All-Sky Lab
Ground-based observation of cloud, observing conditions, and the night sky.
Calgary, Alberta
An independent research program measuring what the sky over Canada is actually like. The lab runs continuous all-sky instrumentation and works with public surface, satellite, and reanalysis records to study cloud, observing conditions, and the brightness of the night.
Research areas
Cloud observation and how it is measured
Cloud amount is recorded by human observers, by ground instruments, and from orbit, and the three do not always agree. The lab studies where those records diverge, what causes it, and what that means for climatologies and long-term trends built on top of them.
Observing conditions and sky quality
Darkness, cloud, moonlight, aerosol and wildfire smoke, atmospheric transparency, and seeing each limit what can be observed from the ground. Studied together rather than one at a time, they describe how much usable sky a location really offers over a year.
Night-sky brightness and light pollution
Skyglow is measured both from orbit and from the ground, and the two views disagree in structured ways. Cloud complicates it further, reflecting artificial light downward rather than screening it. Work here concerns how these measurements relate and where each one misleads.
Low-cost instrumentation and open datasets
Building, characterising, and documenting affordable instruments for continuous sky observation, and publishing the records they produce in forms other people can actually use.