A new study finds that manmade pollutants and natural emissions keep the planet cooler and make clouds brighter.
In previous studies, scientists have continuously emphasized on how bad manmade pollutants and natural emissions are for the atmosphere and how it adversely affects the world's climatic conditions. Now, a new study finds that manmade pollutants and natural emissions may have some positive effects on the Earth's climatic conditions.
Scientists have found that manmade pollutants and natural emissions have a cooling effect and keep the climate cooler.
Clouds are known to keep the Earth warm by trapping the heat and keeping it closer to the planet. These clouds are made of small water particles. These water droplets condense on to tiny particles that are present in the air and form clouds in areas that are humid. The size of these tiny particles is believed to control how bright a cloud is. The brightness of a cloud determines how well it reflects the sun's rays back into space
Scientists have now discovered that these tiny particles that the water droplets cling to can be both natural as well as manmade.
"We discovered that organic compounds such as those formed from forest emissions or from vehicle exhaust, affect the number of droplets in a cloud and hence its brightness, so affecting climate," said study author Professor Gordon McFiggans, from the University of Manchester's School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences.
"We developed a model and made predictions of a substantially enhanced number of cloud droplets from an atmospherically reasonable amount of organic gases," he continued. "More cloud droplets lead to brighter cloud when viewed from above, reflecting more incoming sunlight. We did some calculations of the effects on climate and found that the cooling effect on global climate of the increase in cloud seed effectiveness is at least as great as the previously found entire uncertainty in the effect of pollution on clouds."
This study does not mean that the cooling effect is negating the general warming of the Earth. The research may prove helpful in predicting local weather patterns.
