The Cloud
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
...
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
In previous laboratories we have explored mathematical models, physical processes, and hypothesis testing. Laboratory eight has a different focus. Laboratory eight focuses on observation, classification, and naming. Science has many fields that focus on careful observation and labeling. One part of this laboratory focuses on observation of clouds and attempting to accurately capture a cloud.
The ability to observe and accurately record observations are valuable scientific skills. Science has long depended on accurate and careful drawings of objects and phenomenon.
Among all animals, only humans appear to attempt to name objects in their surroundings. Western science has spent a great deal of effort on naming and classifying objects and phenomenon. Western science is not the only system that has produced naming and classification systems. The other part of this laboratory focuses on naming.
Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.
- Hamlet, Act iii Scene 2, William Shakespeare, 1602
Prior to 1800 clouds were seen as ephemeral, ever changing, impermanent, and thus difficult to categorize or name. In 1802 an Englishman named Luke Howard developed a systematic way to name clouds. Impressed by the Latin naming system designed by Carl von Linné for classifying plants and animals, Howard devised a Latin-based language system for classifying and naming clouds. Howard's system immediately made sense to scientists. With some modifications, this is the system the world uses to this day. The descriptions are Howard's original descriptions.
Howard extended his system with descriptions for unusual types of clouds.
One modification has been to add a prefix to the middle and high level clouds. Thus we now speak of altoculumulus, altostratus, and cirrostratus clouds. Alto- refers to middle level clouds, cirro- to the highest level clouds. Low clouds get no prefix. Some clouds have bottoms at the low level and tops at the high level. These are vertically developed clouds and usually produce precipitation. These clouds are usually cumulonimbus clouds, a term that combines two of Howard's cloud terms. You and I think of the largest cumulonimbus as clouds that produce heavy rain, wind gusts, and occasional lightning and thunder.
Here on Pohnpei the top of our ridges are 700 to 800 meters high (2000 to 2500 feet). The bottoms of cumulus clouds are often also around this high. Cloud bottoms can be lower, and when the cloud reaches the ground the term used is "fog."
A second modification is that Howard's extended cloud names are often now used to modify one of the four basic cloud types. Cumulus humilis and cumulus congestus are examples of this naming system.
There are two data display activities in this laboratory.
Each student will produce as accurate a drawing of an actual cloud as the student can accomplish. Here the goal is observing carefully and trying to accurately capture a realistic image of an actual cloud. Lab partner pairs will have to share an art set kit.
At the start of the laboratory we will go outside and observe clouds as carefully as we can, making any necessary sketches on eight and half by eleven paper before returning to the lab room to work on actual individual drawings. This drawing will be completed in class, with each student making their own cloud picture.
Each partner pair will work together to produce images of four basic cloud types (cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and nimbus) and make a single drawing including the four basic cloud types. This will also be completed during the lab period.
For this laboratory the data tables will be tables of weather words. Working as a class and as individual lab partners post-lab, your task is to assemble a list of weather words in the different languages of Micronesia. Words such as sky, cloud, fog, rain, wind, thunder, lightning, morning dew, storm, typhoon, and rainbow. Is there only one word for each or many words? In English rain words include drizzle, mist, downpour, precipitation, shower, and deluge. Lightning is described sometimes by modifier words such as bolt, spear, and flash. Thunder includes variations such as "rolling thunder." Is there more than one kind of cloud? Do the languages of Micronesia include such distinction. Do these languages include words for ice, frost, and snow? Why or why not?
In class we will brainstorm and share as many weather words as we can. The finished table should include languages from all four states. Weather words for states or languages not present in the lab section should be gathered from friends and other students after lab class. This table along with the analysis and conclusion will be due next week.
Among the weather words of Micronesia, what words appear related or connected in some way? Do all of the cultures of Micronesia have words for all of the weather phenomenon? Discuss these and other aspects of the lab in a summary paragraph about the laboratory.