Cirrus Disappearance: Warming Might Thin Heat-trapping Clouds

Fortunate · #1 (**permalink**) 08-November-2007, 01:23 AM

Quote:

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007) — The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds is challenged this month in new research from The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1102152636.htm

Quote:

Instead of creating more clouds, individual tropical warming cycles that served as proxies for global warming saw a decrease in the coverage of heat-trapping cirrus clouds, says Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center.

NEOWatcher · #2 (**permalink**) 09-November-2007, 01:43 PM

They do say this only occurs in the tropics, and they don't know if it happens on a global scale.

I think they went a bit too far projecting it on a global scale, but, in context, I guess it wasn't really out of line.

So; now the models can be tweaked some more, and now they have a few more questions that need to be answered.

The article seemed fair and balanced... but, I'm worried what CNN is going to convey when they pick it up.

JESMKS · #3 (**permalink**) 09-November-2007, 05:00 PM

I read that cloud cover reflects solar energy and contributes to global cooling and I also read that cloud cover traps global heat and contributes to global warming. Does it depend on the type of cloud? Does a cumulas cloud reflect more solar energy than a cirrus cloud?

NEOWatcher · #4 (**permalink**) 09-November-2007, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JESMKS

I read that cloud cover reflects solar energy and contributes to global cooling and I also read that cloud cover traps global heat and contributes to global warming. Does it depend on the type of cloud? Does a cumulas cloud reflect more solar energy than a cirrus cloud?

Did you read this in the article?

Quote:

"While low clouds have a predominantly cooling effect due to their shading of sunlight, most cirrus clouds have a net warming effect on the Earth," Spencer said. With high altitude ice clouds their infrared heat trapping exceeds their solar shading effect.

Ronald Brak · #5 (**permalink**) 10-November-2007, 04:51 AM

This is a cirrus question that deserve cirrus consideration.

Essan · #6 (**permalink**) 10-November-2007, 12:49 PM

On a global scale we're creating more cirrus clouds (contrails) - so at the least it'll balance out

PhantomWolf · #7 (**permalink**) 13-November-2007, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Essan

On a global scale we're creating more cirrus clouds (contrails) - so at the least it'll balance out

Hopefully I'm not spreading an Urban myth here, I tried to find a reference and wasn;t having much luck, but IIRC there was a study that found the average temperatures over the three days following 9/11 showed a drop of around 1° (I assume F) because there weren't any Contrails in the air.

Ronald Brak · #8 (**permalink**) 13-November-2007, 02:53 AM

Well, since temperature often varies by more than a degree anyway there is nothing we can say about a 1 degree temperature drop after the September 11th mass murders in New York. If you were to ban flying say 30 times, then yeah, we might have enough data to draw some conclusions from,

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