Deformation Zone Flavours

#1828 "Just Another November Sunset"

What can the shape of the deformation zone reveal? How are these different shapes created? Deformation zones come in three flavours and they are all very different but all equally tasty. 

It is helpful to examine each confluent asymptote separately. If the confluent asymptote is curved cyclonically, the vorticity maximum or cyclonic swirl is the stronger of the paired swirls on either side of that confluent asymptote. 

Cyclonic Asymptote - The Red X Swirl Stronger 
in the Paired Swirls across the Asymptote
Let's Call this Asymptote Pattern "Big X"

If the confluent asymptote is curved anticyclonically, the vorticity minimum or anticyclonic swirl must be the stronger of the paired swirls on either side of that confluent asymptote. It is really that simple but it was a challenge to explain this stuff back in the nineties. 

Anticyclonic Asymptote - The Blue N Swirl Stronger
in the Paired Swirls across the Asymptote
Let's Call this Asymptote Pattern "Big N"

Now let's put a  "Big X" Asymptote Pattern together with a "Big N". Aside from my clumsy graphics, this pattern is the same as the paddle swirl in the duck weed from Sunrise or Sunset - Gravity Waves and the Deformation Zone. This deformation zone pattern is typically called a "bow" as in "bow and arrow".  

"Big X" Asymptote Pattern together with a "Big N"
The Bowed Deformation Zone

Now let's put a  "Big X" Asymptote Pattern together with another  "Big X".

"Big X" Asymptote Pattern together with another  "Big X"
The Double Cyclonic DZ

Now let's put a   "Big N" Asymptote Pattern together with another   "Big N". You guessed it already! This isn't so hard... 

"Big N" Asymptote Pattern together with another  "Big N"
The Double Anticyclonic DZ

One more thing, the Coriolis force that helps to create the swirls, is strongest at the poles and zero at the equator. You can easily prove this to yourself. 

Imagine yourself standing at the equator with your arms outstretched - one arm pointing north and the other pointing south. In a full day of earth’s rotation, you will experience no rotation at all. 

Now do the same thing at say the North Pole. You will note that both of your outstretched arms must point south. You will rotate with the full measure of the Earth’s rotation. It is certainly no coincidence that when you direct the fingers of your Coriolis Hand in the direction of the Earth's rotation while at either the South or North Pole, that your Coriolis Thumb points upward. Nature always makes sense if we take the time to understand. 

The swirls that shape the confluent asymptotes are much stronger at higher latitudes than they are at the equator as a result of the Coriolis force. The shapes of those swirls reveal much about the weather but we will save that for the next day. It is enough to taste the three different favours of the deformation zone conceptual model in one sitting. This might explain why I really enjoy the weather and meteorology of the high latitudes. The cloud and moisture patterns are full of stories just waiting to be read. 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Applied Conceptual Models on the Space and the Earth Views

#2361 "Singleton Sunset Swirl" 
with Conceptual Models Applied
as viewed from the Earth Vantage

The last several Blogs laid the foundation for this next step - practical practice. We are about to apply the conveyor belt and deformation zone conceptual models to an actual weather situation and painting - from the satellite, atmosphere and earth frames of reference. The features are all the same from the three different vantages – and we can learn about the weather. Stay with me… you can do this. 

In “The Swirls and Deformation Zone Revisited”  I concentrated on the view from space. I thought the explanation of the cloud features would be easier from a single satellite perspective. Let’s revisit those cloud features but this time from the ground up as well. After all, we do our paddling and cloud gazing from the earth’s surface. 

Top Down Space View - Images Oriented North Up

The Water Vapour and Visible Satellite Imagery for this painting are all that you really need. The Water Vapour Imagery senses the high level moisture and depicts the leading edge deformation zone that is followed by the cirrostratus (CS). The thinnest CS is essentially invisible in the Visible Imagery while the thicker and more opaque altocumulus (AC), is well depicted. All of these images have north pointing upward on the page. 

In the following graphic, I have turned the imagery so that it closely fits the earth view that I enjoyed while doing the painting. North is pointing to the right on the page. 

Across the top of the graphic, I have again included the Water Vapour image from satellite, followed by the view looking downward at duckweed from my kayak which is followed by the conveyor belt and deformation zone conceptual models. The view as identified on the water vapour imagery is toward the southwest and Lake Ontario. The dynamic features identified are the same in every image, including my painting which was my interpretation of the same sunset sky on May 22nd, 2020. If you faithfully paint what you observe, the physics, mathematics and meteorology must be true and accurate. Nature always tells the truth... 

Top Down Space View Application of the
Conceptual Models at  the Top of the Graphic
Superimposed on the Earth View Painting

From the space view one can only see the tops of the cloud. The earth bound view allows one to see the bottom structure of the cloud. Both views are complementary in that they provide unique information about the features that might not be apparent in the other displays. The more facts that fit together like pieces in a puzzle, the more confidence we can place in our solution of the weather riddle. 

The highest level of the warm conveyor belt leading the spring storm, has already passed east of Singleton. The sky above is not the deep blue of clear skies but is blanketed by thin cirrostratus that follows behind that highest level deformation zone. 

The swells in the mid level altocumulus layer of moisture of the warm conveyor belt are not easily discernible from the satellite view. The details of the mid level cloud are masked by the highest layer of increasingly thick cirrostratus. Those swells are readily apparent from the earth bound view! Recall that atmospheric swells, like those in the ocean, are large amplitude and long wavelength gravity waves located far from the strong winds that originated them. Atmospheric swells are very common on the jet stream side of the deformation zone. Swells propagate right to the deformation zone largely unaffected by the divergence of the atmospheric frame relative winds at the col.

Atmospheric Gravity Waves
Swells and Wind Waves

I even observed and painted the gravity waves created by the wind swirling behind the mid level deformation zone. One can only expect these wind waves where there is sufficient atmospheric frame winds blowing – ie some distance away from the col. You will not witness significant atmospheric frame of reference winds near the col which is where the winds diverge from. Winds increase with distance from the col when you move along the divergent confluent asymptotes. 

Note that the winds are calm in the sheltered eastern bay of Singleton Lake. This is the calm before the storm commonly found in the cold conveyor belt region of the conceptual model. The calm waters mirror the red sunset on the western horizon. The easterly breeze does create some ripples with the extended fetch by the time the breeze reaches the western basin of Singleton Lake. These ripples reflect the bluer, thin cirrostratus of the sky overhead and not the fiery sunset. I describe the Calm Before the Storm in "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard". 

These conceptual models and the associated science were in the back of my mind while I paint. When I am deep within the creative zone with a brush in my hand, the colours and shapes required to interpret the beauty of nature are all that matter. The science and the art can be fused together at a later, more contemplative time such as this. 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

The Swirls and Deformation Zone Revisited

#2361 "Singleton Sunset Swirl"

Our reality really depends on our point of view – our vantage point. We live on a spinning Globe and this requires that we view our non-inertial frame of reference using our Coriolis Hand. I wrote about this in more detail in The Solution to Cloud Swirls Can Be Found in Your Hands.

Cloud shapes are formed within the free atmosphere that covers our spinning Globe. There are low clouds that are influenced by their life in the planetary boundary layer but we have not talked about them yet. The best vantage point to view and understand the lines and swirls is from the atmosphere itself. In Cloud Shapes and Lines in the Atmosphere , I described how cloud shapes develop and how it is so much easier to understand them from a frame of reference attached to the mean flow of the atmosphere. 

A simple, straight line deformation zone forms with just a decrease in the wind speed as viewed from a vantage attached to the earth. That subtle change in wind speed is difficult to observe but the line that it creates is extremely obvious - which is the rationale behind the deformation zone conceptual model. That Blog goes into more detail with many  more graphics. The average winds with respect to the atmospheric frame average to zero to create a straight line deformation zone. 

If you want to paddle your canoe forward though, the atmospheric frame winds cannot average to zero and one creates a bowed shape deformation zone like we saw in the pool of duckweed in  Gravity Waves and the Deformation Zone.  

Let’s revisit the straight line deformation zone in terms of your Coriolis Hand to make certain we have these concepts firmly in hand. I made some "brains hurt" and I am sorry for that and want to do better. The fingers of your Coriolis Hand can only bend one way and aline with how the flow also swirls. 

If you point the thumb of you Coriolis Hand upward at every X, your fingers must curl in the direction of the flow. 

Northern Hemisphere Right Coriolis Hand
with Thumb pointing Up and
my Fingers Curled Cyclonically

If you point the thumb of you Coriolis Hand downward at every N, your fingers must curl in the direction of the flow. 

Northern Hemisphere Right Coriolis Hand
with Thumb pointing Down and
my Fingers Curled Anticyclonically

If you already know the direction of the flow, point the fingers of your Coriolis Hand in that direction. Your thumb must point in the direction of the vertical motion in the atmosphere. 

I have created a Coriolis Hand graphic to assist. These graphics were created to correspond with the view looking down from space toward the weather pattern or the pool of duckweed. 

The deformation zone conceptual model is an extremely powerful tool to thoroughly analyze and diagnosis the weather. Given a single line or any one of the four swirls, you can recreate the other four components as well as the the opposing winds along the axis of contraction (purple arrows above). The shape of the deformation zone reveals the relative strengths and characteristics of the swirls and opposing winds. In turn it reveals almost everything about the weather situation. I will leave this discussion for the next Blog. 

But the weather is three dimensional. We are confined to a flat surface in this Blog but if you look toward the 3D deformation skin along the axis of contraction, you will see that the swirls as depicted above are just quasi-horizontal cross-sections through the 3D smoke ring formed by the wind blowing toward the col. I have showed this vertical cross-section of the smoke ring before but it might make more sense now... Use you Coriolis hand and follow the ring around the puff of air blowing into the page at the centre of the ring. 

Next week we will look after different shapes of deformation zones and diagnosis what they mean. 

In #2361 "Singleton Sunset Swirl", the cloud behind the approaching deformation zone was drifting to the right. There were even some wind gravity waves embedded in the gravity swells that I described in Seeing Even More Gravity Wave Clouds. I imagined that I was within that cloud,  and pointing the fingers of my Coriolis Hand to the right forced my thumb to point upward. This made sense because the rising atmosphere would also support all of the cloud that I saw and painted. The cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt was approaching with more clouds and more weather. The col of the deformation zone was somewhere off to the left. I was looking toward the west and the setting sun so the col of the deformation zone was to the south of Singleton. Hope this helps... 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Sunrise or Sunset - Gravity Waves and the Deformation Zone

 

#2529 "Sleepy Time Sky Story"
Looking west into the centre of the DZ Col and
the Maw of the Approaching Storm... 
I love the weather!

Lines in the sky always tell a story. If there are lines, the air is moving… along the isentropic surfaces. And the air is always moving...

A  Paddler's View of a  Stroke in Duckweed 

The deformation zone (DZ) is the leading edge of any circulation. They are my very favourite meteorological conceptual model. A deformation zone is created with every stroke of my paddle. Everyone can clearly see the patterns of a paddle dipped into a pool of duckweed. Those exact same lines and swirls are created with every dip of the paddle in clear water too, although there are not tracers to reveal them. 

The absence of cloud in a clear blue sky is an identical limitation even though the circulations are still occurring. That is also why I love water vapour satellite imagery. With every stroke, a DZ line encases the two companion swirls formed by the stroke of the paddle. The flow is outward from the centre of the paddle stroke… meteorologists call this the col. The fluid swirls as it diverges in both directions away from the col. 

A  Meteorologist's View of a  Stroke in Duckweed 

The deformation zone (DZ) has several stories to tell. And there are also two sides to every line just like there is two sides to every story.  A single stroke of the paddle creates one line and four swirls. Each deformation zone line is composed of a col at the centre of the stroke, joining the starting point of the two divergent confluent asymptotes. Companion swirls are found on the opposite sides of the paddle stroke. Sympathetic, paired swirls develop on the opposite sides of those confluent asymptotes as a result of the fluid flow along the confluent asymptotes. In the duckweed frame of reference, these fluid vectors do not average to zero and the canoe (or kayak) is propelled forward. To transform this paddle stroke into the weather of the atmosphere, think of the paddle as moving the warm conveyor belt as it rises along the isentropic surface headed northward.  

Deformation zones (DZ) can become your new best friend so please try to follow the explanation. Aside from gravity waves, every line in the atmosphere is indeed a deformation zone. The shape and location of every DZ must also reveal the relative intensities and location of each of the four swirls - and that tells you everything about the weather. 

All of this bears repeating.. just in case you missed it the first time. Here is another way to look at the duckweed lines and swirls. 

Since the deformation zone is the leading edge of the flow… and if this flow is moisture laden .. we can see the cloud associated with the warm moist air rising along the isentropic surface. By examining the swirls, we can also deduce which portion of the storm is aimed at our location at that moment. The cyclonic companion has a more upward and unstable flow and thus more weather. The anticyclonic companion has more downward and stable flow and less weather.

Which swirl companion is directed toward you is typically best revealed by watching the motion of the clouds on the moist side of the deformation zone - there will be more to watch and study on the cloudy side of the line. This step will also reveal the relative location of the col in our field of view. Get ready to point the fingers of your Coriolis Hand in the direction that the cloud is moving. 

If the fingers of your right hand (Northern Hemisphere Coriolis Hand) following the motion of the clouds, point to your right, then you are looking at the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. There might even be gravity waves in the cloud on the moist side of the deformation zone angled downwind with the stronger flow along the DZ. Your fingers following that flow on the moist side of the DZ will have your Coriolis Thumb pointed upward in the direction of the rising air. Turning your Coriolis Fingers to point in the direction of the dry air on the paired side of the DZ, will have your Coriolis Thumb pointing downward. 

A similar discussion applies if the cloud is moving to the left along the moist side of the deformation zone - but you will be looking at the anticyclonic companion flow. Try it out. 

You can practice your Coriolis Hand on the DZ conceptual model. Point your right thumb upward at any cyclonic X to determine the sense of the atmospheric swirl. Point your right thumb downward to do the same at any anticyclonic N. The companion swirls are actually parts of a three dimensional ring. The paddle analogy can be replaced by the smoke ring. That science was described in "What do Smoke Rings have to do with Croquet?" as well as numerous other places in my Art and Science Blogs. 

Wind Waves Superimposed on Swells

Wind gravity waves in the clouds can also reveal the direction of the flow in a painting such as that above when animation is not possible. Locally stronger winds will be found along the confluent asymptotes. As described in the previous Blog "Seeing Even More Gravity Wave Clouds", the wind gravity waves generated by stronger winds, must also have a longer wavelength. This will cause the wind gravity waves to appear to twist downwind along the deformation zone or embedded  within the swells. 

#2529 "Sleepy Time Sky Story"
Further Practice available on the Painting
Reality can be more complicated than my graphics

I have been asked “Why Bother explaining this stuff? You have been retired a decade.” My simple answer is that nature, weather and climate are vital and if these explanations can excite just one person to pause and gaze up at the clouds or perhaps look at art, then the effort is worthwhile. The laws of nature are also something I can cling too in this modern world - nature makes sense.  Finally, some of this information was never published and I feel it is valuable science. 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Even More Gravity Wave Clouds

#2521 "Singleton Sunrise Morning Cloud"

Perhaps my years of paddling and walking on shorelines, not to mention "sitting on the rocks of the bay", have paid off in many more ways than just the enjoyment of the moment. You can learn a lot by watching waves. Gravity waves are the ultimate tool because they are absolutely perpendicular to the atmospheric frame of reference wind. I painted gravity waves in the above skyscape and this Blog will explain those as well as the patterns in August sunrise at Killbear that initiated this series of Blogs on Creative Scene Investigation. Please read on... 

Early satellite imagery of the weather from the seventies was the other key inspiration for me. I saw that atmosphere as an ocean of air very much like the lakes that I paddled on.  That statement is not a big stretch because it is true. The different air masses are also individual pools in that larger ocean. We just happen to live at the bottom of those air oceans. 

I applied the concepts of the different types of water gravity waves to the atmospheric fluid of air so that I could better appreciate the satellite imagery. There may be seven different types of ocean waves but I found it most helpful to keep it simple and just consider wind waves and swells. 

Wind-driven waves are created by the friction between wind and the surface water. As wind blows across the fetch of the water, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest. Gravity takes over from the wave crest and digs the trough. Wave height and wavelength both increase with the wind speed. 

Swells may originate as wind waves but continue propagating far from the original energy source of the strong winds. Shorter wavelength swells carry less energy and dissipate faster. Swells that are observable some distance from the source tend to be longer wavelengths. 

In my graphic for #2535 "Sunrise on Killbear Light", I conveniently labelled the main, large bands of cloud as simply gravity waves. I did not call them "swells" or mention the fine structure of the clouds within those atmospheric swells.  Let me explain... 

Swell Gravity Waves at a distance
from the strong wind source region

Atmospheric wind waves are generated where the atmospheric relative winds are strongest - between the companion swirls. This is also the local maximum in the jet stream. Atmospheric wind waves can be seen in the cirrus. As in the ocean, atmospheric swells propagate outward from this source. The shortest wavelength swells decay fastest. The longer wavelength swells travel great distances before "crashing" on the shore of the air mass at the deformation zone. If you can imagine the atmosphere in these terms, much of the science of oceanography can be transferred to the atmosphere. It all started when I first really began  to appreciate satellite imagery. 

In Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Gravity Wave Clouds, I was actually describing atmospheric swells. What I did not describe were the details within those swells and how they got there. The CSI fun really starts with superimposing smaller scale wind waves on to the atmospheric swells. The signatures that result can be applied to really understand the weather. I constructed the following graphics to better explain these patterns thinking that each image might be worth a thousand words. 

Adding Wind Gravity Waves to Swells

Atmospheric gravity waves are most easily observed when the layer of moisture in the stable layer is rather thin. The crest of the wave associated with ascent and cooling air is more likely to be cloudy - condensed water droplets or ice crystals. The lowest point of a wave or trough associated with descending and warming air will be the thinnest. The best case is when the lifted condensation level in the atmosphere is near the midpoint between the crest and trough so that bands of cloud are separated by blue sky. Waves are occurring all of the time in the atmosphere but those motions are typically shrouded in cloud. 

There are many interesting situations that superimpose wind gravity waves on top of swells. The warm conveyor belt is probably the most interesting and informative about the weather. The system relative winds associated with the warm conveyor belt are best described by the deformation zone conceptual model but I will save most of those details for the next Blog and focus instead on the gravity of the situation. 

The wavelength of the wind waves is determined by the wind speed – stronger wind gives a longer wavelength.  The spacing of different portions of the wind wave are best described by differences in the wind speed which translate to differences in the wavelength. The simpler approach is to imagine that the stronger winds along the confluent asymptotes are simply tipping the gravity waves as depicted in the above graphic. That simplification is not correct. 

As a home study assignment, drop a pebble in a pond or your bathtub to really learn about dispersive swell waves. All of the energy in that first wave is supplied by the stone. The waves disperse in all directions from that source and significant ripples survive long distances before dissipating. … with no additional energy supplied. These are really swell swells! The direction of motion of dispersive swells like in your tub, might be diagnosed by the decay in amplitude, the arc shape of the swell or in the atmosphere, the direction of cloud drift.

We should not be surprised to see smaller and shorter wind waves superimposed on swells. They happen all the time in the atmospheric ocean.

Remember that nature's solutions to the laws of physics is always correct. Nature also constructs more accurate and beautiful graphics than I can. The next Blog will further explain gravity waves (both wind driven and swells) within the context of the deformation zone conceptual model. Stay tuned, looking at clouds is about to get even more exciting. I am sittin' on the very edge of that rock of the bay.. Otis Redding would be pleased. 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Gravity Wave Clouds

#2535 "Sunrise on Killbear Light"

This is the next step in applying Creative Scene Investigation (CSI-ing) to "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks". The first step explained the colour of the light in Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Red. The second step explained the clouds. The next step will investigate the gravity waves in those clouds using #2535 "Sunrise on Killbear Light" since that painting includes that portion of the sky depicts the same sunrise, . 

#2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks"

Every line in the clouds has a story to tell. The large scale banding in these clouds are gravity waves and they reveal the system relative winds in the free atmosphere away from friction and complicating interactions with the surface of the Earth.  The larger the wavelengths of the gravity waves, the stronger the wind. The system relative wind direction must be perpendicular to those waves. The cloud itself is probably drifting in the same direction as those winds but one cannot discern that motion in a painting. 

The sky in #2535 "Sunrise on Killbear Light" is the same as in
#2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks" but I
included more of the clouds in that painting ... so the weather
can be better understood. 

Gravity waves in the sky are exactly like gravity waves on a lake. The wind is blowing perpendicular to those lines. The layer is fairly stable. Waves increase in size and wavelength with the wind. Parcels of air or water deflected upward are pulled back down by gravity. These parcels have momentum and overshoot the average level on their way down. The sinking parcels reach equilibrium and then rise buoyantly. The parcels once again gain momentum and overshoot the average only to be pulled down again by gravity. The process gets repeated again and again and again...

The fact that there are clouds at all tips the balance in favour of that being a southerly wind with moisture from the tropics. If there is not much cloud, then it is likely that the winds are from the north were moisture is more limited. 

The gravity waves also reveal the relatively stable layer in the atmosphere. Parcels displaced from the stable level, always try to return home again. These stable layers can be frontal surfaces typically associated with a southerly flow and more cloud - a warm front in this case. Subsidence inversions are stable layers that typically occur with sinking air and are typical with dry northerly flows. 

Dry northerly flow with gravity waves. A sunset
view looking west over Singleton Lake. 

But there is much more to CSI in this painting … I also see deformation zones and smaller scale gravity waves but will save those for the next day.

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Clouds

This is the next step in applying Creative Scene Investigation (CSI-ing) to "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks". The first step explained the colour of the light in Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Red. 

2518 "Sunset Weather Story"
Another sky with lots of cloud...

Air moves like most everything else following the path of least resistance. Air can move along constant energy surfaces in the atmosphere for free… meteorologists call them isentropic surfaces. These isentropic surfaces slope upward from the equator toward the poles. For air headed northward (in the northern hemisphere), the parcels of air rise for free along those sloped surfaces. These parcels of air from the lower levels of the tropics are loaded with moisture. Clouds form as the air rises and cools. For someone in the mid latitudes, the high level cirrus arrives first to be followed by the mid level altostatus and eventually the low cloud nimbostratus if it is raining. More on clouds in a later Blog... 

The air originating from the Arctic tends to be dry and cold as the parcels start of their southward journey. These parcels become warmer and drier as they descent along the downward sloping isentropic surfaces. Typically not much cloud to see in those southbound flows. For more on isentropic science see 'Isentropic Surfaces - Science and Art Merges'.

You might imagine yourself as a kid with your arms extended along the slope of the isentropic surfaces. With your right hand down and your left hand up, the slope of your arms would be the same as the slope of the isentropic surfaces if you are looking east. You can even make noises and imagine you are an airplane... 

2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks"

There is a lot of cloud in this painting. Ice crystal cirrus clouds are overhead with lower level altostratus on the right side horizon. This cloud was painted in more detail in #2536 "Killbear Cirrus Sunrise" . Applying what we just learned, the rising southerly flow full of cloud must be originating from the south. Pointing my right hand down and to the south means that you must be looking eastward in the painting. Those cloudy air parcels are rising on the isentropic surfaces as though they were riding up your extended arms. I saw the sun so it must be dawn and that yellow ball of light was rising. 

But there is much more to CSI in this painting … for another day.

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Sunrise or Sunset

#2516 "Singleton Dry Cold Front Sunset"

Sometimes it is a challenge to determine which rays of sunlight inspired a work of art. This explains why I typically include the answer in the name of the painting (like above). But there are ways to decipher the puzzle and this is the first in the series of Creative Scene Investigative methods that I employ. I will keep these brief. 

Colour is king. Humans can see maybe up to a million colours. Our brain takes that information and make sense out of it - perception. We perceive things automatically which is why many people thought my sunrise painting below was actually a sunset. They saw "red" and instinctively knew what that meant. 

#2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks"

Typically sunset are more colourful than sunrises. Dust and particles raised by stronger daytime winds and convective thermals created when the sun heats the earth, are efficient at scattering the shorter wavelengths of light out of the direct white beam originating from the sun. Removing the shorter blue, and green light leaves more orange and red to be viewed. Therefore it is automatic to think that red skies must be sunset skies. 

Vertically Integrated Smoke Plume July 20th, 2021

The skies have been especially colourful this past year. Forest fires over the Rockies and throughout the Boreal forest are now much more common - a result of climate change. This smoke has spread throughout eastern North America and is the reason my sunrise sky was remarkable for its hues of red and orange. Colourful skies are the new normal. 

Red skies have been painted before. Tom Thomson's skyscapes starting in the fall of 1915 were especially colourful. His friends in the Group of Seven thought he was taking too much artistic license and exaggerating those hues. Tom painted what he saw and in this case, he was seeing the volcanic dust and the aerosols from the eruption of Lassen Peak in California. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted what became known as "The Scream" in 1893 possibly remembering the colour of the skies after Krakatoa exploded a decade earlier in 1883-84.  Some refer to this as the scream of nature and I would not disagree. Nature is screaming now as well. 

There are other clues painted in those oils of Killbear that reveal the eastward looking view. Those will be revealed in time... 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Creative Scene Investigation

 My Professor recently asked me a question: "I notice that the title is "sunrise". Interesting. A meteorological question for you. Can an ordinary person or even a professional meteorologist discern sunset from sunrise in art? And if so, how? To me, this is a 'perfect' sunset painting."

#2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks"

I am honoured to provide an answer for my Professor and friend. I have thought about these things an inordinate amount of time. Perhaps I have always had my head in the clouds and for me, that has been a good thing. Nature and the real atmosphere have been valuable classrooms for me - as much as the fine  universities I have attended. When en plein air and surrounded by the everyday world, I simply observe and questions appear. Possible explanations drift through my consciousness and play like movies in my mind. 

I have compiled the answers to those questions into a body of work that I call Creative Scene Investigation. CSI is not to be confused with the TV show of a similar title. Nobody dies. The laws of science are something that you can put your faith in. They are not subject to the whims of humans. We are not moving at the speed of light so there is no need to invoke Einstein's Special or General Relativity Theories. 

I developed and validated these CSI concepts using my own paintings - fully aware of the time, location and direction of view of  each work. I have kept detailed records from the very start of my artistic journey in 1967. It is quite a library of art that now comprises 2559 paintings. My Fine Art America site includes about 2000 of those works. 

The Group of Seven
with Barker Fairley (fourth from left),
Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, 1920.

I then validated these CSI principles on an independent sample. Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven really loved to paint en plein air and they greatly inspired my artistic ramblings as well. Tom and the Group faithfully observed, recorded and interpreted the honesty of nature that inspired them.  They included enough clues in their work that I was able to apply CSI and appreciate the subjects that caught their eye. It was as if I was standing with them and appreciating the same views of nature while they painted. 

This effort morphed into a series of presentations that I started to give in the mid 1980's. The talks went by various names and have been presented across Canada whenever and wherever there was a group who was passionate about these artists, understanding the beauty of nature and wondering "why" they painted. Googling "Tom Thomson Was a Weatherman" will turn up the details of a few of those events. I wrote a book with that title but the publishers were not interested. 

CSI involves the close examination of the art and applying the appropriate bits of science to whatever might be included in the painting. The science might come from climatology, meteorology, atmospheric optics, astronomy, biology, geology - the list goes on and continues to grow. This is not to say that it is impossible to make a mistake – it is just that it helps to really investigate and think about what the artist was contemplating. The more facts that you have that point in a particular direction, the more confident you can be about your conclusion. You could still be wrong but you will learn from that mistake as well. 

CSI tries to answer the Five questions of any good story. 

• Who is it about?
• What happened?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it happen?

The first question pretty obvious if we know anything about the artist. CSI really dives deep into answering what, when and where which often reduces to the time of day OR which way is north? Having answered the first four questions allows us to get into the mind of the artist to better understand "why". 

The complete body of work that comprises Creative Scene Investigation is much too long for a single Blog entry but I have decided to mix in more CSI details here. CSI entries will be mixed in with my ongoing Blogs on meteorology and material that did not get published before I officially retired on Groundhog Day in 2011. One never fully retires...

Here are a few of the CSI applications that I will explain in more detail. 

The clouds and weather are my favourite place to start CSI. What is the cloud type and height? Is the atmosphere stable or unstable? Are the clouds frontlit or backlit?  What is the wind direction at cloud height from the cloud shape? What is the relative wind speed? Where is the sun? What is the time? What is the season? What is the angle of view? There are many questions and each painting might ask a few more that are not included in the summary. 

Finally, I apply a bit of knowledge from how artists typically work. If the art is a plein air work, artists tend to paint the colourful side of a subject with the sun on their back. It simply feels good. Painting looking into the sun is hard on your eyes and one is viewing the shadowed side of the subject while developing cataracts. Typically not good. The angle of a plein air artist’s view can be very much like a sundial. 

#2522 "Singleton Sheared ???? Anvil"

This may not be rocket science, brain surgery or even rocket surgery but it is science… and it is fun... Much more to come. 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick