How does the thickness of a cloud change the way it looks from the satellite? This is the same image as the last example, but the adjustments are now different:

The vertical scale changes the cloud thickness and its effective brightness.

You can modify the surface temperature with the horizontal sliding scale.

Questions

• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thinner?
• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thicker?
• What happens to the image when you decrease the ground temperature?
• What happens to the brightness of the cloud when you change the ground temperature? Why?

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This example Java applet developed by Tom Whittaker and Steve Ackerman of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.