetic state as shown by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) measurements in the presence and absence of H2O2. This ATP depletion was not due to the loss of cell viability. Secondly, correlation studies were performed based on real cloud measurements from 37 cloud samples collected at the PUY station (1465 m a.s.l., France). The results support a strong correlation between ATP and H2O2 concentrations and confirm that H2O2 modulates the energetic metabolism of the cloud microbiome. The modulation of microbial metabolism by H2O2 concentration could thus impact cloud chemistry, in particular the biotransformation rates of carbon compounds, and consequently can perturb the way the cloud system is modifying the global atmospheric chemistry.

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

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].

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.

Study on Resource Configuration on Cloud Manufacturing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanlong Cao

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of manufacturing is to realize the requirement of customer. In manufacturing process of cloud system, there exist a lot of resource services which have similar functional characteristics to realize the requirement. It makes the manufacturing process more diverse. To develop the quality and reduce cost, a resource configuration model on cloud-manufacturing platform is put forward in this paper. According to the generalized six-point location principle, a growth design from the requirement of customers to entities with geometric constraints is proposed. By the requirement growing up to product, a configuration process is used to match the entities with the instances which the resources in the database could supply. Different from most existing studies, this paper studies the tolerance design with multiple candidate resource suppliers on cloud manufacturing to make the market play a two-level game considering the benefit of customers and the profit of resources to give an optimal result. A numerical case study is used to illustrate the proposed model and configuration process. The performance and advantage of the proposed method are discussed at the end.

Dynamic partitioning as a way to exploit new computing paradigms: the cloud use case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciaschini, Vincenzo; Dal Pra, Stefano; Dell'Agnello, Luca

2015-01-01

The WLCG community and many groups in the HEP community have based their computing strategy on the Grid paradigm, which proved successful and still ensures its goals. However, Grid technology has not spread much over other communities; in the commercial world, the cloud paradigm is the emerging way to provide computing services. WLCG experiments aim to achieve integration of their existing current computing model with cloud deployments and take advantage of the so-called opportunistic resources (including HPC facilities) which are usually not Grid compliant. One missing feature in the most common cloud frameworks, is the concept of job scheduler, which plays a key role in a traditional computing centre, by enabling a fairshare based access at the resources to the experiments in a scenario where demand greatly outstrips availability. At CNAF we are investigating the possibility to access the Tier-1 computing resources as an OpenStack based cloud service. The system, exploiting the dynamic partitioning mechanism already being used to enable Multicore computing, allowed us to avoid a static splitting of the computing resources in the Tier-1 farm, while permitting a share friendly approach. The hosts in a dynamically partitioned farm may be moved to or from the partition, according to suitable policies for request and release of computing resources. Nodes being requested in the partition switch their role and become available to play a different one. In the cloud use case hosts may switch from acting as Worker Node in the Batch system farm to cloud compute node member, made available to tenants. In this paper we describe the dynamic partitioning concept, its implementation and integration with our current batch system, LSF. (paper)

Dynamic partitioning as a way to exploit new computing paradigms: the cloud use case.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciaschini, Vincenzo; Dal Pra, Stefano; dell'Agnello, Luca

2015-12-01

The WLCG community and many groups in the HEP community have based their computing strategy on the Grid paradigm, which proved successful and still ensures its goals. However, Grid technology has not spread much over other communities; in the commercial world, the cloud paradigm is the emerging way to provide computing services. WLCG experiments aim to achieve integration of their existing current computing model with cloud deployments and take advantage of the so-called opportunistic resources (including HPC facilities) which are usually not Grid compliant. One missing feature in the most common cloud frameworks, is the concept of job scheduler, which plays a key role in a traditional computing centre, by enabling a fairshare based access at the resources to the experiments in a scenario where demand greatly outstrips availability. At CNAF we are investigating the possibility to access the Tier-1 computing resources as an OpenStack based cloud service. The system, exploiting the dynamic partitioning mechanism already being used to enable Multicore computing, allowed us to avoid a static splitting of the computing resources in the Tier-1 farm, while permitting a share friendly approach. The hosts in a dynamically partitioned farm may be moved to or from the partition, according to suitable policies for request and release of computing resources. Nodes being requested in the partition switch their role and become available to play a different one. In the cloud use case hosts may switch from acting as Worker Node in the Batch system farm to cloud compute node member, made available to tenants. In this paper we describe the dynamic partitioning concept, its implementation and integration with our current batch system, LSF.

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…

Upper tropospheric cloud systems determined from IR Sounders and their influence on the atmosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Stubenrauch, Claudia; Protopapadaki, Sofia; Feofilov, Artem; Velasco, Carola Barrientos

2017-02-01

Covering about 30% of the Earth, upper tropospheric clouds play a key role in the climate system by modulating the Earth's energy budget and heat transport. Infrared Sounders reliably identify cirrus down to an IR optical depth of 0.1. Recently LMD has built global cloud climate data records from AIRS and IASI observations, covering the periods from 2003-2015 and 2008-2015, respectively. Upper tropospheric clouds often form mesoscale systems. Their organization and properties are being studied by (1) distinguishing cloud regimes within 2° × 2° regions and (2) applying a spatial composite technique on adjacent cloud pressures, which estimates the horizontal extent of the mesoscale cloud systems. Convective core, cirrus anvil and thin cirrus of these systems are then distinguished by their emissivity. Compared to other studies of tropical mesoscale convective systems our data include also the thinner anvil parts, which make out about 30% of the area of tropical mesoscale convective systems. Once the horizontal and vertical structure of these upper tropospheric cloud systems is known, we can estimate their radiative effects in terms of top of atmosphere and surface radiative fluxes and by computing their heating rates.

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.

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)

Cirrus cloud-temperature interactions over a tropical station, Gadanki from lidar and satellite observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

S, Motty G; Satyanarayana, M.; Krishnakumar, V.; Dhaman, Reji k.

2014-01-01

The cirrus clouds play an important role in the radiation budget of the earth's atmospheric system and are important to characterize their vertical structure and optical properties. LIDAR measurements are obtained from the tropical station Gadanki (13.5 0 N, 79.2 0 E), India, and meteorological indicators derived from Radiosonde data. Most of the cirrus clouds are observed near to the tropopause, which substantiates the strength of the tropical convective processes. The height and temperature dependencies of cloud height, optical depth, and depolarization ratio were investigated. Cirrus observations made using CALIPSO satellite are compared with lidar data for systematic statistical study of cirrus climatology

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...

[Application of single-band brightness variance ratio to the interference dissociation of cloud for satellite data].

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Wei-ping; Liu, Wen-qing; Liu, Jian-guo; Lu, Yi-huai; Zhu, Jun; Qin, Min; Liu, Cheng

2006-11-01

In satellite remote-sensing detection, cloud as an interference plays a negative role in data retrieval. How to discern the cloud fields with high fidelity thus comes as a need to the following research. A new method rooting in atmospheric radiation characteristics of cloud layer, in the present paper, presents a sort of solution where single-band brightness variance ratio is used to detect the relative intensity of cloud clutter so as to delineate cloud field rapidly and exactly, and the formulae of brightness variance ratio of satellite image, image reflectance variance ratio, and brightness temperature variance ratio of thermal infrared image are also given to enable cloud elimination to produce data free from cloud interference. According to the variance of the penetrating capability for different spectra bands, an objective evaluation is done on cloud penetration of them with the factors that influence penetration effect. Finally, a multi-band data fusion task is completed using the image data of infrared penetration from cirrus nothus. Image data reconstruction is of good quality and exactitude to show the real data of visible band covered by cloud fields. Statistics indicates the consistency of waveband relativity with image data after the data fusion.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hydrologic Effects and Biogeographic Impacts of Coastal Fog, Channel Islands, California

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, D. T.; Still, C. J.; Williams, A. P.

2006-12-01

Fog has long been recognized as an important component of the hydrological cycle in many ecosystems, including coastal desert fog belts, tropical cloud forests, and montane areas worldwide. Fog drip can be a major source of water, particularly during the dry season, and there is evidence in some ecosystems of direct fogwater uptake by foliar absorption. Fog and low clouds can also increase availability of water by reducing evaporative water losses. In the California Channel Islands, fog and low stratus clouds dramatically affect the water budget of coastal vegetation, particularly during the long summer drought. This work focuses on a population of Bishop pine (Pinus muricata D. Don) on Santa Cruz Island. This is the southernmost large stand of this species, and tree growth and survival appears to be strongly limited by water availability. We have used parallel measurement and modeling approaches to quantify the importance of fogwater inputs and persistent cloud cover to Bishop pine growth. We have modeled drought stress over the last century based on local climate records, calibrated against a dense network of 12 weather stations on a 7km coastal-inland elevation gradient. Water availability is highly variable year to year, with episodic droughts that are associated with widespread tree mortality. Frequent cloud cover near the coast reduces evapotranspiration relative to the inland site (on the order of 25%), thereby delaying the onset of, and moderating the severity of the annual summer drought. Substantial summer fog drip at higher elevations provides additional water inputs that also reduce drought severity. Beyond the theoretical availability of extra water from fog drip, tree ring analysis and xylem water isotopic data suggest that significant amounts of fog water are actually taken up by these trees. Stand boundaries appear to be driven by spatial patterns of mortality related to water availability and frequency of severe drought. These results suggest that

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....

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

Cloud retrievals from satellite data using optimal estimation: evaluation and application to ATSR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. A. Poulsen

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Clouds play an important role in balancing the Earth's radiation budget. Hence, it is vital that cloud climatologies are produced that quantify cloud macro and micro physical parameters and the associated uncertainty. In this paper, we present an algorithm ORAC (Oxford-RAL retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud which is based on fitting a physically consistent cloud model to satellite observations simultaneously from the visible to the mid-infrared, thereby ensuring that the resulting cloud properties provide both a good representation of the short-wave and long-wave radiative effects of the observed cloud. The advantages of the optimal estimation method are that it enables rigorous error propagation and the inclusion of all measurements and any a priori information and associated errors in a rigorous mathematical framework. The algorithm provides a measure of the consistency between retrieval representation of cloud and satellite radiances. The cloud parameters retrieved are the cloud top pressure, cloud optical depth, cloud effective radius, cloud fraction and cloud phase.

The algorithm can be applied to most visible/infrared satellite instruments. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability to the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers ATSR-2 and AATSR. Examples of applying the algorithm to ATSR-2 flight data are presented and the sensitivity of the retrievals assessed, in particular the algorithm is evaluated for a number of simulated single-layer and multi-layer conditions. The algorithm was found to perform well for single-layer cloud except when the cloud was very thin; i.e., less than 1 optical depths. For the multi-layer cloud, the algorithm was robust except when the upper ice cloud layer is less than five optical depths. In these cases the retrieved cloud top pressure and cloud effective radius become a weighted average of the 2 layers. The sum of optical depth of multi-layer cloud is retrieved well until the cloud becomes thick

A general theory for the lifetimes of giant molecular clouds under the influence of galactic dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffreson, Sarah M. R.; Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik

2018-05-01

We propose a simple analytic theory for environmentally dependent molecular cloud lifetimes, based on the large-scale (galactic) dynamics of the interstellar medium. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime is set by the time-scales for gravitational collapse, galactic shear, spiral arm interactions, epicyclic perturbations, and cloud-cloud collisions. It is dependent on five observable quantities, accessible through measurements of the galactic rotation curve, the gas and stellar surface densities, and the gas and stellar velocity dispersions of the host galaxy. We determine how the relative importance of each dynamical mechanism varies throughout the space of observable galactic properties, and conclude that gravitational collapse and galactic shear play the greatest role in setting the cloud lifetime for the considered range of galaxy properties, while cloud-cloud collisions exert a much lesser influence. All five environmental mechanisms are nevertheless required to obtain a complete picture of cloud evolution. We apply our theory to the galaxies M31, M51, M83, and the Milky Way, and find a strong dependence of the cloud lifetime upon galactocentric radius in each case, with a typical cloud lifetime between 10 and 50 Myr. Our theory is ideally suited for systematic observational tests with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre array.

Summertime Low-Level Jets over the Great Plains

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stensrud, D.J. [NOAA/ERL/National Severe Storms Lab., Norman, OK (United States); Pfeifer, S. [Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)

1996-04-01

The sky over the southern Great Plains Cloud and Atmospheric Radiation Testbed (CART) site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program during the predawn and early morning hours often is partially obstructed by stratocumulus, stratus fractus, or cumulus fractus that are moving rapidly to the north, even through the surface winds are weak. This cloud movement is evidence of the low-level jet (LLJ), a wind speed maximum that occurs in the lowest few kilometers of the atmosphere. Owing to the wide spacing between upper-air sounding sites and the relatively infrequent sounding launches, LLJ evolution has been difficult to observe adequately, even though the effects of LLJs on moisture flux into North America are large. Model simulation of the LLJ is described.

Aerosol activation and cloud processing in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. J. Roelofs

2006-01-01

Full Text Available A parameterization for cloud processing is presented that calculates activation of aerosol particles to cloud drops, cloud drop size, and pH-dependent aqueous phase sulfur chemistry. The parameterization is implemented in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM. The cloud processing parameterization uses updraft speed, temperature, and aerosol size and chemical parameters simulated by ECHAM5-HAM to estimate the maximum supersaturation at the cloud base, and subsequently the cloud drop number concentration (CDNC due to activation. In-cloud sulfate production occurs through oxidation of dissolved SO2 by ozone and hydrogen peroxide. The model simulates realistic distributions for annually averaged CDNC although it is underestimated especially in remote marine regions. On average, CDNC is dominated by cloud droplets growing on particles from the accumulation mode, with smaller contributions from the Aitken and coarse modes. The simulations indicate that in-cloud sulfate production is a potentially important source of accumulation mode sized cloud condensation nuclei, due to chemical growth of activated Aitken particles and to enhanced coalescence of processed particles. The strength of this source depends on the distribution of produced sulfate over the activated modes. This distribution is affected by uncertainties in many parameters that play a direct role in particle activation, such as the updraft velocity, the aerosol chemical composition and the organic solubility, and the simulated CDNC is found to be relatively sensitive to these uncertainties.

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...

Oxides of nitrogen and the clouds of Venus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watson, A.J.; Donahue, T.M.; Stedman, D.H.; Knollenberg, R.G.; Ragent, B.; Blamont, J.

1979-01-01

Nitric Oxide may be produced in the atmosphere of Venus by lightning storms in the clouds. Here we suggest that the odd nitrogen thus formed may play an important part in the chemistry of the clouds. Specifically, we estimate production rates for NO 2 in the limiting case of high NO concentrations. If the NO density is high we suggest that NO 2 may catalyse the production of sulfuric acid aerosol from sulfur dioxide and water vapor, and may also form nitrogen--sulfur compounds such as nitrosyl sulfuric acid, NOHSO 4 . The ''large particles'' seen by the Pioneer Venus sounder probe may contain considerable quantities of NOHSO 4 . If this is the case odd nitrogen must be present in the atmosphere in at least a parts-per-million mixing ratio

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.

The Invigoration of Deep Convective Clouds Over the Atlantic: Aerosol Effect, Meteorology or Retrieval Artifact?

Science.gov (United States)

Koren, Ilan; Feingold, Graham; Remer, Lorraine A.

2010-01-01

that the aerosol does play a role in invigorating convective clouds.

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

Cluster analysis of midlatitude oceanic cloud regimes: mean properties and temperature sensitivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. D. Gordon

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Clouds play an important role in the climate system by reducing the amount of shortwave radiation reaching the surface and the amount of longwave radiation escaping to space. Accurate simulation of clouds in computer models remains elusive, however, pointing to a lack of understanding of the connection between large-scale dynamics and cloud properties. This study uses a k-means clustering algorithm to group 21 years of satellite cloud data over midlatitude oceans into seven clusters, and demonstrates that the cloud clusters are associated with distinct large-scale dynamical conditions. Three clusters correspond to low-level cloud regimes with different cloud fraction and cumuliform or stratiform characteristics, but all occur under large-scale descent and a relatively dry free troposphere. Three clusters correspond to vertically extensive cloud regimes with tops in the middle or upper troposphere, and they differ according to the strength of large-scale ascent and enhancement of tropospheric temperature and humidity. The final cluster is associated with a lower troposphere that is dry and an upper troposphere that is moist and experiencing weak ascent and horizontal moist advection.

Since the present balance of reflection of shortwave and absorption of longwave radiation by clouds could change as the atmosphere warms from increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases, we must also better understand how increasing temperature modifies cloud and radiative properties. We therefore undertake an observational analysis of how midlatitude oceanic clouds change with temperature when dynamical processes are held constant (i.e., partial derivative with respect to temperature. For each of the seven cloud regimes, we examine the difference in cloud and radiative properties between warm and cold subsets. To avoid misinterpreting a cloud response to large-scale dynamical forcing as a cloud response to temperature, we require horizontal and vertical

Testing cloud microphysics parameterizations in NCAR CAM5 with ISDAC and M-PACE observations

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaohong; Xie, Shaocheng; Boyle, James; Klein, Stephen A.; Shi, Xiangjun; Wang, Zhien; Lin, Wuyin; Ghan, Steven J.; Earle, Michael; Liu, Peter S. K.; Zelenyuk, Alla

2011-01-01

Arctic clouds simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) are evaluated with observations from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), which were conducted at its North Slope of Alaska site in April 2008 and October 2004, respectively. Model forecasts for the Arctic spring and fall seasons performed under the Cloud-Associated Parameterizations Testbed framework generally reproduce the spatial distributions of cloud fraction for single-layer boundary-layer mixed-phase stratocumulus and multilayer or deep frontal clouds. However, for low-level stratocumulus, the model significantly underestimates the observed cloud liquid water content in both seasons. As a result, CAM5 significantly underestimates the surface downward longwave radiative fluxes by 20-40 W m-2. Introducing a new ice nucleation parameterization slightly improves the model performance for low-level mixed-phase clouds by increasing cloud liquid water content through the reduction of the conversion rate from cloud liquid to ice by the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process. The CAM5 single-column model testing shows that changing the instantaneous freezing temperature of rain to form snow from -5°C to -40°C causes a large increase in modeled cloud liquid water content through the slowing down of cloud liquid and rain-related processes (e.g., autoconversion of cloud liquid to rain). The underestimation of aerosol concentrations in CAM5 in the Arctic also plays an important role in the low bias of cloud liquid water in the single-layer mixed-phase clouds. In addition, numerical issues related to the coupling of model physics and time stepping in CAM5 are responsible for the model biases and will be explored in future studies.

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

Relating tropical ocean clouds to moist processes using water vapor isotope measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Lee

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We examine the co-variations of tropospheric water vapor, its isotopic composition and cloud types and relate these distributions to tropospheric mixing and distillation models using satellite observations from the Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES over the summertime tropical ocean. Interpretation of these process distributions must take into account the sensitivity of the TES isotope and water vapor measurements to variations in cloud, water, and temperature amount. Consequently, comparisons are made between cloud-types based on the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISSCP classification; these are clear sky, non-precipitating (e.g., cumulus, boundary layer (e.g., stratocumulus, and precipitating clouds (e.g. regions of deep convection. In general, we find that the free tropospheric vapor over tropical oceans does not strictly follow a Rayleigh model in which air parcels become dry and isotopically depleted through condensation. Instead, mixing processes related to convection as well as subsidence, and re-evaporation of rainfall associated with organized deep convection all play significant roles in controlling the water vapor distribution. The relative role of these moisture processes are examined for different tropical oceanic regions.

The GOES-R/JPSS Approach for Identifying Hazardous Low Clouds: Overview and Operational Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Calvert, Corey; Pavolonis, Michael; Lindstrom, Scott; Gravelle, Chad; Terborg, Amanda

2017-04-01

Low ceiling and visibility is a weather hazard that nearly every forecaster, in nearly every National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO), must regularly address. In addition, national forecast centers such as the Aviation Weather Center (AWC), Alaska Aviation Weather Unit (AAWU) and the Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) are responsible for issuing low ceiling and visibility related products. As such, reliable methods for detecting and characterizing hazardous low clouds are needed. Traditionally, hazardous areas of Fog/Low Stratus (FLS) are identified using a simple stand-alone satellite product that is constructed by subtracting the 3.9 and 11 μm brightness temperatures. However, the 3.9-11 μm brightness temperature difference (BTD) has several major limitations. In an effort to address the limitations of the BTD product, the GOES-R Algorithm Working Group (AWG) developed an approach that fuses satellite, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model, Sea Surface Temperature (SST) analyses, and other data sets (e.g. digital surface elevation maps, surface emissivity maps, and surface type maps) to determine the probability that hazardous low clouds are present using a naïve Bayesian classifier. In addition, recent research has focused on blending geostationary (e.g. GOES-R) and low earth orbit (e.g. JPSS) satellite data to further improve the products. The FLS algorithm has adopted an enterprise approach in that it can utilize satellite data from a variety of current and future operational sensors and NWP data from a variety of models. The FLS products are available in AWIPS/N-AWIPS/AWIPS-II and have been evaluated within NWS operations over the last four years as part of the Satellite Proving Ground. Forecaster feedback has been predominantly positive and references to these products within Area Forecast Discussions (AFD's) indicate that the products are influencing operational forecasts. At the request of the NWS, the FLS products are currently being

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

Carbon chemistry in dense molecular clouds: Theory and observational constraints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blake, G.A.

1990-01-01

For the most part, gas phase models of the chemistry of dense molecular clouds predict the abundances of simple species rather well. However, for larger molecules and even for small systems rich in carbon these models often fail spectacularly. Researchers present a brief review of the basic assumptions and results of large scale modeling of the carbon chemistry in dense molecular clouds. Particular attention is to the influence of the gas phase C/O ratio in molecular clouds, and the likely role grains play in maintaining this ratio as clouds evolve from initially diffuse objects to denser cores with associated stellar and planetary formation. Recent spectral line surveys at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths along with selected observations in the submillimeter have now produced an accurate inventory of the gas phase carbon budget in several different types of molecular clouds, though gaps in our knowledge clearly remain. The constraints these observations place on theoretical models of interstellar chemistry can be used to gain insights into why the models fail, and show also which neglected processes must be included in more complete analyses. Looking toward the future, larger molecules are especially difficult to study both experimentally and theoretically in such dense, cold regions, and some new methods are therefore outlined which may ultimately push the detectability of small carbon chains and rings to much heavier species

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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 ...

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

Brightening of the global cloud field by nitric acid and the associated radiative forcing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Makkonen

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Clouds cool Earth's climate by reflecting 20% of the incoming solar energy, while also trapping part of the outgoing radiation. The effect of human activities on clouds is poorly understood, but the present-day anthropogenic cooling via changes of cloud albedo and lifetime could be of the same order as warming from anthropogenic addition in CO₂. Soluble trace gases can increase water condensation to particles, possibly leading to activation of smaller aerosols and more numerous cloud droplets. We have studied the effect of nitric acid on the aerosol indirect effect with the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5.5-HAM2. Including the nitric acid effect in the model increases cloud droplet number concentrations globally by 7%. The nitric acid contribution to the present-day cloud albedo effect was found to be −0.32 W m⁻² and to the total indirect effect −0.46 W m⁻². The contribution to the cloud albedo effect is shown to increase to −0.37 W m⁻² by the year 2100, if considering only the reductions in available cloud condensation nuclei. Overall, the effect of nitric acid can play a large part in aerosol cooling during the following decades with decreasing SO₂ emissions and increasing NO_x and greenhouse gases.

Implementing Iris in the Railway Control Office Application for Secure Saas in Cloud Environment

OpenAIRE

Dr. K. Meena; Dr. M. Manimekalai

2015-01-01

Technology plays a vital role in each and every part of the world. In particular ―Cloud‖ computing - a moderately recent term, characterizes the path to develop the advancement in the world of computer science. Further, Cloud provides an affordable environment for its users through different forms of services such as SaaS (Software as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Cloud computing is also an Internet-based computing where a large ...

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...

Assessment of Global Cloud Datasets from Satellites: Project and Database Initiated by the GEWEX Radiation Panel

Science.gov (United States)

Stubenrauch, C. J.; Rossow, W. B.; Kinne, S.; Ackerman, S.; Cesana, G.; Chepfer, H.; Getzewich, B.; Di Girolamo, L.; Guignard, A.; Heidinger, A.;

analysis of spatial-temporal variations and driving force of low cloud in northern China

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Xiaorui; Wang, Shuyu

2015-04-01

Cloud plays a crucial role in the climate system, and better understanding of its characteristics and formation mechanism are essential to study the climate system, improve the performance of climate models, and to provide scientific basis on conducting weather modification activities and better using water resources for the purpose of improving the local climate and ecological environment. During 1961 to 2005, decrease trend is detected for the total cloud amount over most parts of northern China, while increase trend is found for the low cloud amount with significant regionality. Both station and ISCCP D2 datasets present similar spatial distributions and interdecadal variation of high cloud. However two datasets show different characters for those of low cloud. Three typical sub-regions are chosen considering their underlying surface features and the temporal trend of low cloud amount, over which the interdecadal variations of low cloud amount in three regions are systematically investigated. The analyses show the strong regionality and seasonality in low cloud amount's temporal variations and trend, and quasi-biannual oscillations are observed in low cloud amount in three regions in the past 45 years. The relationships between 500 hPa circulation indexes and low cloud over the three regions are examined by means of singular value decomposition (SVD). The results show that the summer low cloud amount in Xinjiang is closely related with the Subtropical High, the Tibetan Plateau and Polar Vortex, and the autumn low cloud amount in North China is affected by the area of Subtropical High and intensity of Polar Vortex. For northeast China the controlling factor that affects the spring low cloud amount is the area of Polar Vortex in quadrant ⅳ（30°W-60°E）.

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...

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.

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.

Privacy preserving cloud computation using Domingo-Ferrer scheme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdulatif Alabdulatif

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Homomorphic encryption system (HES schemes are anticipated to play a significant role in cloud-based applications. Moving to cloud-based storage and analytic services securely are two of the most important advantages of HES. Several HES schemes have been recently proposed. However, the majority of them either have limited capabilities or are impractical in real-world applications. Various HES schemes provide the ability to perform computations for statistical analysis (e.g. average, mean and variance on encrypted data. Domingo-Ferrer is one scheme that has privacy homomorphism properties to perform the basic mathematical operations (addition, subtraction and multiplication in a convenient and secure way. However, it works only in the positive numbers’ range which is considered as a limitation because several applications require both positive and negative ranges in which to work, especially those that have to implement analytical services in cloud computing. In this paper, we extend Domingo-Ferrer’s scheme to be able to perform arithmetic operations for both positive and negative numbers. We also propose using a lightweight data aggregation function to compute both maximum and minimum values of the aggregated data that works for both positive and negative numbers.

EDITORIAL: Aerosol cloud interactions—a challenge for measurements and modeling at the cutting edge of cloud climate interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Spichtinger, Peter; Cziczo, Daniel J.

2008-04-01

Research in aerosol properties and cloud characteristics have historically been considered two separate disciplines within the field of atmospheric science. As such, it has been uncommon for a single researcher, or even research group, to have considerable expertise in both subject areas. The recent attention paid to global climate change has shown that clouds can have a considerable effect on the Earth's climate and that one of the most uncertain aspects in their formation, persistence, and ultimate dissipation is the role played by aerosols. This highlights the need for researchers in both disciplines to interact more closely than they have in the past. This is the vision behind this focus issue of Environmental Research Letters. Certain interactions between aerosols and clouds are relatively well studied and understood. For example, it is known that an increase in the aerosol concentration will increase the number of droplets in warm clouds, decrease their average size, reduce the rate of precipitation, and extend the lifetime. Other effects are not as well known. For example, persistent ice super-saturated conditions are observed in the upper troposphere that appear to exceed our understanding of the conditions required for cirrus cloud formation. Further, the interplay of dynamics versus effects purely attributed to aerosols remains highly uncertain. The purpose of this focus issue is to consider the current state of knowledge of aerosol/cloud interactions, to define the contemporary uncertainties, and to outline research foci as we strive to better understand the Earth's climate system. This focus issue brings together laboratory experiments, field data, and model studies. The authors address issues associated with warm liquid water, cold ice, and intermediate temperature mixed-phase clouds. The topics include the uncertainty associated with the effect of black carbon and organics, aerosol types of anthropogenic interest, on droplet and ice formation. Phases

Automated cloud classification using a ground based infra-red camera and texture analysis techniques

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Rumi, Emal; Kerr, David; Coupland, Jeremy M.; Sandford, Andrew P.; Brettle, Mike J.

2013-10-01

Clouds play an important role in influencing the dynamics of local and global weather and climate conditions. Continuous monitoring of clouds is vital for weather forecasting and for air-traffic control. Convective clouds such as Towering Cumulus (TCU) and Cumulonimbus clouds (CB) are associated with thunderstorms, turbulence and atmospheric instability. Human observers periodically report the presence of CB and TCU clouds during operational hours at airports and observatories; however such observations are expensive and time limited. Robust, automatic classification of cloud type using infrared ground-based instrumentation offers the advantage of continuous, real-time (24/7) data capture and the representation of cloud structure in the form of a thermal map, which can greatly help to characterise certain cloud formations. The work presented here utilised a ground based infrared (8-14 μm) imaging device mounted on a pan/tilt unit for capturing high spatial resolution sky images. These images were processed to extract 45 separate textural features using statistical and spatial frequency based analytical techniques. These features were used to train a weighted k-nearest neighbour (KNN) classifier in order to determine cloud type. Ground truth data were obtained by inspection of images captured simultaneously from a visible wavelength colour camera at the same installation, with approximately the same field of view as the infrared device. These images were classified by a trained cloud observer. Results from the KNN classifier gave an encouraging success rate. A Probability of Detection (POD) of up to 90% with a Probability of False Alarm (POFA) as low as 16% was achieved.

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

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

Cloud-radiation-precipitation associations over the Asian monsoon region: an observational analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jiandong; Wang, Wei-Chyung; Dong, Xiquan; Mao, Jiangyu

2017-11-01

This study uses 2001-2014 satellite observations and reanalyses to investigate the seasonal characteristics of Cloud Radiative Effects (CREs) and their associations with cloud fraction (CF) and precipitation over the Asian monsoon region (AMR) covering Eastern China (EC) and South Asia (SA). The CREs exhibit strong seasonal variations but show distinctly different relationships with CFs and precipitation over the two regions. For EC, the CREs is dominated by shortwave (SW) cooling, with an annual mean value of - 40 W m- 2 for net CRE, and peak in summer while the presence of extensive and opaque low-level clouds contributes to large Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) albedo (>0.5) in winter. For SA, a weak net CRE exists throughout the year due to in-phase compensation of SWCRE by longwave (LW) CRE associated with the frequent occurrence of high clouds. For the entire AMR, SWCRE strongly correlates with the dominant types of CFs, although the cloud vertical structure plays important role particularly in summer. The relationships between CREs and precipitation are stronger in SA than in EC, indicating the dominant effect of monsoon circulation in the former region. SWCRE over EC is only partly related to precipitation and shows distinctive regional variations. Further studies need to pay more attention to vertical distributions of cloud micro- and macro-physical properties, and associated precipitation systems over the AMR.

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...

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...

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.

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.

A review of our understanding of the aerosol-cloud interaction from the perspective of a bin resolved cloud scale modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Flossmann, Andrea I.; Wobrock, Wolfram

2010-09-01

cloud drops which is reduced in number and almost devoid of large particles. Consequently, impaction scavenging can probably be neglected inside clouds. Below clouds, impaction scavenging contributes around 30% to the particle mass reaching the ground by a rainfall event. The exact amount depends on the precise case studied. Nucleation and impaction scavenging directly by the ice phase in mixed phase clouds seems to play a minor role with respect to the particle mass that enters the ice particles via freezing of the liquid phase.The aerosol scavenging efficiency generally follows rather closely the precipitation scavenging value. The nucleation scavenging efficiency is around 90% for the liquid phase clouds and impaction scavenging generally contributed to about 30% of the particle mass in the rain. Clouds are very efficient in pumping up the boundary layer aerosol which essentially determines the cloud properties. For a marine case studied the net pumping depleted about 70% of the aerosol from the section of the boundary layer considered. The larger particles (and thus 70% of the mass vented up) got activated inside the cloud. A weak net import through cloud top and the upwind side was found, as well as a larger net export at the downwind side. The outside cloud subsidence can add to the replenishment of the boundary layer and eventually cause a recycling of the particles into the cloud. The results of the parcel model studies seem to indicate that increasing particulate pollution and decreasing solubility suppresses rain formation. In individual and short time cloud simulations this behaviour was even confirmed in our 3D model studies. However, taking into account entire cloud fields over longer periods of time yields the strong spatial and temporal variability of the results with isolated regions of inverse correlation of the effects. Even though in general initially the expected behaviour was found, after several hours of simulation, the overall precipitation

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Satellite-Observed Vertical Structures of Clouds over the Amazon Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, M.; Lee, J. E.

2017-12-01

The long wet season of the Amazon basin currently plays a critical role in the terrestrial ecosystem, regulating carbon balance and supporting high biodiversity. It has been argued that the land surface processes are important in maintaining high precipitation; yet, how the land-atmosphere interactions modulate the atmospheric processes are not completely understood. As a first step toward solving this problem, here we examine the vertical structures of clouds and the thermodynamics of the atmosphere over the entire basin at the different time of the year. We combine the vertical distribution of cloud water content from CloudSat, and the atmospheric thermodynamic conditions from the ECMWF ERA-interim reanalysis to compare and contrast the atmospheric condition at different time of the year-the wet, dry, and dry-to-wet transition seasons-and in different regions-ever-wet evergreen broadleaf forests, wet evergreen broadleaf forests with a dry season, and dry wooded grasslands/woodlands-following water stress gradient. In the ever-wet and wet regions, a large amount of cloud ice water is present in the upper atmosphere (above 11km) and convective available potential energy (CAPE) is high during the transition season, supporting the claim that the convective activity is strongest during the transition season. In the dry region, there are more cloud water above 8km over woodlands than over wooded grasslands during the dry and transition seasons, indicating the influence of the land cover. We also classified our data following the large-scale circulation pattern, and the CloudSat data support more deep convective activities in the wet and dry regions when the wind blows from the east during the wet and transition seasons. As a next step, we will focus more on linking the cloud structure to the large-scale circulation and surface processes.

The ARM Cloud Radar Simulator for Global Climate Models: Bridging Field Data and Climate Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Yuying [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; Xie, Shaocheng [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; Klein, Stephen A. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; Marchand, Roger [University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; Kollias, Pavlos [Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York; Clothiaux, Eugene E. [The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; Lin, Wuyin [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Johnson, Karen [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Swales, Dustin [CIRES and NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado; Bodas-Salcedo, Alejandro [Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom; Tang, Shuaiqi [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; Haynes, John M. [Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere/Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado; Collis, Scott [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois; Jensen, Michael [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Bharadwaj, Nitin [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Hardin, Joseph [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Isom, Bradley [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

2018-01-01

Clouds play an important role in Earth’s radiation budget and hydrological cycle. However, current global climate models (GCMs) have had difficulties in accurately simulating clouds and precipitation. To improve the representation of clouds in climate models, it is crucial to identify where simulated clouds differ from real world observations of them. This can be difficult, since significant differences exist between how a climate model represents clouds and what instruments observe, both in terms of spatial scale and the properties of the hydrometeors which are either modeled or observed. To address these issues and minimize impacts of instrument limitations, the concept of instrument “simulators”, which convert model variables into pseudo-instrument observations, has evolved with the goal to improve and to facilitate the comparison of modeled clouds with observations. Many simulators have (and continue to be developed) for a variety of instruments and purposes. A community satellite simulator package, the Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) Observation Simulator Package (COSP; Bodas-Salcedo et al. 2011), contains several independent satellite simulators and is being widely used in the global climate modeling community to exploit satellite observations for model cloud evaluation (e.g., Klein et al. 2013; Zhang et al. 2010). This article introduces a ground-based cloud radar simulator developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program for comparing climate model clouds with ARM observations from its vertically pointing 35-GHz radars. As compared to CloudSat radar observations, ARM radar measurements occur with higher temporal resolution and finer vertical resolution. This enables users to investigate more fully the detailed vertical structures within clouds, resolve thin clouds, and quantify the diurnal variability of clouds. Particularly, ARM radars are sensitive to low-level clouds, which are

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...

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.

Cloud Condensation Nuclei Measurements During the First Year of the ORACLES Study

Science.gov (United States)

Kacarab, M.; Howell, S. G.; Wood, R.; Redemann, J.; Nenes, A.

2016-12-01

Aerosols have significant impacts on air quality and climate. Their ability to scatter and absorb radiation and to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) plays a very important role in the global climate. Biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) can drastically elevate the concentration of CCN in clouds, but the response in droplet number may be strongly suppressed (or even reversed) owing to low supersaturations that may develop from the strong competition of water vapor (Bougiatioti et al. 2016). Understanding and constraining the magnitude of droplet response to biomass burning plumes is an important component of the aerosol-cloud interaction problem. The southeastern Atlantic (SEA) cloud deck provides a unique opportunity to study these cloud-BBOA interactions for marine stratocumulus, as it is overlain by a large, optically thick biomass burning aerosol plume from Southern Africa during the burning season. The interaction between these biomass burning aerosols and the SEA cloud deck is being investigated in the NASA ObseRvations of Aerosols above Clouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) study. The CCN activity of aerosol around the SEA cloud deck and associated biomass burning plume was evaluated during the first year of the ORACLES study with direct measurements of CCN concentration, aerosol size distribution and composition onboard the NASA P-3 aircraft during August and September of 2016. Here we present analysis of the observed CCN activity of the BBOA aerosol in and around the SEA cloud deck and its relationship to aerosol size, chemical composition, and plume mixing and aging. We also evaluate the predicted and observed droplet number sensitivity to the aerosol fluctuations and quantify, using the data, the drivers of droplet number variability (vertical velocity or aerosol properties) as a function of biomass burning plume characteristics.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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 .

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....

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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%

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.

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…

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...

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...

Nitric acid particles in cold thick ice clouds observed at global scale: Link with lightning, temperature, and upper tropospheric water vapor

Science.gov (United States)

Chepfer, H.; Minnis, P.; Dubuisson, P.; Chiriaco, M.; Sun-Mack, S.; RivièRe, E. D.

2007-03-01

Signatures of nitric acid particles (NAP) in cold thick ice clouds have been derived from satellite observations. Most NAP are detected in the tropics (9 to 20% of clouds with T < 202.5 K). Higher occurrences were found in the rare midlatitudes very cold clouds. NAP occurrence increases as cloud temperature decreases, and NAP are more numerous in January than July. Comparisons of NAP and lightning distributions show that lightning seems to be the main source of the NOx, which forms NAP in cold clouds over continents. Qualitative comparisons of NAP with upper tropospheric humidity distributions suggest that NAP may play a role in the dehydration of the upper troposphere when the tropopause is colder than 195 K.

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).

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 ...

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

Statistical retrieval of thin liquid cloud microphysical properties using ground-based infrared and microwave observations

Science.gov (United States)

Marke, Tobias; Ebell, Kerstin; Löhnert, Ulrich; Turner, David D.

2016-12-01

In this article, liquid water cloud microphysical properties are retrieved by a combination of microwave and infrared ground-based observations. Clouds containing liquid water are frequently occurring in most climate regimes and play a significant role in terms of interaction with radiation. Small perturbations in the amount of liquid water contained in the cloud can cause large variations in the radiative fluxes. This effect is enhanced for thin clouds (liquid water path, LWP cloud properties crucial. Due to large relative errors in retrieving low LWP values from observations in the microwave domain and a high sensitivity for infrared methods when the LWP is low, a synergistic retrieval based on a neural network approach is built to estimate both LWP and cloud effective radius (reff). These statistical retrievals can be applied without high computational demand but imply constraints like prior information on cloud phase and cloud layering. The neural network retrievals are able to retrieve LWP and reff for thin clouds with a mean relative error of 9% and 17%, respectively. This is demonstrated using synthetic observations of a microwave radiometer (MWR) and a spectrally highly resolved infrared interferometer. The accuracy and robustness of the synergistic retrievals is confirmed by a low bias in a radiative closure study for the downwelling shortwave flux, even for marginally invalid scenes. Also, broadband infrared radiance observations, in combination with the MWR, have the potential to retrieve LWP with a higher accuracy than a MWR-only retrieval.

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.

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.

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.