Cloud Distribution Revealed by Tiros III

Abstract

An analysis of cloud distribution on 4th September, 1961, is presented, which is based on the photograph of Tiros III with a view to interpret the structure of precipitating clouds and the formation mechanism of widespread cloud sheets in relation to air stream, and horizontal convergence and divergence.
Simultaneous observations by the network of all-sky camera in Japan are used for better rectification of Tiros III's picture.
It is presented that the orientation of detached clouds, such as cirrus and altocumulus clouds, closely relates to air streams and wind shears at the cloud level, and that the cloud distribution seems to be strongly affected by the orographic influence, hence the air stream is inevitably important to deform cloud appearance. It is also postulated that the widespread cirrus clouds are formed in the layer beneath horizontal divergence area.
A model of precipitating cloud is outlined, in which ice crystals fall through thick medium cloud layers into the lower water cloud layer. The computed vertical distribution of horizontal convergence and divergence seems to explain the existence of the interstices between lower and upper layers of precipitating stratiform clouds.