A future without clouds? How climate change will affect clouds
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Clouds are a crucial part of the atmosphere, they can affect climate. First, they are an essential part of the water cycle
Numerous studies and research have revealed various impacts of climate change on humans and animals. But how will the warming temperatures impact clouds? Michael Pritchard, who is a professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine, said as quoted by ScienceDaily: "Low clouds could dry up and shrink like the ice sheets. Or they could thicken and become more reflective."
In both scenarios, different future climates can be predicted which is basically part of the problem. "If you ask two different climate models what the future will be like when we add a lot more CO2, you get two very different answers. And the key reason for this is the way clouds are included in climate models," he added.
In the latest report, experts used new computational approaches that help researchers to include cloud physics in global models to probe and find answers to long-standing questions.
Clouds are a crucial part of the atmosphere, they can affect climate. First, they are an essential part of the water cycle. Clouds provide an important link between rain and snow, oceans and lakes, and plants and animals.
They also help us keep the Earth’s temperature down by cooling down and warming up the temperatures on Earth. Clouds can block light and heat from the Sun.
The study noted that the new research on the Frontera supercomputer seeks to better incorporate clouds into global models.
It will apparently be done by breaking models into two parts: a coarse-grained, lower-resolution (100km) planetary model and many small patches with 100 to 200-meter resolution.
These simulations can capture the physical processes and turbulent eddies involved in cloud formation and do not produce unwanted side effects.
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