One idea for fighting global warming is to increase the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere, scattering incoming solar energy away from the Earth’s surface. But scientists theorize that this solar geoengineering could have a side effect of whitening the sky during the day. New research from Carnegie’s Ben Kravitz and Ken Caldeira indicates that blocking 2% of the sun’s light would make the sky three-to-five times brighter, as well as whiter. Their work is published June 1st in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Tag Archives: Geophysical Research Letters
Rising thunderstorm clouds increase warming
As a regular you will be well aware that some clouds cool the climate and other clouds warm. Determining the exact balance of the cloud-climate feedback will help decrease uncertainty margins for 21st century warming forecasts. Unfortunately it’s a complicated … Continue reading
Arctic warming cold winter hypothesis loses one year
And it also loses a study, but then it gains two… We’ll just admit a small prejudice. Are gut feelings allowed in science?
Russian heat wave 2010: extreme weather or within new normal climate?
One could focus on the rise in average temperatures and wonder to what extent this will increase the chance of weather extremes. One can of course also walk the opposite route: take a witnessed extreme – and examine if that … Continue reading
Some weather extremes simply lie beyond Gaussian distribution
When assessing the climate system it doesn’t hurt to include some geography to your statistical assumptions. After all, without mountains, oceans and coastlines there would be no weather, just one boring climatic average – and therefore no ground to create … Continue reading
Medieval volcanic triggers of Little Ice Age suggested
Clouds don’t cause climate change
The mainstream and long-held view of clouds in relation to climate change is that clouds are acting as a feedback in response to temperature changes caused by human activity. Some sceptics however argue that it is the other way around … Continue reading
Ancient clams disprove permanent El Niño theory
The prevailing theory and fear that rising global temperatures could result in permanent El Niño conditions have been called into question by an international research team on the basis of growth rings of prehistoric clams. A transition to a permanent … Continue reading