IC w9 Articles disappearing clouds

While browsing the internet, I accidentally came across an article that I had not read before. The title of the article is:

"Are we really in danger of the clouds disappearing? The new study is explained"

and was written by Jill Kiedaisch on February 27, 2019. The subtitle largely reflects the problem: clouds disappear with high carbon dioxide emissions - that's a world we're going to fast. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a26553617/clouds-disappear-study/ It first explains where clouds play a crucial role in our water cycle and the cooling of the earth. It is also reported that 2/3 of the planet's surface is covered with clouds. The article talks about a new study published in Nature Geoscience by CalTech climate physicists, in which computer simulations were made to predict the behavior of clouds.

Link to the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1 The study focused on "disassembling stratocumulus decks" over low latitude oceans in response to greenhouse warming.

Their simulation showed, as is shown in the figure above, that the clouds fall apart and thus disappear when the CO2 content exceeds 1,200 parts per million. Which results in further global warming. At best, those 1200 particles will be reached in 100 years is stated. Tapio Schneider, says "Our new results show that there are dangerous climate change barriers that we were not aware of."

Nathalie Wolchover writes on the 25th of february also about the research:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/cloud-loss-could-add-8-degrees-to-global-warming-20190225/

In her article we read: Clouds may seem simple at first, but the image becomes more complicated as heat, evaporation, turbulence, radiation, wind, geography, and many other factors. Therefore, scientists have been trying to fathom the clouds since the 1960s to predict the effects of global warming ... Many models have been made to predict what can happen and in all those predictions the clouds are the big uncertain factor. All computer simulations of the global climate can make predictions based on an area of ​​100 by 100 kilometers in area, while clouds are usually much smaller. Models with an increase of 4 or more degrees predict less clouds in the coming decades.

In the last 10 years much more has become known about clouds. Around 2010, it was shown by Mark Zelinka from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, among others, that as the Earth warms, high clouds will move higher in the sky (causing less cooling) and will also shift to higher latitudes where it is less hot so they are less can reflect heat. (one of the facts that my project is based on).

The new research focuses on simulating stratocumulus clouds because they cover 25% of the oceans, blocking 30 to 70% of the sunlight that would normally reach the ocean and thus prevent heating. It turns out that more CO-2 causes more turbulence in the clouds and because the greenhouse effect makes the atmosphere warmer and therefore more humid, the clouds are less efficient from above. When cooling becomes less effective, stratocumulus clouds become thin.

The research that has been done assumes the global wind currents as they are now. Whether this will really remain the case is an unknown factor in the research.

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For me, this research means that I will adapt part of the text to my new knowledge about clouds.

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Sources:

• KIEDAISCH, Jill Kiedaisch. 2019. Couds disappear with high carbon dioxide emissions - that's a world we're going to fast. Available at: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a26553617/clouds-disappear-study/https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a26553617/clouds-disappear-study/ [Accesed on 27 March 2020]

• SCHNEIDER Tapio, Colleen M. KAUL & Kyle G. PRESSEL. 2019. Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under greenhouse warming. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0310-1 [Accesed on 26 March 2020]

• WOLCHOVER, Nathalie. 2019. A world without clouds. Quanta magazine. Available at: https://www.quantamagazine.org/cloud-loss-could-add-8-degrees-to-global-warming-20190225/ [Accesed on 26 March 2020]