Cloud sketching
This image from NASA shows how clouds can map out the continents.
In some parts of the world the difference in the amount of clouds over land versus ocean is so stark that the outlines of landmasses can be traced through observations of clouds alone.
The graphic shows October 2009's cloud fraction (the fraction of an area covered by clouds) using data collected by the Terra satellite.
Colours range from blue (no clouds) to white (totally cloudy).
The greatest difference can be seen where very dry land is surrounded by ocean - so you can make out Africa, Greenland, Antarctica and Australia very clearly.
So it's no surprise to see that the UK is buried underneath a blanket of white stuff!
Weird Science Factoid: The filming of the movie Titanic cost more than the Titanic itself. This reminds me of the ill-fated mega-blockbuster Raise the Titanic, when exasperated producer Lew Grade said it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic!
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
