Clouds: The Wild Card of Climate Change

Watts Up With That? ^ | November 5, 2010 | Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I guess they really don’t have a full handle on the science and consensus after all.

NSF Releases Online, Multimedia Package Titled, “Clouds: The Wild Card of Climate Change”

Reader-friendly multimedia package covers the crucial but enigmatic role of clouds on climate change, and how scientists are defining that role

Clouds from an airplane over Michigan. Credit and Larger Version

November 4, 2010

View a webcast with David Randall, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University.

As discussions about climate change continue, one critical factor about this phenomenon has remained largely unknown to the public: the important but enigmatic role of clouds in climate change. The role of clouds is important because at any given time about 70 percent of the Earth is covered by clouds. The role of clouds is enigmatic because clouds can exert opposing forces: Some types of clouds help cool the Earth and some types of clouds help warm it. Which effect will win out as our climate continues to change? So far, no one is certain.

In order to help clear the air on clouds, the National Science Foundation is releasing an online multimedia package on the role of clouds on climate change, entitled, “Clouds: The Wild Card of Climate Change.” It addresses such pressing questions as, will clouds help speed or slow climate change? Why is cloud behavior so difficult to predict? And how in the world are scientists learning to project the behavior of these ephemeral, ever-changing, high-altitude phenomena?

“Clouds: The Wild Card of Climate Change” features:

• a live webcast with cloud and climate expert: David Randall, director of the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes and a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University;
• informative, easy-to-understand texts;
• eye-catching photos;
• a narrated slide show;
• dynamic animations;
• enlightening interviews with cloud researchers; and

• downloadable documents.

This package–which provides a wealth of information to reporters, policymakers, scientists, educators, the public and students of all levels–is posted on NSF’s website.

-NSF-

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Rows and flows of angel hair, And ice cream castles in the air, And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the Sun, They rain and snow on everyone. So many things I would have done, But clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now, From up and down, and still somehow, It's cloud illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds, at all.

Joni Mitchell

[JPG]

Another one comes to mind: “Hey, You, Get off off of my cloud.”

[JPG]

For sale... one ‘off’...cheap.

[saleman]

“informative, easy-to-understand texts;
eye-catching photos;
a narrated slide show;
dynamic animations;
enlightening interviews with cloud researchers; and

downloadable documents.”

Is this for real? It sounds like a class for 1st graders.

[devere]

Joni Mitchell is a Canadian, so I guess it’s appropriate you beat me to posting those lyrics.

[GeronL]

wow.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.

The role of clouds is important because at any given time about 70 percent of the Earth is covered by clouds. The role of clouds is enigmatic because clouds can exert opposing forces: Some types of clouds help cool the Earth and some types of clouds help warm it.

This is yet another piece of agitprop. An earlier, analogous example was the notoriously unscientific LIE that the oceans were storing the AGW heat in their depths, something that is literally impossible -- and of course was backed up by ZERO research and ZERO data. Every single claim by the AGW jackoffs has been a LIE, this is just another one. "The clouds have an impact on our data, which is why we don't have any." Hanging's too good for the bastards.

[SunkenCiv]

Lucy Van Pelt: Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here all day and watch them drift by. If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud's formations. What do you think you see, Linus?
Linus Van Pelt: Well, those clouds up there look to me look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean. That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor. And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the Stoning of Stephen. I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side.
Lucy Van Pelt: Uh huh. That's very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?
Charlie Brown: Well, I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie, but I changed my mind.

[Marine_Uncle]

I can see after five minutes of listening where the second question was addressed by the moderator this is the same old sh... The professors profession is that he really does believe in models that use who knows what for positive feedbacks (heat transfer) from CO2 and CH4 for instance, that are being challenged by others.
That point I could see where things where going to go.
And quite frankly I did not learn anything new that did not already know from years back.
And to boot the National Science Foundation are strong supporters of the so called "greenhouse effects" and AGW.
So I taint going to waste my time on that video.

[grayeagle]

I remember a B.C. comic strip many years ago.

BC and Curls (I think) were laying down looking up at some clouds. BC says, “There’s one that looks like water.”

Next: It rains on them.

Then: Curls says, “If you see one that looks like a rock let me know.”

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“Some types of clouds help cool the Earth and some types of clouds help warm it.”

Those hot clouds can be real scorchers. /sarc.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Hot clouds? Hm .... Maybe we could put some cloud boilers up in the sky to generate electricity!

[TigersEye]

LOL These people are nuts. What is the BTU holding capacity of cubic foot of atmosphere compared to the capacity of a cubic foot of sea water? I'll give them the maximum advantage and let them calculate that at sea level where the atmosphere is densest and sea water is the least dense.

There is no way the atmosphere can lead the direction of global temps. It's a skinny little tail on the giant heat sink of a dog that the oceans are. Where ocean temps go so goes the temp of the atmosphere.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

[I’m no scientist but ...]

It is true that sunlight is filtered by our atmosphere, but hot clouds that increase the earth’s temp? Clouds ALWAYS shield us from sunlight. And more heat would make more clouds, helping stablize any global warming. If a cloud were made of solid glass, then yes, it might trap sunlight if angled properly.