The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active
in cloud formation increase.
In the process it will interfere with marine ecosystems and
affect cloud formation in ways we barely understand.
In this lesson plan, students participate in a hands - on activity using a plastic bottle and other simple ingredients to learn the three factors required
for cloud formation.
The increased water vapor will almost certainly result in
increased cloud formation, thereby, increasing the albedo — negative feedback.
For example, how many climate models include the bacterial dynamics associated
with cloud formation in the ocean?
Much of this research on specifics
like cloud formation would likely occur anyway, under basic climatic research.
Recent attempts to
understand cloud formation have explored wide regions of the equilibrium temperature - gravity parameter space.
What makes you sure that increasing CO2 emissions will not make more water vapour available for
subsequent cloud formation to increase albedo?
In this case, warming may be causing
cloud formation due to increased evaporation from warmer oceans.
According to the hypothesis, then, less cosmic radiation would mean
less cloud formation and, ultimately, warmer temperatures — precisely what was observed during the 20th century.
Although full explanations are not yet available, planetary scientists are sure to continue to study this most
unusual cloud formation for quite some time.
Assuming the link between cosmic rays and
cloud formation hold true, one can imagine engaging in planetary climate control.
Another hypothesis as to what could be causing periodic rapid changes to the planet's climate is that there are periodic solar events which
affect cloud formation.
This is something at a small scale that affects large - scale atmospheric processes, such
as cloud formation and radiative balance.
Despite these results, some researchers remain skeptical that microbes could be important
for cloud formation.
The cosmic rays, in turn, affect
low cloud formation — more rays, more clouds, fewer rays, fewer clouds.
Some are very tricky —
like cloud formation — so the big models can not get them all calculated right.
The other possibility is that longer - term variations in solar wind could be responsible for changes
in cloud formation triggered by cosmic rays.
Following the major eruption of Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano, researchers have shown how sulfur aerosols emitted into the atmosphere
impact cloud formation by creating creating smaller water droplets that reflect more light.
The theory goes that the solar magnetic field deflects GCRs, which are capable of
seeding cloud formation on Earth.
Black carbon aerosols from forest fires, for example, tend to suppress
cloud formation by warming the air and making tiny water droplets evaporate.
Ice, wind, cold temperatures and ocean waters combined to created dramatic
cloud formations over the Bering Sea in late January, 2015.