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Details of how clouds interact with shortwave and longwave radiation at different atmospheric heights [17]. Clouds have two major effects on the Earth's energy budget: they reflect shortwave radiation from sunlight back to space due to their high albedo, but the water vapor contained inside them also absorbs and re-emits the longwave radiation sent out by the Earth's surface as it is heated by ...
Cloud albedo strongly influences the Earth's energy budget, accounting for approximately half of Earth's albedo. [1] [2] Cloud albedo is influenced by the conditions of cloud formation and variations in cloud albedo depend on the total mass of water, the size and shape of the droplets or particles and their distribution in space. [3]
The clouds do not become that color; they are reflecting long and unscattered rays of sunlight, which are predominant at those hours. The effect is much like if a person were to shine a red spotlight on a white sheet. In combination with large, mature thunderheads this can produce blood-red clouds.
"On any given day, about half of Earth is covered by clouds, which reflect more sunlight than land and water. Clouds keep Earth cool by reflecting sunlight, but they can also serve as blankets to trap warmth." [60] Albedo and climate in some areas are affected by artificial clouds, such as those created by the contrails of heavy commercial ...
Consequently, without the sun's heat, air cools, causing water droplets (or clouds) to revert to invisible vapor. "Along with the sudden darkness came a change in the clouds' color," Rao wrote of ...
But the work represents a first step toward understanding whether this type of technology, at scale, could be used to make clouds reflect more sunlight back to space and slow some global warming ...
The current hypothesis for why the phenomenon occurs is that sunlight is reflecting off, or refracting through, tiny ice crystals above the crown of a cumulonimbus cloud. These ice crystals are aligned by the strong electric field effects around the cloud, [ 2 ] so the effect may appear as a tall (sometimes curved) streamer, pillar of light, or ...
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