The premise of Lindzen's hypothesis was that as the climate warms, the area in the atmosphere covered
by high cirrus clouds will contract to allow more heat to escape into outer space, similar to the iris in a human eye contracting to allow less light to pass through the pupil in a brightly lit environment.
Not exact matches
High - altitude clouds like
cirrus warm the planet
by trapping heat.
In
high cirrus clouds, which consist purely of ice crystals, the researchers, however, came across a surprisingly strong reaction to laser irradiation: As described in PNAS, the laser pulses increase the number of ice particles
by up to a factor of 100 within only a few seconds.
The authors propose that
higher ocean surface temperatures directly cause the decline in
cirrus clouds
by changing the dynamics of cloud formation and rainfall.
It indicated that contrails — white lines of Vapor left
by jet engines — also have big knock - on effects
by adding to the formation of
high - altitude, heat - trapping
cirrus clouds as the lines break up.