New analysis based on simple equations has reduced uncertainty about how clouds will affect future climate change.
New analysis based on simple equations has reduced uncertainty about how clouds will affect future climate change.
Clouds have two main effects on global temperature – cooling the planet by reflecting sunlight, and warming it by acting as insulation for Earth’s radiation.
The impact of clouds is the largest area of uncertainty in global warming predictions.
In the new study, researchers from the University of Exeter and the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris created a model that predicts how changes in the surface area of anvil clouds (storm clouds common in the tropics) will affect global warming.
Read more at: University of Exeter
Anvil clouds. Image number ISS042-E-215303 from the International Space Station. (Photo Credit: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center)
