Clouds Are Shaped By Where They’re From

[n2doc]

By Lisa Grossman September 16, 2010 | 3:21 pm


Scientists’ view of clouds is clearing up. Two new studies show that cloud-forming particles in the atmosphere, called aerosols, look different and make different clouds depending on their origins.

One study found that in one of the most pristine environments on Earth — above the treetops of the Amazon Rainforest — clouds mostly come from gas emitted by the plants. The entire rainforest is a self-sustaining engine in which “the plants cause the rainfall, and the rainfall causes the plants,” said Harvard environmental chemist Scot Martin, a coauthor of the study.

The other, which was compiled from 15 years of data from airplanes flying through clouds, found that aerosols with human origins are larger, more numerous and contribute more to haze than biogenic particles.

This paper “demonstrates the importance of combustion-produced aerosols for controlling cloud-forming particles,” commented cloud scientist Robert Wood of the University of Washington, who was not involved in either study.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clouds-shaped-by-origins/

[ClarkUSA]

1. Fascinating. K&R