Cooling Earth by aerosol effects on shallow marine clouds

Photo: NASA/Goddard Space Center Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa - via NASA

Adding fine aerosols to shallow marine clouds can lead to large cooling that exceeds the greenhouse gases-induced warming. Technology of production of fine sea spray aerosols has a tail of coarse aerosols, which is suspected to have a warming effect. However, satellite observations show that natural sea spray enhances cloud radiative cooling, and the maximum cooling requires an optimal combination of fine and coarse aerosol concentrations. Aircraft measurements of the effect of artificial sea spray validate the satellite measurements. One probable cause for the cooling effect of coarse sea spray is its hygroscopicity which slows down the evaporation of cloud droplets. Join this seminar online to hear from Professor Daniel Rosenfeld on his work investigating cooling Earth by aerosol effects on shallow marine clouds.

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