New satellite observations of polar stratospheric clouds have advanced our understanding of how, when, and where they form, their composition, and their role in ozone depletion.
clouds
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Long Do Black Carbon Particles Linger in the Atmosphere?
Researchers uncover how black carbon evolves from hydrophobic particles to cloud nucleation sites, eventually removing the heat-absorbing particles from the sky.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Is Earth’s Albedo Symmetric Between the Hemispheres?
The two hemispheres feature the same planetary albedo despite a larger land fraction in the north, because storms over the southern ocean are cloudier than their northern counterparts.
Posted inFeatures
The Forecast for Exoplanets is Cloudy but Bright
Clouds make climate modeling on Earth difficult. Identifying—and even defining—atmospheric phenomena on other planets is the next big exoplanet challenge.
Posted inScience Updates
Taking Flight to Study Clouds and Climate
A new mission involving synchronized aircraft observations is collecting data vital for improving our understanding of how aerosol particles and clouds influence each other.
Posted inNews
Eyeing Explosive Ash Clouds from Above and Below
Satellites in the sky combined with computers on the ground detect and track volcanic ash clouds, like those produced by Soufrière St. Vincent in April, in near-real time.
Posted inNews
Noctilucent Clouds Light Up Northern Germany
A shift in the tropopause jet may have triggered the unusual number of high-altitude clouds that briefly appeared in the early summer of 2019.
Posted inNews
Rocket Mission Conjures a Ghostly Noctilucent Cloud
Night-shining clouds can be diagnostic tools to better understand how human activity is changing the meteorology of the mesosphere.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Atmospheric Turbulence May Promote Cloud Droplet Formation
Turbulence causes local variations in relative humidity, which can push particles past a critical saturation threshold for droplet nucleation.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ice Age Testing Reveals Challenges in Climate Model Sensitivity
Increased reflection of incoming sunlight by clouds led one current-generation climate model to predict unrealistically cold temperatures during the last ice age.