WASHINGTON—Planes flying over rain or snow can intensify the precipitation by as much as 10-fold, according to a new study. The rain- and snow-bursts are not caused by emissions from…
Search Results for: cloud formation
NASA releases satellite image of giant coffin shaped entity shrouded in clouds – what is it?
by Kathryn Hansen NASA Earth Observatory Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The October 2018 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell…
Study: UHI in Los Angeles is driving off coastal clouds that dampen California wildfires
From the THE EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and “an actual case of man-made climate change” department. Urbanization and climate change combine to heighten danger Sunny California may be getting too…
NASA satellite captures photo of bizarre circle of clouds
Sometimes, nature just gives us the weird. While clouds are an important topic of research for climatologists and meteorologists, sometimes the atmosphere churns up peculiar-looking cloud formations that are as notable for aesthetic…
Researcher: Cloud changes “can result in significant changes to Earth’s surface temperature”
Clouds like a semi-transparent parasol Climate researcher from the program “Make Our Planet Great Again“ coming from the US to the Goethe University FRANKFURT. Following the Paris Climate Agreement, Germany…
Claim: Scientists accurately model the action of aerosols on clouds
From the “models aren’t the same as reality unless you have a bigger computer” department. Global climate is a tremendously complex phenomenon, and researchers are making painstaking progress, year by…
Study: Interactions between smoke and clouds have unexpected cooling effect
Atomspheric physicists have found that the way wildfire smoke from Africa interacts with clouds over the Atlantic Ocean results in a net cooling effect, which is contrary to previous understanding…
CERES Edition 4 and the Cloud Radiative Effect
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach One of the enduring questions in climate involves what is usually called “cloud feedback”. When the earth warms up a bit, the clouds change in…
Study: Climate models underestimate cooling effect of daily cloud cycle
From PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Princeton University researchers have found that the climate models scientists use to project future conditions on our planet underestimate the cooling effect that clouds have on a daily…
NASA detects strange electric-blue clouds over Antarctica
NASA’s AIM spacecraft is monitoring a vast ring of electric-blue clouds circling high above Antarctica. These are noctilucent clouds (NLCs), made of ice crystals frosting specks of “meteor smoke” in the…
Finding: Arctic clouds highly sensitive to air pollution
From the UNIVERSITY OF UTAH and the “other factors besides CO2” department. In 1870, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, trekking across the barren and remote ice cap of Greenland, saw something most…
Baby It’s Cold Outside – evidence of solar cycle affecting Earth’s cloud cover
Guest essay by David Archibald News comes that the light reflected back from Uranus is affected by the solar cycle. “The atmosphere around Uranus is one of the coldest in the solar…
New paper: The missing link between cosmic rays, clouds, and climate change on Earth
Last week I hinted at this upcoming paper, which was embargoed until this morning. I noted then something Dr. Roy Spencer said in his book about clouds: The Great Global Warming…
Could spraying particles into marine clouds help cool the planet?
From Eurekalert Public Release: 25-Jul-2017 University of Washington The idea of geoengineering, also known as climate engineering, is very controversial. But as greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in our atmosphere,…
Sun-Cloud-Ocean Update
Guest essay by Mike Jonas “so much to say…so little time.” – Roy Spencer I have at last found the time for the next step in my Sun-Cloud-Ocean calculations. But…
Study reveals how particles that seed clouds in the Amazon are produced
GOAmazon researchers describe in Nature the role of clouds as transporters of particles between the ground and the upper atmosphere. New knowledge will enhance climate models A study published in…
Svensmark publishes: Solar activity has a direct impact on Earth’s cloud cover
From Denmark Technical University Solar activity has a direct impact on Earth’s cloud cover Solar variations affect the abundance of clouds in our atmosphere, a new study lead by DTU…
Thin tropical clouds cool the climate
From STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY: Thin clouds at about 5 km altitude are more ubiquitous in the tropics than previously thought and they have a substantial cooling effect on climate. This is shown…
Another unaccounted for climate variable: Airplanes make existing clouds brighter
From STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY and the department of negative feedbacks comes this surprising finding that says not only do contrails add reflectivity for incoming solar radiation, they also increase reflectivity for…
Aerosols strengthen storm clouds, according to new study
From the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN An abundance of aerosol particles in the atmosphere can increase the lifespans of large storm clouds by delaying rainfall, making the clouds grow…
New twist on getting climate models to deal with clouds properly
Technique could help climate models sweat the small stuff From BROWN UNIVERSITY PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of physicists and mathematicians has come up with a statistical technique…
CERN's CLOUD experiment results suggests industrial revolution reduced cloud cover, cosmic rays have an impact too
From CERN Our planet’s pre-industrial climate may have been cloudier than presently thought, shows CERN’s CLOUD experiment in two papers published in Nature. CERN experiment points to a cloudier pre-industrial…
Expanding tropics pushing high altitude clouds towards poles, NASA study finds
From the NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER and the “30 year trends don’t mean much if we’ve never observed them before” department comes this interesting study. A new NASA analysis of…
Salty sea spray affects the lifetimes of clouds, researchers find
From COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY and the “climate models still can’t get clouds right” department comes this interesting new study. All over the planet, every day, oceans send plumes of sea spray…
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