Cold Wave Phenomena : a 16 mm. Kodachrome Motion Picture of Clouds, Miniatures, and Weather Maps Citation Kolb, Louis Lawrence (1941) Cold Wave Phenomena : a 16 mm. Kodachrome Motion Picture of Clouds, Miniatures, and Weather Maps. Master's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/0zv6-2r53. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:01312025-172432116 Abstract No abstract. Item Type: Thesis (Master's thesis) Subject Keywords: (Meteorology) Degree Grantor: California Institute of Technology Division: Engineering and Applied Science Major Option: Meteorology Thesis Availability: Public (worldwide access) Research Advisor(s): Unknown, Unknown Thesis Committee: Unknown, Unknown Defense Date: June 1941 Record Number: CaltechTHESIS:01312025-172432116 Persistent URL: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:01312025-172432116 DOI: 10.7907/0zv6-2r53 Default Usage Policy: No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. ID Code: 16979 Collection: CaltechTHESIS Deposited By: Benjamin Perez Deposited On: 04 Feb 2025 23:07 Last Modified: 04 Feb 2025 23:08 Thesis Files PDF - Final Version See Usage Policy. 1MB Repository Staff Only: item control page

COLD WAVE PHENOMENA A 16 mm. Kodachrome Motion Picture of clouds, minatures, and weather maps. By Lou.is L. Kolb Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Meteorology Meteorology Department California Institute of Technology June 1941 Natu rally the t he sis proper is the motion picture itself, but herein are contained data., su gge stions, and corrections for the CD ntinuance of this work. As the introduction in the film explains, the pur po se of this thesis is to correl a te pictorially t he wea the r condit i ons wi tb the corres ponding syno pti c data, aer o lo gi cal soundin g s, and surface weather maps. It is hoped t ha t t h e student will have s ome idea of t he kind of we a the r to be enc oun t e r ed whe n flying in the Los An ge l e s area when the s yn opti c situ a tion is similar to that photographed. The p ictures illustrate the forms and stru ctures of the cloud sys terns accomp anying cold wav e inv as ions. And, too, t he sto p -motion scenes reveal the turbulence and shear force s o p er ating i n the clouds. The miniatures in the tanks dup licate the to p ogr a p hy and t he mot ion of the fluids sirm1l a te atmospheric p henomena as t he cold and upper cold fronts. This p ictu re will enabl e the l e ctur e r to pr esent to the newcomer in Meterology a ver y interestin g and understandable phase of t h e wor k to b e e x pected. Too, the colorful and strikin g forms are of int e r es t to t hos e who do not int end to pursue Meteor lo g ical subjects. I n all o f the pho to g ra phing, includin g the titles and stop-moti on, a Cine-Kodak (E astman) was n sed. This is probably t he b e st all pur Do se camera but p resents some difficult y in filmin g close-ups because it is impossible to frame t h e scene directly. Thus, sne c ia l apparatus w011 ld b e desirable when considerable wor k is to be clone with close u ps. For sto p -motion sh ots a c ame ra 1nhi ch can b e se t to exoose one fra me at a time is pr e f erable. Thi s Kodak does not ha v 0 t:hat accomadation and con sequentl y an u nd•'ls irable pu lsation of the li ght intensity t e nd s to irritate the vi ewer. Also for miniature work it is again advantag eous to be able to vary t he s-oeed of the film motion ;o that slow motion pictures a~e possible. It so happens that the rapidity with which the cold wave moves is too great to allow the observer to ap 9reciate the small turbulent flows. The CineKodak is not equipped with this variable speed feature. These fluid movements should be photo g ra p hed with a speed of 3 2 or 64 fr ames a minute . Eastman's Kodachrome Film is used and is highly satisfactory. Occasionally , because of the highly complicated processihg technique, the film is a little off color. It mi ght be mentioned here tha t it is b e st to use a direct flat-lighting when photographing with this color film because of its very narro w latitude. When l1sin g black and white film more interesting and s pectacular shots ar e obtain e d b y usin g a s ide-li g:h ting or a b a ck-ligh tin g . It follows from t h is tha t the best time of da y for :ohoto g ra nhin g black and whit e is ln the mornin g or late afternoon. This is in contradistincti on to Koda c hrome where one must not photogra-,oh b e fore 8:00 A.M. or after 4:00 P.IvI. because of the false coloring (more red) that sets in. As an examp le of the proper exposure for Kodachrome, normal speed ( 16 frames per minute ) end f.16 stop a p erture g ive s a good normal ~x posure at noon in t h e month of Mar ch when flying above the clouds at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Shooting at t he ground under similar lig h t conditions requires an aperture o p ening of f.8. If t h e li g ht is not t o o brilliant and if the time is four hours before or after noon, then the aperture o p enin g is f.11. When photo g raphin g from an air p l an e snd it is desired to includ e a portion of the airp l ane and still maintain a sharp focus on the clouds at infinity, set t h e focus adjustment to 25 feet. The length of time to allow for a sc ene should never be less than a count of ten; when panning this can be . consider ably more. It is well to read the d:i.rections accompanying t h e camera in r e gard to t h is. Remember that it can always be cut but nothing can be added . The miniature s and fluid shots were made at normal sp eed and aperture f.8 when the li ght was brightly shining dire~tly on the subject. Here it may be mentioned that a good photdelectric li ght meter should b e used in all of this wo rk. For the maps and charts either sun light or artj_f 5.cial light can be used but remember to use - the appropriate Kodacn..rome for part icular color temperature ligbt employed. Ag ain use a meter here. As for the construction of the m:lnj atures tbere are probably as many different ideas as there are neop le who make them. I used a m:i_x ture of paraffin and cemen t colorinf.l.'. for the mountains and general terr ain. 1 J.111e tan k is a vvooden box 1Ni th a pie ce of plate g lass on the front side. A nartition senar ates t he miniature scene from tbe other end of the ta~k whi ch contains a mj_xture of ink, water , and cormnon table salt. The mixture was 25 cc of blue-black wr iting ink and 18 cubic inches of salt in one cubi c foot of tap wa ter; and the clear li quid over the models, of cours e , was tap water. It is well to review the good and bad points of this film so that others ma. y p rofit b y this first endeAvor. In the first p l ace Los Ang e les does not provide the clouds tha t Texas, Florida, and other locales do. Thus the to wering cunrulus a re out of the question. That is a point to remember,--pick your clouds; b e sure that the fe ature tha t they a r e to illustrate is readily seen. For stop-motion s rots use a camera as described before and :make a shot every h alf second when photographing f ast movin g clouds. Also it is not satisfactory to combine black and white film wit h Kodachrome. Tm reasons for this are two-fold: first, t lle tbicknesses of the two films are d:i fferent and s ometimes tr o1Jble • is ex·oorienced in p rojecting; second, psyc h ologically the effect is n o t too entertaining. Care must be experienc ed to s e e t ha t t he camera is not panried to6 rapid l y and t h8.t it is not done on every shot. Too, it is a good trick to finish a panoramic shot with a st ationary shot well compos e d. If possib le jot down notes pe rtain ing to wind directions and v e lociti es and any other pertinent data. '11he l e ctur er can then point out salient features as t h e film is being projected. Here, I su gges t that more stop-motion pictures be made for all types of clouds. Mu ch can be learned about winds at different levels, sh ear forces, turbulence, anticyclonic motion, convective activity, and vertical motions. This t hesis ~rovides a b asis for furt he r experimentation in this phase of motion pictures. This is mer~l y a scr atch on the surface of illimitabl e possi bilities in pi ctori a l Met e orlo gy . Cons idering t h is t h esis only, it c a n be i m-orov ed by add in g more rhinla tt1 r e s a.YJ.d stopmotion shots and cuttin g out some of the less int er esting cloud shots. In general, there is an infinitude of work to b e d one . A few of the sub,je cts ar e mentioned now. Stop-motion shots of warm fronts, cold fronts, occluded fronts from their first app earance to t hei r complete passage wou ld be very educational to both student and forecaster. Animation, too, vvau ld be a great aid in de p icting the movements of fronts and pressure systems. The Army Air Corps and commercj_al air lines ar e more and more realizin g the imp ortance of this means of teaching and research.