Identification

Title

A striking cloud over Boulder, Colorado: What is its altitude, and why does it matter?

Abstract

Scientific investigation is supposed to be objective and strictly logical, but this is not always the case: the process that leads to a good conclusion can be messy. This narrative describes interactions among a group of scientists trying to solve a simple problem that had scientific implications. It started with the observation of a cloud exhibiting behavior associated with supercooled water and temperatures around −20°C. However, other aspects of the cloud suggested an altitude where the temperature was around −40°C. For several months following the appearance of the cloud on 23 March 2011, the people involved searched for evidence, formed strong opinions, argued, examined evidence more carefully, changed their minds, and searched for more evidence until they could reach agreement. While they concluded that the cloud was at the higher and colder altitude, evidence for supercooled liquid water at that altitude is not conclusive.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75b03bv

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2013-06-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2013 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact