Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system

Bjorn Stevens () and Graham Feingold
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Bjorn Stevens: Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, KlimaCampus, 20251 Hamburg, Germany
Graham Feingold: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 461, issue 7264, 607-613

Abstract: Reach for the clouds Atmospheric aerosol particles are crucial to the existence of clouds as we know them. It is thought that the aerosol can affect the ability of clouds to form precipitation and in turn cloudiness. But how, in detail, do clouds — and through them the radiative forcing of the global climate system — depend on the aerosol? Bjorn Stevens and Graham Feingold propose that past difficulties in untangling relationships between the aerosol, clouds and precipitation reflect in part a failure to take into account the many processes that act to buffer cloud and precipitation responses to aerosol perturbations. To counter this, say Stevens and Feingold, research needs to focus on understanding specific regimes of aerosol, cloud and precipitation.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08281

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