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When a cloud drifts by and you think it looks like a bunny rabbit or a catcher's mitt, chances are you weren't looking at them the way Dr. Pete Lamb, professor of metoerology at the University of Oklahoma and a crew of nearly 50 meteorologists, researchers and pilots were looking at them for three weeks last month.
Sure, that cumulus cloud may seem fairly average, but Lamb and his colleagues see far more in the gossamer-like masses drifting overhead.
"Our goal was to see how (atmospheric) radiation passes through them," Lamb said, adding, "and noting the effect the land surface has on the clouds."
That project was called Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC) and the other project, studying aerosols in clouds was called Cumulus Humilis Aerosol Processing Study (CHAPS). With the CHAPS project, scientists were looking to see the number and size of aerosols within a cloud; how much solar radiation these particles can absorb and reflect, how much the aerosols attract water vapor and the chemical composition of aerosols. In fact, measurements were taken from clouds in the Oklahoma City area, where lots of aerosols are concentrated.
"A lot of good data was collected," Lamb said from his office at the National Weather Center. "The weather here is highly variable."
Lamb said that variability was important in landing the $5 million project, put on by the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA, here in Oklahoma.
Lamb said it is important that the state land such "knowledge-based" projects because it's important in the 21st century that Oklahoma be known for more than just oil and gas, wheat farming, college football and country music.
Specifically, during the final three weeks of June when these researchers gathered at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility in the Grant County town of Lamont there were upwards of nine different aircraft studying the clouds, atmosphere and radiation. Unfortunately, numerous rainy days affected the group to a degree, Lamb said, adding that they still did see some cumulus clouds they were hoping to view.
Other ground sites in the state, participating in the project, were in the Fort Cobb area and one near Okmulgee. Aircraft used included everything from a helicopter flying at very low altitudes to a ER-2, a cousin of the high-flying U2 spy plane used during the Cold War.
"We don't know of another field meteorological experiment using nine aircraft," Lamb said.
Because of all the rain, Lamb said, "We'll have to come back in two to three year to repeat the experiment."
But the experiment wasn't a total washout. Lamb said it will take years for the results of the June experiment to be released.
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