Effective Cloudiness Derived from Ocean Buoy Data

Abstract

There is a need in the study of the dynamic aspects of radiation balance at the sea surface for cloud cover information on a finer scale than is presently available, especially for analyses of historic data. Although cloud cover is difficult to obtain without a human observer, or more recently without a satellite, insolation can be readily measured and recorded by an untended instrument. Cloud cover can then be estimated by using well-known formulas usually intended for calculating insolation from known cloud cover. An example of such a computation on a daily basis is presented here using insolation data from deep-moored instrument stations in the North Pacific Ocean. The effective cloudiness thus obtained is used to calculate the radiation balance at the sea surface.