When a cloud is not a cloud! Roosting birds like this visiting hawk can cause a false cloud indication in the site's pyranometer data (see large dip in intensity plot on the right). Pyranometer is a device to measure the amount of sunlight at each site from the sunrise (left side of the plot), noon (peak), and sunset (right side of the plot). Clouds appear as dips in this otherwise a smooth plot. Colloquially, GONG engineering site (in Boulder, Colorado) is often referred to as "GONG farm". This originates in early period of GONG development, when the test site was set up on the grounds on the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
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Photo: Detrick Branston / NSO
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