NASA Challenge
Topic: Clouds
In The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing, David Seidman writes, “Clouds are the harbingers of weather. Their shape, height, color, and sequence foretell coming events.”
Question
How can the shape, height, and color of clouds help an ocean navigator to predict oncoming weather?
Hi Explorers All,
Just a reminder that the end of the star tracking activity is this Saturday, November 16. Any evening between now and then, and between the hour of 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm, you are invited to track the star Enif and compare your results with others participants in this challenge. This activity can prepare you for navigating your canoe to Rapa Nui.
To this point, we have not received nearly enough responses to do a real comparison (especially in the Northern U.S.) and wouldn’t it be fun to get results from around the globe as well? The weather doesn’t always cooperate,
so don’t wait to the last minute!
All the directions you need are at:
http://quest.nasa.gov/challenges/lcross2/Star_Tracking_Enif.pdf
Parents and teachers are aloud to help. Please submit your information to me by Tuesday, November 18.
Happy Star Gazing,
Linda
November 12th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
A navigator can tell the oncoming weather with clouds by looking at the elevation, shape [thick, big, small] and color.
A navigator would look at the color of the clouds to see if it is darker or more white. If it is darker, it will probably rain.
If the clouds are thicker and lower, there is also a high chance of rain.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
The shape can affect the weather because if the cloud is huge then there must be more rain and water vapor than in a small cloud. The weight determines the amount of rain due to the fact that if something is heavy, then it should have a lot of rain or may have something that’s stored in a cloud. The color changes the amount of rain, lightning, and thunder because a dark huge cloud has the higher possibility of rain vs. a small white cloud that has a lesser possibility of rain.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
A navigator can tell oncoming weather with clouds because of shape, color and elevation.
If the cloud is thicker and bigger, it would have more rain which it soon needs to let out, so you know it would rain soon.
You can also tell if it will rain if you look at the cloud’s color and elevation because if the cloud is lower, it will probably rain. It’s heavy therefore it will be holding more rain.
If the color is darker that also means there is a high chance of condensation.
November 12th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
You can tell the oncoming weather if there are clouds in the sky. If they are darker, there is more chance of their being water in it. The rain cloud can be stratus or cirrus to be a rain cloud. You can tell the weather by shape because if the cloud is big and not flattened out, there is more of a possibility that it’s going to rain. With the height, you could tell if it’s going to rain or not. If it’s big and tall something that’s condensing in the cloud is water. If it’s small and flaky, then you know it probably won’t rain. If it is puffy or flat, it’s more likely to have rain in it.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
The shape, height and color of clouds can help an ocean navigator predict on coming weather. The navigator can determine if the cloud is a sign of rain, hail and/or wind based on its color, shape, location and the outside temperature. If the cloud is low and the temperature is very cold, it has better chances of snowing. But if the temperature were warm it would just be rain. Different types of clouds means different weather, like a cirrus cloud. Cirrus clouds mean fair to pleasant weather in the next 24 hours. Nimbus clouds are dark and hold lots of water vapor. These types of clouds mean lots of rain.
If a navigator learns how to read the clouds he can predict the on coming weather and adapt his navigation path and or change his course in the ocean.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Just imagine you are in the ocean. The waves are perfect, the wind is perfect. You’re in a giant ship. The sky is blue with puffy cumulus clouds above, of course it is a great day. Suddenly, big fat and tall patches of dark nimbostratus clouds that could be hazardous to you ship suddenly came above your head. Rain suddenly started pouring down causing crashing waves. You could have predicted this horrible weather if you saw the dark clouds coming.
If you were sailing to another island this would be bad news t you. You would want nice white puffy clouds to follow you on your journey.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:12 am
NASA Question #3: How can shape, height and color of clouds can help an ocean navigator to predict oncoming weather? The shape of the clouds can help an ocean navigator because if the shape is big, it’s probably going to have more rain than a cloud with a smaller shape. You can tell the weather by the height of the cloud because the higher it is, it has to hold less water then low clouds because the rain droplets that collects into the cloud is weighing it down. You can also tell the weather by the color of clouds. The darker the cloud has more of a chance and it is likely to rain or have a storm.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am
The main way to tell the oncoming weather from the clouds is the clouds color. If the shade of the cloud is more of a white color (cumulus, stratus, or cirrus clouds) it probably won’t rain,but if the cloud is a gray of black color (cumulonimbus) there is a high risk of a down pour and maybe even some thunder and lighting.
Another way to tell what the oncoming weather is by the clouds is shape. A cumulonimbus cloud is a cloud that stretches up and down, and is a low cloud, and stretches pretty wide and is a black or dark gray. If you see this cloud you will know it is probably going to rain. The cirrus cloud is a high wispy cloud and if you see this cloud it will probably won’t rain, unless there are dramatic changes in the weather. The most common cloud is the cumulus cloud, it is fluffy and if you see this cloud it probably won’t rain. There might be a few sprinkles but most likely will have down pours.
Another way to tell the weather by the clouds is the height of the cloud. The cumulonimbus is usually a low hanging cloud and is very tall as I mentioned before. The cirrus cloud is that high wispy cloud that is very skinny. Last there is the cumulus cloud. That cloud is usually more in the middle of the sky and is fluffy cloud that kids usually draw in their pictures and the clouds you see on a regular day.
In conclusion I would like to say that clouds are a great help to navigators because it lets them know what they have to prepare for. If they are out on see and a storm hits when they are not ready they could get seriously injured or mabye get thrown off course. That’s why I think clouds are important to navigators.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am
The shape, height and color of clouds can help an ocean navigator predict on coming weather. The navigator can determine if the cloud is a sign of rain, hail and/or wind based on its color, shape, location and the outside temperature.
If the cloud is low and the temperature is very cold, it has better chances of snowing. But if the temperature were warm it would just be rain. Different types of clouds means different weather, like a cirrus cloud. Cirrus clouds mean fair to pleasant weather in the next 24 hours. Nimbus clouds are dark and hold lots of water vapor that weighs it down. These types of clouds mean lots of rain. If the cloud has a high location in the sky it is made up of ice crystals.
If a navigator learns how to read the clouds he can predict the on coming weather and adapt his navigation path and or change his course in the ocean.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:26 am
The navigator can predict if there is going to be rain, sunny weather or wind. They can tell by the color, elevation, and the shape. There are three main types of clouds, Cirrus, Nimbus, and Cumulus.
Cirrus clouds, which are wispy and high in elevation, means hail. These clouds are so high that the water vapor inside freezes and forms ice crystals. Cirrus clouds are the remains of a thunderstorm.
Cumulus clouds are puffy and white. This means it will be drizzling and/or sunny weather.
If a cloud is thicker and bigger, this means there will be rain. Nimbus clouds are low and dark in color and holds a lot of rain in other words, a rainstorm. You can also tell there will be rain if the clouds are lower and darker, like the Nimbus cloud. This is because it has more water vapor so it is heavier.
A navigator can tell where land is by looking at the clouds too! If there is a cluster of clouds, both high and low, it is by a mountain.
If a navigator can predict the weather, they can change their course to avoid the bad weather before it hits.