Abstract ID: 3.8043 | Pending | Talk/Oral | TBA | TBA

Sea of clouds (SOCs) attracts trekkers/photographer and is an important resource for rural tourism by means of mountain meteorological landscape in Japan. This presentation introduces the relationship between social perception of the SOCs and their meteorological recognition as low-level clouds or fog formation, and promotes the SOCs as an important issue to cross cut the mountain studies worldwide. Many of the Internet information explains the SOCs as low-level clouds/fogs formation without the geographical conditions for observers. SOCs spots do not always represent the meteorologically favorable conditions but artificially advertised, and cloud/fog types as the targets for SOCs differ depending on the observer’s altitudes. High visibility for the observer is an important condition where it is difficult to evaluate whether the clouds/fogs are in contact with the ground. Fog is also a kind of weather with visibility of less than 1 km, and we should be careful not to confuse the concept of SOCs which requires high visibility for observers. According to the interval camera observation at the foot of Mt. Yatsugatake, modification of the SOCs from the mid-night radiation fogs to the early morning low-level stratus or development of stratocumulus clouds after sunrise and their dissolves with the development of valley winds were observed. Namely, the behavior of SOCs in mountains reflects the important mixing process between dry and wet atmosphere at the top pf boundary layer. Global climate change may modify not only for the physical conditions of SOCs but also for their impacts on local social activities such as life styles, agriculture and tourism. SOCs study survey is planned in the poster session.