Clouds form when moist air rises, cools, and condenses into tiny water droplets or ice crystals. The types of clouds that form depend on altitude, temperature, and humidity levels. Common cloud types include cumulus clouds, which are fluffy and white, stratus clouds that form in layers and appear gray, and cirrus clouds, high-altitude wispy clouds that often signal changing weather.

Cloud cover is not uniform across the world; it exhibits significant variability due to a multitude of factors, such as atmospheric circulation, humidity, and local geography. Some regions experience persistent cloud cover, while others frequently enjoy clear, cloudless skies. The distribution of cloud cover is influenced by geographical features, prevailing winds, and ocean currents.

Johannes Kroeger created a map that shows the average cloud cover around the world last year. It shows the medium cloud cover experienced at every location on the planet based on information taken from daily high-resolution satellite images.

The map created by Johannes Kroeger confirms the fact that clouds cover two-thirds (67%) of the Earth’s surface. Over the oceans, it was estimated that less than 10% of the sky is completely clear of clouds at any one time, rising to 30% over land.

Countries that experience minimal cloud cover throughout the year are often located in regions with dry and arid climates or in areas where atmospheric conditions are less conducive to cloud formation. Countries known for their clear skies and low cloud cover are Egypt, Chile, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Peru, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, Australia.

Climate change can have an impact on cloud cover patterns. As the atmosphere warms due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, it can affect cloud formation and distribution.

Cloud cover changes are not uniform globally. Some regions might experience increases in cloud cover, while others might see decreases. This variability can be influenced by regional climate patterns, oceanic currents, and atmospheric circulation.

Despite that cloud cover changes can be challenging to quantify due to natural variability, observational limitations, and complex interactions with other climate factors, some analysis of satellite data over the past decade shows that cloud tops are reaching higher into the atmosphere and that cloudy storm tracks are shifting toward Earth’s poles.

Want to learn more about climate and climate change? Then you might like to read:

• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
• The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
• The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here

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Via washingtonpost.com

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– Urban evolution of Rio

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The area in this picture is about 32 kilometers by 41 kilometers, and is centered near 45.4 degrees North latitude, 126.9 degrees East longitude.

The extreme flatness of the Northeastern China Manchurian Plain has
caused the Songhua River to meander widely over time. The result of the
meandering is that the river is surrounded by a wide plain filled with
swirls and curves, showing paths the river once took. The plain includes
classic features of meandering rivers, such as ox-bow
lakes—semi-circular lakes formed when a meander is cut off from the main
channel by river-deposited sediment. Meandering rivers shift their
positions across the valley bottom by depositing sediment on the inside
of bends while simultaneously eroding the outer banks of the meander
bends.

Via NASA

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Thanks to the Landsat program and Google Earth Engine, it is possible now to explore how the surface of the Earth has been changing through the last thirty years or so. Besides the obvious issues of interest, like changes in vegetation, the spread of cities, and the melting of glaciers, it is also possible to look at how rivers change their courses through time. You have probably already seen the images of the migrating Ucayali River in Peru, for example here. This river is changing its course with an impressive speed; many – probably most – other rivers don’t show much obvious change during the same 30-year period. What determines the meander migration rate of rivers is an interesting question in fluvial geomorphology.

The data that underlies Google Earth Engine is not accessible to everybody, but the Landsat data is available to anyone who creates a free account with Earth Explorer. It is not that difficult (but fairly time consuming) to download a set of images and create animations.

This scene also comes from the Ucayali River (you can view it in Google Earth Engine over here) and it is a nice example of how both neck cutoffs and chute cutoffs form. First a neck cutoff takes place that affects the tight bend in the right side of the image; this is followed by a chute cutoff immediately downstream of the neck cutoff location, as the new course of the river happens to align well with a pre-existing chute channel. The third bend in the upper left corner shows some well-developed counter-point-bar deposits. There is one frame in the movie for each year from 1985 to 2013, with a few years missing.

Via hinderedsettling.com

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A refugee is a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have well-founded grounds for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and is unable to obtain sanctuary from their home country or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country; or in the case of not having a nationality and being outside their country of former habitual residence as a result of such event, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to their country of former habitual residence. Such a person may be called an “asylum seeker” until considered with the status of “refugee” by the Contracting State where they formally make a claim for sanctuary or right of asylum.

                          Total population = 7,309,000,000
                          Total Refugee population = 15,097,633
                          Natives per refugee = 484

Refugees were defined as a legal group in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe following World War II. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

via chartsbin.com

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