Clouds organize into patterns depending on the atmospheric conditions. One pattern is straight parallel lines of clouds. These rows of clouds are called “cloud streets.” They form from patterns of rising, warm air and sinking, cool air. Another pattern is “open cell convection” or “closed cell convection." This is a pattern of honeycomb-shaped clouds. You can often see the open and closed cell convection clouds after big storm systems.
Precipitation is another focus of our research in the Southern Ocean. So far in the voyage, we have seen snow, rain and drizzle (which is like rain but with super small droplets). Some of the precipitation that gets us most excited is snow. One of the scientists on our team is working on an algorithm that calculates the rate of snowfall based on the reflected radio waves! But we need measurements of the size of the snowflakes to check how his algorithm works. When it snows, we often run outside with a ruler and take pictures of the snow to measure its size. We have seen a lot of cool snowflakes!
We have also seen some interesting optical effects that are connected to the atmosphere. One example is a halo. Halos are caused by light refracting, or changing direction, when it passes through ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. It makes a circle around the sun. Another example of an optical effect is rainbows from sea spray. This rainbow effect occurs when the boat crashes through waves and spray is blown off the crest of waves and ocean.
One of the ways that we get to observe what is happening with the weather is through weather balloon launches.
