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The interaction between cloud formation and climate change is an aspect of atmospheric science. Clouds have a dual role [6] in the Earth's climate system: they can cool the Earth's surface by reflecting incoming solar radiation (albedo effect) and warm it by trapping outgoing infrared radiation (greenhouse effect).
Cloud feedback is a type of climate change feedback, where the overall cloud frequency, height, and the relative fraction of the different types of clouds are altered due to climate change, and these changes then affect the Earth's energy balance.
Thick clouds reflect a large amount of incoming solar radiation, translating to a high albedo. Thin clouds tend to transmit more solar radiation and, therefore, have a low albedo. Changes in cloud albedo caused by variations in cloud properties have a significant effect on global climate, having the ability to spiral into feedback loops. [3]
The next he was 200 miles (320km) away across land and sea, trying to spot a cloud in the skies above the isle of Lundy - home to 27 humans and, at the last count, 375 puffins.
[7]: 1022 However, climate change is expected to alter the distribution of cloud types in a way which collectively reduces their cooling and thus accelerates overall warming. [7]: 975 While changes to clouds act as a negative feedback in some latitudes, [24] they represent a clear positive feedback on a global scale. [4]: 95
Clouds are effective at absorbing and scattering longwave radiation, and therefore reduce the amount of outgoing longwave radiation. Clouds have both cooling and warming effects. They have a cooling effect insofar as they reflect sunlight (as measured by cloud albedo), and a warming effect, insofar as they absorb longwave radiation. For low ...
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and ...
Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT) is a proposed method of climate engineering. Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that, like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However, they differ from other types of clouds in that, on average, infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection, resulting in a net warming effect ...