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Correlations Between Cloud Cover, Split Water Vapor, and Cloud Altitude in Medford, NJ

Student(s):Royce Jacobs, Samantha Barrile, Sophia Tenebruso
Grade Level:Middle School (grades 6-8, ages 11-14)
GLOBE Educator(s):Victoria Gorman
Contributors:
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report
Protocols:Clouds
Presentation Poster: View Document
Language(s):
Date Submitted:04/04/2019
GOES-16 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite), also known as GOES-East, is a geostationary satellite that was launched in 2016. It records weather observations from multiple different types of instruments. The satellite images used for this research were recorded from a product produced using Band 13 of GOES-16’s ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager). Band 13 is water vapor. Split water vapor is the difference between the 6.2-micron band and the 7.3-micron band. The ABI uses specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to identify factors in the environment. Brightness temperature is the temperature when all of the light of an electromagnetic spectrum wavelength is absorbed and converted into heat when the temperature of the object starts at absolute zero. It is measured in degrees Kelvin. All split water vapor data is brightness temperature data. The thicker the cloud, the closer the split water vapor value will be to zero. The thinner the cloud, the more negative the split water vapor value. The research questions include: What is the correlation between split water vapor and cloud coverage? What is the connection between split water vapor and high as well as mid-level clouds? The objective of this research is to find a correlation between ground-based cloud coverage observations and GOES-16 satellite data. During four consecutive weeks, ground cloud observations using the GLOBE cloud protocol, cloud data sheets, and the GLOBE observer app, were recorded. As the results show, there is little to no correlation between total cloud coverage and mid-level clouds to split water vapor. However, there is a consistent correlation between high-level clouds and split water vapor. If a future scientist were to research similar topics to this, it would be recommended that they collect data for a longer period of time.



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