Related Content
Search Google Scholar for:
More Information
Related Jobs from ScienceCareers
|
|
Science 4 August 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5787, p. 588
DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5787.588c
|
|
This Week in Science
Most of the uncertainty about how climate will change in coming decades centers on aerosols, largely because of a poor understanding of the effects that they have on the properties and abundance of clouds--estimates of the net radiative effect of aerosols range from 0 to 5 watts per square meter. Kaufman and Koren (p. 655, published online 13 July; see the Perspective by Bréon) address this dilemma by comparing measurements of the attenuation of sunlight by aerosols in the absence of clouds, made by a worldwide network of automatic instruments, to the fraction of time that clouds cover the sites. Cloud coverage was positively correlated to the concentration of aerosols in the air, and negatively correlated with how much sunlight was absorbed by the aerosols. This finding was independent of the type of aerosol or location, which suggests that much of the correlation arises from aerosol effects on cloudiness.
|
|
Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
