Clouds in the southern hemisphere reflect more sunlight than those in the northern hemisphere.
Clouds in the southern hemisphere reflect more sunlight than those in the northern hemisphere. The reason is a more frequent occurrence of liquid water droplets, which results from an interplay between updrafts and a cleaner environment. In a study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, a team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) found a stronger influence of updrafts than expected. The new results were made possible by long-term measurements in Leipzig (Germany), Limassol (Cyprus) and Punta Arenas (Chile).
Covering three years, the measurements in Punta Arenas are the longest dataset on cloud properties obtained with ground-based lidar and radar in the Southern Ocean. From 2018 to 2021, an international team from University of Magallanes (UMAG), TROPOS and University of Leipzig had conducted extensive observations of aerosols, clouds, wind and precipitation in the very south of Chile as part of the DACAPO-PESO field experiment. The researchers used two datasets from the northern hemisphere locations of Leipzig and Cyprus to put their findings into global context. Data from the CyCARE field campaign on Cyprus were collected in the years 2016 to 2018 in collaboration with researchers from the Cyprus University of Technology and the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence in Limassol.
The main objective of the measurements in the pristine environment at the southern tip of South America was to study the atmosphere and to learn more about the interactions between aerosols and clouds in a region where there is hardly any long-term data available so far. To address the lack of observations, TROPOS brought the two containers of the LACROS mobile atmospheric observatory together with instrumentation of the University of Leipzig to Punta Arenas. There, the observations were conducted together with UMAG's Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. The instrumentation of LACROS consists of multiple lidars, radars, radiometers, sun photometers and others. These measurements were supplemented by aerosol filter samples from Cerro Mirador, a 600 m high hill close by.
Read more at Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)
Photo Credit: abogawat via Pixabay
