Winter2023CloudUpdate

NASA GLOBE Clouds Quarterly Update

December/January/February 2023-2024

 

Coming Soon: Cloud Challenge 2024

The team is excited to announce that in 2024 we will have a Cloud Challenge focused on how clouds change throughout the day. Stay tuned to dates and ways to participate on the GLOBE Observer website.

 

First Long-Duration Lidar Satellite Mission CALIPSO Ends

a spacecraft high above the clouds with a green laser shooting through the skies and into the depths of the water.CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations), a lidar satellite that advanced the world’s understanding of climate, weather, and air quality, ended its scientific mission on August 1, 2023 after 17 years of operation. CALIPSO was launched jointly by NASA and the France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/CNES on April 28, 2006 as the first lidar capable of operating in space. Learn more about CALIPSO, including watching a special video from NASA Earth Science Division's Director Karen St. Germain, in this end of mission celebration recap.

 

Spotlight on the October 2023 Annular Eclipse

graphed data from Albuquerque New Mexico collected in the GLOBE Eclipse tool in the app showing how air temperature and clouds decreased during the annular eclipse.Thank you to everyone who participated in data collection during the annular solar eclipse on 14 October 2023! The GLOBE Clouds team received over 2100 cloud observations from North, South, and Central America. Our team is working on a detailed analysis of the data collected from the recent annular eclipse. Investigating how clouds and air temperature in different climate regions are affected by the eclipse. The GLOBE Eclipse news story includes highlights and images from volunteer scientists and team members. Our analysis will continue with data from the upcoming total solar eclipse on 8 April 2024 and we invite you to collect cloud and air temperature observations during the next astronomical event.

 

GLOBE Clouds by the Numbers

The GLOBE Clouds Team would like to share some exciting numbers! Thank you to the amazing GLOBE community. Repeat observations are necessary to understand changes in our atmosphere:

Period

Sky Photographs

Cloud Observations

Satellite Matches

Last Quarter
(2023-09-01 to 2023-11-31)

83,839

45,033

49,615
 

Graph of Total Satellite Matches Since Last Quarter 2023-09-01 to 2023-11-30. About 38,000 GEO matches, 4,000 Terra matches, and 7,000 NOAA-20 matches.

 

Science Topic: Clouds on Exoplanets

We have talked about clouds on other planets in our solar system. But what about clouds even farther away? In this update, we would like to explore clouds on exoplanets. An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. Just like on Earth, clouds on exoplanets consist of liquid or solid droplets suspended in an atmosphere. However, some exoplanets orbit so close to their stars, that their temperatures reach thousands of degrees. These extreme temperatures cause solid materials to vaporize. Under those conditions, there cannot be clouds of water. Instead, there could be clouds made of rock. And with the extremely high temperatures, the rock melts. Therefore, clouds on exoplanets could be made of molten rock, liquid glass, molten iron, and gems! How would you like seeing clouds made of jewels? It may sound fantastic to be on a planet where clouds are made of rubies or sapphires. But together with the super hot temperatures responsible for melting rock, exoplanets can have other wild conditions. For example, the fastest winds on Earth are recorded in hurricanes. The speed of those winds is about 250 mph. On the other hand, winds on exoplanets can be over 5000 mph. Imagine “jewel” clouds being carried by those winds! NASA scientists are always excited to discover new things. Clouds on exoplanets are no exception. Among other things, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will observe the atmospheres of exoplanets. Clouds observations will be one of the best ways to understand the atmospheres of exoplanets. After all, clouds provide a great deal of information about the chemistry of the atmosphere of a planet. That is why, the NASA GLOBE Clouds team is looking for your help making observations of our own planet’s clouds too!

 

Would you like to receive NASA GLOBE Clouds communications in Spanish?

Our NASA GLOBE Clouds team will attempt to translate our communications to Spanish whenever possible. You can now sign up to receive NASA GLOBE Clouds communications in Spanish.