For more than 10 years, students from around the world have been participating with NASA in a science project called Students Cloud Observations Online, or S’COOL, for short.
With just a few clicks of a camera and a mouse, you can contribute to research that will help atmospheric scientists better understand how clouds affect climate.
It is not difficult to imagine that a gigantic volcanic eruption spewing thick clouds of ash and gas high into the atmosphere would change the weather. But these satellite images show that a small, steady, simmering eruption also affects the atmosphere.
These “hole punch” clouds were just as apparent from above as they were from below. This MODIS image shows a number of round holes in a blanket of cloud cover over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. A few of the “holes” are elongated, with what appear to be smaller clouds inside them.