ESSIC / CICS-MD Post-doctoral associate Youtong Zheng recently co-authored a paper published in Science titled, “Aerosol-driven droplet concentrations dominate coverage and water of oceanic low level clouds”.
The article introduces a methodology for ascribing cloud properties to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and isolating aerosol effects from meteorological effects. This new finding is largely based on a series of novel satellite remote sensing techniques of estimating the vertical wind speed at cloud bases, developed by Zheng and his colleagues
The finding has revealed a much greater sensitivity of cloud radiative forcing to CCN than previously reported, meaning aerosols have had a greater cooling effect on shallow marine clouds than previously thought. This hints to yet unknown compensating aerosol warming effects, possibly through deep clouds.
Zheng works with AOSC-ESSIC professor Professor Zhanqing Li on his CICS task on satellite cloud-base height retrievals. This study recently received a grant from the Department of Energy, as covered in this ESSIC article.
To read the paper, click here: “Aerosol-driven droplet concentrations dominate coverage and water of oceanic low level clouds”.
