Icy clouds may actually increase, not decrease, the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth.
clouds
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Clouds in Climate Models of a Simulated Water-Covered Earth
Researchers use aquaplanet experiments to zero in on the effects of small-scale processes in the tropics that cause discrepancies between climate models.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Eliminating Uncertainty One Cloud at a Time
The impact of clouds on climate change has been a scientific mystery for decades. Now researchers are fighting to gain the upper hand.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Measuring Atmospheric Aerosols Despite the Clouds
Researchers devise ways for remote sensors to integrate aerosol content above clouds into current methods of measurement.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Four Perspectives on Order From Chaos
What makes thunderstorms clump, even to the point of singularity, over uniform oceans? Three recent papers in JAMES address this question, and a new Commentary ties them together.
Posted inScience Updates
Where Does Lightning Come From?
Thunderstorms and Elementary Particle Acceleration (TEPA-2015); Yerevan, Armenia, 5–9 October 2015
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Modeling the Effects of Clouds on Climate
New research investigates how mixed-phase cloud partitioning and cloud cover compensate each other in GCMs.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Aerosols Make Cumulus Clouds Brighter but Shorter Lived
Computer simulations show that although adding aerosol particles to clouds can make them more reflective, the cooling effect from clouds is largely counterbalanced by a reduction in overall cloud cover.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Could Thinning of High Clouds Combat Climate Change?
A climate engineering technique that lets more heat escape from the atmosphere could avoid water cycle suppression associated with other radiation management approaches.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Imagers Seek Big Bang Signatures, Also Find Gravity Wave Effects
Imagers aboard a scientific balloon in the stratosphere serendipitously captured images of thin ice clouds that reveal instability and turbulence flows in remarkable detail.