With more CCN's clouds have a higher density of drops, but they tend to be of smaller diameter. These drops reflect more and absorb less sunlight. Locally, biomass burning may increase cloud reflectivity, thereby cooling the atmosphere and surface. The field measurements are being supplemented by analysis of satellite products.
Algorithms are under development that use multichannel data to detect smoke from biomass burning.
Data archived every 3 hours covering the full 24-hour daily cycle will allow investigators to highlight expected patterns in the daily cycle. Investigators require use of the local FDDI network, which has been quite reliable. Investigaters are still determining whether it will be appropriate to perform a significant portion of the data processing on the Cray or Convex machines.