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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). The overall impact of clouds ...
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.
Schematic with five proposed methods for solar radiation modification technologies. Solar radiation modification (SRM) (or solar radiation management or solar geoengineering), is a group of large-scale approaches to limit global warming by increasing the amount of sunlight (solar radiation) that is reflected away from Earth and back to space.
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 ...
the cloud IR emissivity, with values between 0 and 1, with a global average around 0.7; the effective cloud amount, the cloud amount weighted by the cloud IR emissivity, with a global average of 0.5; the cloud (visible) optical depth varies within a range of 4 and 10. the cloud water path for the liquid and solid (ice) phases of the cloud particles
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 complexity and diversity of clouds in the troposphere is a major reason for difficulty in quantifying the effects of clouds on climate and climate change. On the one hand, white cloud tops promote cooling of Earth's surface by reflecting shortwave radiation (visible and near infrared) from the Sun, diminishing the amount of solar radiation ...
Climate engineering (or geoengineering, climate intervention [1]) is the intentional large-scale alteration of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The term has been used as an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification when applied at a planetary scale.