Night-shining clouds can be diagnostic tools to better understand how human activity is changing the meteorology of the mesosphere.
clouds
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Atmospheric Turbulence May Promote Cloud Droplet Formation
Turbulence causes local variations in relative humidity, which can push particles past a critical saturation threshold for droplet nucleation.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Seeding Ice Clouds with Wildfire Emissions
Wildfires create airborne plumes of organic and inorganic matter as they burn. These particles can nucleate cloud-forming ice crystals and affect cloud dynamics, precipitation, and climate.
Posted inNews
Podcast: A Modern Way to Look for Aliens
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is undergoing a 21st century transformation. The field is poised to lead the way as an example of interdisciplinary research and inclusive science.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Can We Observe How Cloud Clustering Affects the Radiation Budget?
Satellite observational analysis confirms that lower-atmospheric stability and cloud clustering are major factors modulating the tropical radiation budget that had been suggested by modeling studies.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A New View of Old Clouds
Satellite images of marine shallow clouds are objectively classified into four distinct types, illuminating new ways to tackle a long-standing problem in climate predictions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Why Is Climate More Sensitive in the Latest Earth System Models?
Compared with previous generations, current Earth system models predict that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to carbon dioxide. Where does the increased sensitivity come from?
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Quantifying Aerosol Effects on Climate Using Ship Track Clouds
A new methodology for measuring how human emissions influence cloud properties and radiative forcing developed by reconstructing cloud fields in maritime shipping lanes.
Posted inNews
An Exoplanet with Evolving Clouds of Salts
Clouds form and dissipate on a gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Soil Moisture Drives Great Plains Cloud Formation
A new study shows that models that reproduce moisture on land are better at accurately recreating cumulus cloud behavior.