Attn seascapers: cloud cover prediction tool

[Xenedis]

The following might prove very handy for seascape/landscape photographers who, like myself, long for good clouds in the sky.

I've just become aware of SkippySky Astro-Weather Forecast, which shows a visual map of cloud cover, including percentages, with breakdown of cloud cover (ie, high, middle, low and total).

Check it out.

http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/

This could certainly avoid the immense frustration of turning up somewhere to be assaulted with a plain sky which is utterly boring and extremely difficult to photograph when facing the east in the morning.

[dbax]

thats interesting, worth investigating. thanks for the find and post

[Scotty72]

But, that could mean an end to your whinging about cloudless skies at our dawn meets.

The following might prove very handy for seascape/landscape photographers who, like myself, long for good clouds in the sky.

I've just become aware of SkippySky Astro-Weather Forecast, which shows a visual map of cloud cover, including percentages, with breakdown of cloud cover (ie, high, middle, low and total).

Check it out.

http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/

This could certainly avoid the immense frustration of turning up somewhere to be assaulted with a plain sky which is utterly boring and extremely difficult to photograph when facing the east in the morning.

[I @ M]

Thanks for that, duly bookmarked as a useful reference for the upcoming sunrise season ( angle of the incidence ) at our favourite spot.

Almost makes opening the front blinds at 4.00 am unnecessary.

[William]

Thanks , Straight to favourites list - Cheers Bill

[arnica]

At least we can talk about the clouds and not have to put up with our random jokes in the morning ....

[Xenedis]

At least we can talk about the clouds and not have to put up with our random jokes in the morning ....

No, no.

We can still keep the random stuff there.

Rather than "This plain sky sucks, and so does Nikon", it'll be a case of "Wow, what a great sky! Nikon sucks.".

[arnica]

No, no.

We can still keep the random stuff there.

Rather than "This plain sky sucks, and so does Nikon", it'll be a case of "Wow, what a great sky! Nikon sucks.".

Bahahahahaaa ... "there's Greg marking his territory again over there".

[Lance B]

Excellent resource, thank you.

[David]

Gr8 resource which I have added to my desktop shortcuts; will be very handy when I figure out how to interpret it.. thanks for the information.

[Kerro]

Excellent. I have it bookmarked next to this website at the top of my browser. Thanks.

[Xebadir]

Until you add the convective factor, which does a good job of destroying any potential information that the map gives due to horizontal resolution.

Naturally it also relies on a 6 hour refresh model prediction which is known for being fairly average on predicting overall cloud cover so just be aware of this.

It also doesnt differential between the altocumulus and altostratus, or cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. the cumuliforms of which produce the red sky phenomenas and lovely sky textures seen in many nice shots.

Use with caution I think should be your guide...and amusingly all of these can be interpretted from the satellite image live anyway if you know how and where to look. There is 1km visible satellite available for Australia which using colour and shadows makes it easy to determine cloud cover (and IR for night lead in).

[David]

Until you add the convective factor, which does a good job of destroying any potential information that the map gives due to horizontal resolution.

Naturally it also relies on a 6 hour refresh model prediction which is known for being fairly average on predicting overall cloud cover so just be aware of this.

It also doesnt differential between the altocumulus and altostratus, or cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. the cumuliforms of which produce the red sky phenomenas and lovely sky textures seen in many nice shots.

Use with caution I think should be your guide...and amusingly all of these can be interpretted from the satellite image live anyway if you know how and where to look. There is 1km visible satellite available for Australia which using colour and shadows makes it easy to determine cloud cover (and IR for night lead in).

You lost me .. could you please explain what you mean in more detail in terms of locating and differentiating between the cloud formations.. I get that I need to learn some lingo here.

[Xebadir]

You lost me .. could you please explain what you mean in more detail in terms of locating and differentiating between the cloud formations.. I get that I need to learn some lingo here.

Ok.
Convective = Cumulus clouds, appear like cauliflower. Generally not well predicted by models due to being caused by smaller scale factors as compared to what the models can detect. Range from fluffy little whites to giant towers and cumulonimbus (thunderstorms).

General sort of appearance/cloud info, it can be found in many places.
http://www.bom.gov.au/info/clouds/

Satellite data works in terms of reflectivity/temperature: basically the more light that is reflected back towards the satellite by the cloud the colder the cloud is. Now, on a satellite image high clouds reflect as white, while as the clouds get lower generally they reflect more to the grey side of things. Also the transmissivity of the cloud is fairly easy to determine as satellite will show the variance in cloud top temperature or reflectivity. Convective clouds generally appear to have more texture to them, and quite often have shadows which is where you can pick them on the satellite image. (Look at the this image: http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat...=&start=&stop= and you will see what I mean, over eastern victorian you can see that there are multiple levels and bulgy bits in the high cloud, while over western Vic there are much shallower convective clouds which dont reflect as much.) Stratiform (slate grey skies, are easily picked as grey to dull white clouds which cover large areas, whereas the similar feature in a bright white is generally cirrus and ice clouds).

Now while the satellite system isnt working so well at the moment, heres a link for pretty much the highest resolution satellite we get in Aus:
http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat...art=&stop=#nav

Click on the tabs above it for loops, state choices etc.

A good little thing to read if you are more interested is
http://msx4.pha.jhu.edu/ssip/asat_int/clouds.html

I could explain further but it is difficult without doing some image modification for examples.

Anyway,
Hope that helps and gives you a start.

[wazzam]

I love weather sites. I'm glad I found this thread.

*waves to Xenedis*