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> albedo That's exactly why I found this so fascinating. I know that the ice caps are extremely important for slowing climate change (due to their albedo, bein
by zamalek 8y ago
> albedo
That's exactly why I found this so fascinating. I know that the ice caps are extremely important for slowing climate change (due to their albedo, being completely white). I had no idea that clouds were so prevalent. My initial thoughts on seeing that image were "wow, that's a lot of albedo, has climate change improved cloud coverage?" A directly counteracting force to the most dangerous GHG (water vapor). Turns out maybe not? We don't have industrial age data in this, so we can't tell for certain - but maybe (likely not) there is a glimmer of hope.
Thanks for the additional information, either way.
- kaybe 8y agoClouds work both ways: They reflect short-wave visible radiation back into space, but they also send long-wave thermal radiation back to the ground and keep it warmer (compare your experience with cloudless nights to ones with clouds). So far it looks like high clouds have a cooling effect and low clouds have a warming effect. We are not sure yet which clouds will increase more (this may not be up-to-date or might be known soon) but we expect more clouds in general in a warmer climate.
- __x0x__ 8y agoYou have it backwards; the cirriform clouds are mostly transparent to visible but absorb and re-emit IR effectively (cloud greenhouse effect). Low clouds tend to have a very high albedo, hence effectively reflect incoming solar radiation, like ice/snow.
- kaybe 8y agoIndeed, thanks for the correction!