Published in ERW, 4 Nov 2014
Areas of apparently clear sky can in fact be home to invisible cirrus clouds. That’s the conclusion of a group of scientists in Israel and the US, who warn that such clouds could bias the results of climate models.
Clouds are an important, if complex, part of the Earth’s climate system. On the one hand they can reflect sunlight back into space, helping to cool the planet. On the other they can trap sunlight within the atmosphere, causing warming. Whether the net effect is one of cooling or warming – and how that effect will change within a climate that is warming overall – is a major source of uncertainty in current climate models, and a topic that many climate researchers want to address. […]
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