As thunderstorm updrafts strengthen, electrification of clouds can heat the lower ionosphere, explaining prolonged disturbances to radio waves in the rarefied atmospheric layer.
clouds
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A “Super” Solution for Modeling Clouds
Climate models struggle to accurately portray clouds because the models cannot resolve the scales at which clouds form. A new study demonstrates a potential fix for the problem.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Capturing Snowmelt Patterns from Cloudy Satellite Images
A new modeling strategy could improve streamflow predictions in places where mountain snow is a critical source of water.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Better Way to Measure Cloud Composition
An enhanced satellite remote sensing suite accurately measures ice particles, temperature, and water vapor.
Posted inNews
Algorithm Spots Climate-Altering Ship Tracks in Satellite Data
Tens of thousands of ship tracks—cloud structures created when ships’ exhaust plumes interact with the atmosphere—are pinpointed automatically, furthering study of these climate-altering features.
Posted inNews
Contrails’ Climate Impact Could Triple by 2050
Contrail cirrus clouds have warmed the atmosphere more than all the carbon dioxide from planes since the dawn of aviation and will do so even more in the future.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
New Observations of Thunderstorm Updrafts and Downdrafts
Unique measurements of air motion within deep convective clouds offer new insights in our understanding of these storms and provide constraints for weather and climate prediction.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Precipitation in the Tropics: A New View
The first study to simultaneously investigate precipitation and cloud structures in tropical weather systems concludes observation systems significantly overestimate the height of raining clouds.
Posted inScience Updates
Looking at “Night-Shining” Clouds from the Stratosphere
One research group studied noctilucent clouds at large distances from a different point of view, using cameras aboard a meteorological balloon that sailed into the stratosphere.
Posted inScience Updates
Connecting the Southern Ocean with Clouds
ACE-DATA/Antarctic Sea-Atmosphere Interactions Data (ASAID) Workshop; 5–6 November 2018, Lausanne, Switzerland