Albedo / Reflectivity

Clouds

2019-2024 Articles

Cloud Cover Is Easier to Affect than Previously Thought 0524

Trees Release Sesquiterpene, Making Clouds, Messing with Climate Calculations 0923

The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns 0523

How Does Albedo Affect Climate? 0423

Atmospheric Mineral Dust May Have Hidden True Extent of Global Heating 0123

Clouds, One of Climate Change’s Great Mysteries, Is Finally Being Solved 1222

Do Aerosols Make More Clouds or Brighter Clouds? 0822

Bigger Dust Storms Are Happening More Frequently 0622

Climate Change Is Making Earth Dimmer 1021 - Due mostly to fewer bright clouds in northeast Pacific, off US.

Climate-Driven Changes in Clouds Are Likely to Amplify Global Warming 0721

Greener Aviation Fuel Create Fewer Contrails, Reducing Global Warming 0621

Warm Clouds Are Cooling Earth, Confounding Climate Models 0621 - However, the amount of warm clouds has been increasing, while the amount of cold clouds has been decreasing.

Scientists Aren’t Sure What Will Happen to Clouds as the Planet Warms 0521

Cloud-Making Aerosol Could Devastate Polar Sea Ice 0221

Climate Worst-Case Scenarios May Not Go Far Enough, Cloud Data Shows 0620 - Clouds provide a substantial amplifying feedback. Climate sensitivity is about 5°C for doubled CO2, not 3°.

Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models 0120 - clouds; abstract +

Possible Climate Transitions from Breakup of Stratocumulus Cloud Decks under Greenhouse Warming 0219 - abstract

Clouds in New Climate Models Suggest Paris Goals May Be Out of Reach 0120 - summary of study whose abstract is above

Snow and Ice Loss Causing Arctic to Reflect Less Heat 1119

A World of Searing Heat and Melted Ice Caps - Climate Model of Early Eocene Is ‘Scary Finding’ for Earth’s Future 0919
Near PETM events, global surface temperature was ~ 14°C warmer then now. Climate became increasingly sensitive to CO2 at higher temperatures. "Their model showed how clouds played a huge role in global temperatures."

Click for 6 more

What Climate Change Means for Globe-Traveling Saharan Dust 0719

How Dust from Receding Glaciers Is Affecting the Climate 0619

Dust from Melting Glaciers Could Create Clouds 0319

4 Things That Could Kill Us Before the Cloud Apocalypse Does 0219

Climate Change Will Bring Cloud-Free Skies, for Disastrous ‘Feedback Loop’ 0219

Very High CO2 Could Suppress Cooling Clouds, Climate Model Warns 0219

Why Clouds Are the Key to New Troubling Projections on Warming 0220 Newer global climate models (GCMs) do a much better job of handling clouds, for which droplet size is very important, as is large scale (10s to 100s of kilometers): micro and macro in the same model.
These newer GCMs find that clouds diminish as Earth's surface warms. See reasons in the figures below: How Climate Change Breaks Up Clouds.
Thus, they have an amplifying effect on warming. Note cloud figures with trend lines, farther below. This means that the warming feedback concerning clouds has been considerably underestimated. And that holding global surface warming to an acceptable level is far more difficult than most scientists thought during 1980-2015.
The likelihood of catastrophic warming is much higher than we thought. Earth's carbon budget remaining to keep warming under 2°C is far less than zero.
And legacy carbon in the air is very dangerous and CO2 removal is paramount.

As the World Warms, Clouds Could Disappear 0319

The trend thru 2012, below was -.00064 (-.06399%) per year. Loss of cloud cover, thru 2018, may have speeded up a bit.

Global Warming Tidings Get a Boost, after Cloudy Climate Issue Cleared Up 0716 - take 1 on study

Cosmic Rays & Clouds - Marsh & Svensmark 0500 - PDF - broadly similar to, and precursor to, Tim Patterson's article and graphs above

2018 Articles and earlier - 25

Swedish Climate Study Icebreaker Reaches North Pole to Study Clouds 0818

Climate Change Is Making Nighttime Clouds More Visible 0718

Thinning Clouds Increase California’s Wildfires 0618

Study Reveals Forests Have Yet Another Climate-Protection Superpower 0118

Clouds Aren’t a Climate Thermostat, Won’t Save Us from Global Warming 1217

The Surprising Effect of Ocean Waves on Global Climate 0817

Scientists Dim Sunlight, Suck Up CO2 to Cool Planet 0717

Findings from Making Own Clouds Require Rethink on Speed of Warming 0516

Clouds Play Lesser Role in Curbing Warming, Study Finds 0416

Clearing Up Dust's Effect on Climate 1215

Tiny Sea Creatures Are Making Clouds over the Southern Ocean 0715

Man-Made Pollutants Increase the Cooling Effect of Saharan Dust 0415

Changes in Water Vapor and Clouds Are Amplifying Global Warming 0415

Cosmic Rays Add Little to Climate Change 1113

Pollution Yields Larger, Deeper, Longer-Lived Clouds, So Colder Days, Warmer Nights 1113

Clouds of (Slightly Less) Unknowing 1013

Ocean Acidification Makes Plankton Emit Less Cloud-Seeding Compounds 0813

Researchers Unmask Climate Secrets of Sea Spray and Clouds 0413

Bacteria Survive at High Altitudes, Seed Clouds 0113

Skeptic Torch Lights Way to New Science on Clouds 1212

Clouds Feedback Amplifies Warming 0809

Clouds Amplify Warming, Summary 0709

Positive Feedback from Low Level Clouds - Clement, Science 0709

More High Clouds Warmed Earth, 2000-04 0106

Cosmic Rays, Temp & CO2 Lags 0105

Clearing Clouds of Uncertainty - Zelinka 1017 - PDF, original scientific paper, 2 of 3 figures omitted. See just below.

In Zelinka's graph below, the big dots are for central estimates, thick bars for standard deviations, thin bars for range, among 18 models.

Below are 2 cloud cover trend graphs by Dr. Fry, one by temperature and one by time.

Below are 2 cloudiness graphs from the World Meteorlogical Organization, c. 2009

Investigating the Enigma of Clouds and Climate Change 0817 - With warming, clouds are migrating toward the poles.

Clouds have their greatest cooling impact around the equator, because of the higher sun angle (overhead more often).

The World’s Clouds Are in Different Places than They Were 30 Years Ago 0716 - take 2 on study

The table above shows that, since 1985, cloud cover has been increasing in the tropics and sub-polar regions, especially 10°N to 10° S. In the sub-tropics and temperate regions (25-45 or 50°, latitude), it has been decreasing.

Ocean Warming due to Plankton Collapse 0616

Sulfates

+Black Carbon & Dust

US emissions peaked in 1973 (at 30.56), Europe's in 1980 (at 60.44), and China's in 2006 (at 37.78). China passed the US in 1994 and Europe in 1999. India passed China in 2021 and may not have peaked yet.

A graph further below shows estimated SO4 emissions, including non-human ones (40 MT from dimrthyl sulfide for sea surf organisms, plus episodic ones from volcanoes (rough estimates)). SO4 has 1.5 tims the molecular weight of SO2, so the vertical scale below is 1.5 times as high.

2020-2024 Articles

Ocean Life Thriving due to Saharan Dust Blown from 1,000s of Kilometers Away 0924

We’ve Been Accidentally Cooling the Planet — and It’s About to Stop 0624

‘Termination Shock’. Cut in Ship Pollution Sparked Global Heating Spurt. 0524

The Disagreement between 2 Climate Scientists That Will Decide Our Future 1223

Is Climate Change Speeding Up? Here’s What Jim Hansen, Scientists Say. 1223

The Terrible Paradox of Air Pollution and Climate Change 0923

Dark Brown Carbon Is One Nasty Wildfire Pollutant We’ve Been Ignoring 0823

Dust Storms Are on the Rise in the Southwest. That Could Harm Health. 0723

Emission Cuts Could ‘Unmask’ Deadly Face of Climate Change 0623

James Hansen Warns of a Short-Term Climate Shock, with 2° of Warming by 2050 - 0523

More Frequent Dust Storms Could Be in Our Future 0523

Do Aerosols Make More Clouds or Brighter Clouds? 0822

Cleaner Air Is Now Adding to Global Warming 0722

Aerosol Emissions Masked Global Warming’s Supercharging of Tropical Storms 0522

Aerosols from Burning Fossil Fuels Are Masking Global Warming 0622

Soot Is Accelerating Snow Melt in Popular Parts of Antarctica 0222

Covid Shutdown Linked to Record Rainfall in China 0222

Will Tonga Volcanic Eruption Affect Global Climate? 0122 - not much. Tonga’s SO2 emissions were only 2% of Pinatubo’s.

Global Warming Rate over Next 25 Years Could Double the Previous 50’s - Hansen 0921

Tropical Climate Change Is a Puzzle—Could Aerosols Be a Piece? 0921

NASA Direct Measurements, including Aerosols, Show Humans Cause Climate Change 0421

Earth Warmed as Virus Reduced CO2 and Sulfur Emissions 0221

Human Aerosol Cooling Obscures 1/4 of Global Heating since 1750 - 0121

Severe 2019-20 Australia Wildfires Slightly Cooled Earth, like a Volcanic Eruption 1220

In an Odd Twist, Cleaner Air in China May Mean a Warmer Earth 0920 - subtract sulfates, unmasking warming

Climate Change Caused Havoc 2000 Years Ago 0720 - sulfates in stratosphere from volcano in Alaska caused famine in China and Mediterranean basin, falls of Ptolemaic dynasty and Roman Republic

Tiny Aerosols Pose a Big Predicament in a Warming World 1122

Aerosol Pollution Is Destabilizing Earth’s Climate and Threatens Our Health 0322

The SO4 from SO2 Emissions graph / estimated data is drawn from a 2000 IPCC figure for SO4 concentrations in Greenland ice and from a dabtabase on global industrial SO2 emissions. It uses interpolation and estimated contributions from major volcanoes.