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RE: (meteorobs) haze
Kevin, I think you are upside down here. There are not as many eyes looking UP at the sky....many observing sites now have AWOS (Automated weather observing stations), so humans are being downsized out of the sky observing business. The measurement devices (LIDAR) have trouble with thin clouds.Fair is defined as few or no clouds below 12,000 ft. Has nothing to do with clear, I'm afraid.. However, when it says clear, rather than fair, it is clearer than fair :->
Satellite pix are still examined by humans (even us, thanks to the weather channel) as well as machines; the machine data is now input into the numerical weather prediction programs and have increased accuracy.
However, it is certainly true that clear means different things to a weatherman forecasting to the general public, than it does to we who wish to peer out to the other side.
Wayne
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From: KevTK[SMTP:KevTK@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 22, 1998 12:26 PM
To: meteorobs@latrade.com
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) haze
Meteorologist, Joe Rao, once told me that there is no longer a set of human
eyes looking at the satellite images and that its all done by computer. And
that if there is no clouds below something like 500 to 750 ft. the computers
will call it clear. Well, not actually clear, they are calling it all "fair"
now. I'm not sure about this country wide but according to him it's true on
the east coast. On the local network news, there has been a lot of "fair"
skies that are filled w/ cirrus. Ahh progress.
Kevin
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