Monday, January 3, 2011

Cloud Feedback

From this weekend's Science Roundup:

One of the major uncertainties about global climate change is the effect of clouds, which cool the climate by reflecting incoming solar radiation back to space, but also warm the climate by trapping heat that might otherwise escape. So as the planet warms, will clouds change in ways that counter warming by greenhouse gases (a negative cloud feedback), or further amplify it (a positive cloud feedback)?
... 

Although the data only cover the past decade, and therefore represent short-term climate fluctuations, they do corroborate several leading global climate models that yield a similar feedback and an increase in global temperature of several degrees Celsius for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. 

The report is here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6010/1523.short

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