(urth) Dome, Dome on the Range

[David Stockhoff]

On 1/13/2011 11:46 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> 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.
I thought the average was almost 250,000 mi. Anyway, I think we could 
easily explain away the apparent lack of noticeable clouds on Lune by 
assuming that the cloud cover is approximately as extensive as in this 
image of Earth and keeping in mind that Lune is smaller. This may mean 
Lune is green-white rather than green the way Earth is almost blue-white 
in this image rather than blue-and-white, but some artistic license is 
surely allowed.
>
>> 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.

I'm not sure what that would look like from Urth, but I certainly seem 
to have asked the right person!


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