New Insights Into Cloud Formation

Clouds have a profound effect on the climate, but we know surprisingly little about how they form. Erika Sundén has studied how extremely small cloud particles can dispose off excess energy. This knowledge is necessary to understand processes in the atmosphere that affect global climate change.
The models that have been built to describe climate change contain a major source of uncertainty, namely the effects of clouds. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change points out in its climate report for 2007 that new knowledge is needed in this field.
It is namely the case that clouds can act in two ways: they may be a mirror that reflects radiation from the sun back into space, and they may be a blanket that seals in the heat emitted by Earth. Mapping the formation and dispersion of clouds may, therefore, be a key step in climate research.
"One important stage is understanding the fundamental properties of the particles involved," says Erika Sundén, doctoral student at the Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg.

Science Daily