(urth) Dome, Dome on the Range

[Jeff Wilson]

On 1/13/2011 9:56 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> On 1/13/2011 10:32 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> On 1/13/2011 6:04 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
>>> It suddenly occurs to me that though Severian sees cloud and rain in
>>> front of Lune, he never mentions clouds on the face of Lune.
>>
>> heh heh heh! Just what you would expect in my many-dome scenario.
>>
>>> Would lunar clouds just blend into the green at that distance? Do Earth
>>> clouds only stand out against our blue ocean, which Lune would never
>>> have enough water to possess?
>>
>> I'm not ready to agree that the moon could never posses large bodies
>> of standing water; Geoff Landis' article doesn't include crunchable
>> numbers for his watered-moon scenario, but I've consulted with Geoff
>> numerous times previous on similarly speculative scenarios and his
>> definite answers have always turned out to be well supported.
>>
>> That said, earthly clouds; whiteness stands out over land and sea thusly:
>>
>> http://reallyhardsums.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/599px-the_earth_seen_from_apollo_17.jpg?w=350&h=350
>>
>>
>> http://preview.tinyurl.com/4pva64g
>>
>> while lunar features as "small" as the 85-km crater Tycho and its rays
>> are visible from earth by people with good eyesight, so the cloud
>> banks associated with lunar weather fronts ought to be visible from
>> the earth by most people some of the time and by some people most all
>> the time, even without use of instruments.
>>
> But that photo of Earth wasn't from the Moon. Also, it tends to
> emphasize the South Pole, but yes, it's clear that cloud masses stand
> out over land. This is a point in favor of domes, which might mist over
> but I can't imagine them turning white unless there is seasonal
> variation (i.e., winter).

Backing off doesn't make the clouds any less white as you can see in 
this photo taken from lunar orbit:

	http://hypertiling.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/nasa-apollo8-dec24-earthrise.jpg?w=497&h=497

	http://preview.tinyurl.com/46jobvy

Of course, we must keep in mind that the Earth seen from the moon is 4x 
wider than the moon seen from the earth. If Lune really is only 150,000 
miles away it can be seen all the better, of course.

> Unless the climate of the entire Moon is equatorial and all weather
> local (i.e., daily showers at 4:00 rather than large low-pressure
> systems) because of a lack of Earthlike "poles" (Severian does not note
> Lune's non-green poles, nor ice caps) and no jet streams, a wet Moon
> ought to have fronts and therefore masses of white cloud. Without fully
> understanding the effects of a non-tilted axis or small size, I can't
> parse this further. But then, I think we've already gone too far.

The moon's axial inclination wrt the sun of 5 degrees is usually held to 
provide very mild seasonal variation. The poles will still be cooler, 
and the small overall size is still a puzzler, but the most extreme 
weather making factor would be the month-long local day. This will tend 
to make the prevailing winds blow across the terminator from dark to 
light, with increasing mediation in the direction of rotation nearing 
the equator.  You may get some concentric convection cells, making the 
overall weather patterns resemble an archery target.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >