Investigadores descubren cómo el carbono negro evoluciona de partículas hidrofóbicas a sitios de nucleación de nubes, removiendo eventualmente las partículas que absorben calor del cielo.
clouds
Posted inResearch & Developments
Pollution for All
When we talk about natural processes—especially atmospheric—nothing is too small to be irrelevant. Recently, researchers in Brazil and the United States found that nanoparticles of pollution play an outsize role in cloud formation and disruption, altering rain cycles even in pristine forest areas.
The study, published in Science Advances, showed that human-made aerosols smaller than 10 nanometers, previously thought to be too tiny to act as cloud condensation nuclei or have any influence on climate processes, can become climatically active as they swell on their way to the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Do Marine Gases Affect Cloud Formation?
By using novel aircraft measurements over the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, researchers shed light on the relationship between common marine biogenic gases and the microphysical properties of clouds.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Radiation Two-Way Coupling
Changes in sea surface temperature during ENSO events and radiation are related, suggesting a two-way coupling between sea surface temperature and radiation in coupled climate variability.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Transition Zone Below Jupiter’s Clouds
The microwave radiometer aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveals the hidden atmospheric circulations at work deep below Jupiter’s colorful clouds.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Importance of High Clouds and Moisture in Rainstorm Aggregation
A study of the impacts of radiative interactions with different cloud types on aggregation of rainstorms finds that interactions with high-clouds and water vapor are key.
Posted inEditors' Vox
New Insights into Polar Stratospheric Clouds
New satellite observations of polar stratospheric clouds have advanced our understanding of how, when, and where they form, their composition, and their role in ozone depletion.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Long Do Black Carbon Particles Linger in the Atmosphere?
Researchers uncover how black carbon evolves from hydrophobic particles to cloud nucleation sites, eventually removing the heat-absorbing particles from the sky.
Posted inFeatures
The Forecast for Exoplanets is Cloudy but Bright
Clouds make climate modeling on Earth difficult. Identifying—and even defining—atmospheric phenomena on other planets is the next big exoplanet challenge.
Posted inScience Updates
Taking Flight to Study Clouds and Climate
A new mission involving synchronized aircraft observations is collecting data vital for improving our understanding of how aerosol particles and clouds influence each other.