Scientists make news clouds which may lessen global warming | The Daily Star
Skip to main content
T
Friday, March 31, 2023
The Daily Star
E-paper Today's News বাংলা
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Culture
  • Life & Living
  • Youth
  • Tech & Startup
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Shift
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Star Holiday
    • weekend read
  • More
    • Environment
    • NRB
    • Supplements
    • Law & Our Rights
  • E-paper
  • বাংলা
Search Epaper T
  • Today's News
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Culture
  • Life & Living
  • Youth
  • Tech & Startup
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Shift
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Star Holiday
    • weekend read
  • More
    • Environment
    • NRB
    • Supplements
    • Law & Our Rights

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
Science, Gadgets, and Tech

Scientists make news clouds which may lessen global warming

AP, Washington
Fri May 27, 2016 10:56 AM Last update on: Fri May 27, 2016 11:05 AM
Photo: Reuters

A new discovery about how clouds form may scale back some of the more dire predictions about temperature increases caused by man-made global warming.

That's because it implies that a key assumption for making such predictions is a bit off.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

"What this will do is slightly reduce and sharpen the projections for temperature during the 21st century," said researcher Jasper Kirkby.

Nonetheless, he added, "We are definitely warming the planet."

Kirkby works at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, near Geneva. He is the lead author of one of three studies on the topic released Wednesday by the journals Nature and Science.

Essentially, the work reveals a previously unknown natural process that in a complex way creates atmospheric particles around which clouds form. The most common source of particles is air pollution, usually sulfuric acid from the burning of fossil fuels. There are also natural sources, but they have been considered far less important for cloud formation.

The new work shows that a combination of cosmic rays from space and gases emitted by trees also creates particles, and then clouds, without man-made pollution. The scientists witnessed this in a cloud simulation chamber and from a Swiss mountaintop observatory more than two miles high (3.5 kilometers).

"This process is only effective in pristine environments and there are very, very few pristine environments left on Earth," Kirkby said. Nowadays, the process is overwhelmed by pollution particles.

To a layman, the significance of this for predictions of global warming may appear a bit, um, cloudy. But here's how it works:

The computer models used to make those predictions require making assumptions about what conditions were like before industrialization, when the widespread burning of coal, oil and gas began pumping greenhouse gases into the air. Clouds are an important factor in this because they cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space.

Nobody knows just how cloudy skies were in the old days. Scientists have figured there were far fewer clouds than now, Kirkby said. But the discovery of a new natural route to cloud formation suggests that cloud cover was in fact greater than scientists had assumed.

If so, the way these simulations work, it would mean that greenhouse gases haven't been quite as potent in producing warming so far as scientists thought. So, ton for ton, they may not be quite as potent in producing future warming either.

Kirkby said it's too soon to tell how much less warming the new study implies. Other recent studies found flaws in climate forecasts because of uncertainty about clouds that would increase, not decrease, possible warming in the future.

A better understanding of clouds is good, but much more work is needed before scientists dial down warming estimates for the future, said Yale scientist Trude Storelvmo and NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel, who didn't participate in the new work.

 

 

Related topic:
new cloud formationGlobal warmingCERNclimate change
Apple Google
Click to comment

Comments

Comments Policy

Related News

International climate pledges

Climate pledges still ‘nowhere near’: UN

global warming

What's the link between global heating and extreme weather?

A youth climate activist's reflections on COP27

There is a way to cool Dhaka city down

There is a way to cool Dhaka city down

Editors Council
৯ ঘণ্টা আগে|বাংলাদেশ

মতিউর রহমানসহ সব সাংবাদিকের ডিজিটাল নিরাপত্তা আইনের মামলা প্রত্যাহার দাবি সম্পাদক পরিষদের

‘আমরা এই কাজগুলোকে সংবাদপত্রের স্বাধীনতার হুমকির স্পষ্ট উদাহরণ বলে মনে করি।’

১১ ঘণ্টা আগে|বাংলাদেশ

আ. লীগের নেতৃত্বেই দেশে ভাতের অধিকার প্রতিষ্ঠিত হয়েছে: কাদের

The Daily Star
Journalism without fear or favour
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
© 2023 thedailystar.net | Powered by: RSI LAB
Copyright: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of The Daily Star content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.
X