Aerosol-cloud-climate cooling overestimated by ship-track data

Franziska Glassmeier; Fabian Hoffmann; Jill S. Johnson; Takanobu Yamaguchi; Ken S. Carslaw; Graham Feingold

doi:10.1126/science.abd3980

journal article Jan 29, 2021

Aerosol-cloud-climate cooling overestimated by ship-track data

Franziska Glassmeier

Fabian Hoffmann

Jill S. Johnson

Takanobu Yamaguchi

Ken S. Carslaw Graham Feingold

Science Vol. 371 No. 6528 pp. 485-489 · American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

View at Publisher Save 10.1126/science.abd3980

Abstract

Making tracks

The magnitude of the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the formation of clouds is an important unknown about how humans are affecting climate. Studies of stratocumulus cloud tracks that are formed by ship exhaust have been used to estimate the radiative impact of this process, but Glassmeier
et al.
now show that this approach overestimates the cooling effect of aerosol addition by up to 200%. These findings underscore the need to quantify stratocumulus cloud responses to anthropogenic aerosols to understand the climate system.

Science
, this issue p.
485

Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References

45

[1]

An update on Earth's energy balance in light of the latest global observations

Graeme L. Stephens, Juilin Li, Martin Wild et al.

Nature Geoscience 10.1038/ngeo1580

[2]

10.1175/jcli-d-18-0753.1

[3]

O. Boucher et al . Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change T. F. Stocker et al. Eds. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2013).

[4]

Bounding Global Aerosol Radiative Forcing of Climate Change

N. Bellouin, J. Quaas, E. Gryspeerdt et al.

Reviews of Geophysics 10.1029/2019rg000660

[5]

10.1016/0004-6981(74)90004-3

[6]

Aerosols, Cloud Microphysics, and Fractional Cloudiness

Bruce. A. Albrecht

Science 10.1126/science.245.4923.1227

[7]

10.1175/1520-0469(2003)060<0262:tcalwt>2.0.co;2

[8]

The impact of humidity above stratiform clouds on indirect aerosol climate forcing

Andrew S. Ackerman, Michael P. Kirkpatrick, David E. Stevens et al.

Nature 10.1038/nature03174

[9]

Cloud droplet sedimentation, entrainment efficiency, and subtropical stratocumulus albedo

Christopher S. Bretherton, P. N. Blossey, J. Uchida

Geophysical Research Letters 10.1029/2006gl027648

[10]

10.1029/2009gl038888

[11]

10.1175/jas-d-18-0318.1

[12]

Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system

Bjorn Stevens, Graham Feingold

Nature 10.1038/nature08281

[13]

10.1007/s40641-018-0089-y

[14]

10.1029/2010jd014638

[15]

Constraining the aerosol influence on cloud liquid water path

Edward Gryspeerdt, Tom Goren, Odran Sourdeval et al.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 10.5194/acp-19-5331-2019

[16]

10.1038/s41586-019-1423-9

[17]

10.1029/2019av000111

[18]

10.1175/1520-0450(1994)033<0334:dtsoca>2.0.co;2

[19]

10.3402/tellusa.v46i3.15476

[20]

10.1175/1520-0469(2002)059<0668:lttair>2.0.co;2

[21]

10.1175/2008jas2909.1

[22]

10.1029/2008jd010513

[23]

10.5194/acp-11-4237-2011

[24]

10.1126/science.aav0566

[25]

10.5194/acp-20-3609-2020

[26]

10.1073/pnas.1706495114

[27]

10.1029/2008jd009835

[28]

10.1175/2007jas2428.1

[29]

10.1038/ngeo2214

[30]

10.1007/s00382-018-4384-z

[31]

10.1175/jas-d-19-0241.1

[32]

10.1175/1520-0469(1979)036<1308:mscpih>2.0.co;2

[33]

10.1175/2011jas3614.1

[34]

10.3894/james.2010.2.14

[35]

Stratocumulus Clouds

Robert Wood

Monthly Weather Review 10.1175/mwr-d-11-00121.1

[36]

10.1002/2014gl061320

[37]

10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<2542:cstc>2.0.co;2

[38]

10.1175/2009jas3120.1

[39]

10.1002/2014jd022736

[40]

10.1002/2017ef000601

[41]

10.5194/acp-19-10191-2019

[42]

10.1073/pnas.1514035112

[43]

10.1016/0169-8095(94)90096-5

[44]

10.5194/acp-16-15413-2016

[45]

10.1175/jas-d-16-0050.1

Cited By

129

Opinion: Inferring process from snapshots of cloud systems

Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier · 2025

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Constraining aerosol–cloud adjustments by uniting surface observations with a perturbed parameter ensemble

August Mikkelsen, Daniel T. McCoy · 2025

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Buffering of Aerosol‐Cloud Adjustments by Coupling Between Radiative Susceptibility and Precipitation Efficiency

C. Song, Daniel T. McCoy · 2024

Geophysical Research Letters

TripleConvTransformer: A deep learning vessel trajectory prediction method fusing discretized meteorological data

Peng Huang, Qiong Chen · 2022

Frontiers in Environmental Science

Metrics

129

Citations

45

References

Details

Published: Jan 29, 2021
Vol/Issue: 371(6528)
Pages: 485-489

Authors

F

Franziska Glassmeier

Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, Netherlands.; Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands.; Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

F

Fabian Hoffmann

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.; NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.; Institut für Meteorologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Theresienstrasse 37, 80333 München, Germany.

J

Jill S. Johnson

School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.

T

Takanobu Yamaguchi

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.; NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.

K

Ken S. Carslaw

School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.

G

Graham Feingold

NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Award: HO 6588/1-1

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Royal Society Award: Wolfson Research Merit Award

Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/I020059/1

U.S. Department of Energy Award: DE-SC0016275

Newton Fund Award: CSSP

NOAA Research Award: CI #03-01-07-001

The Branco Weiss Fellowship

CIRES, University of Colorado

Cite This Article

Franziska Glassmeier, Fabian Hoffmann, Jill S. Johnson, et al. (2021). Aerosol-cloud-climate cooling overestimated by ship-track data. Science, 371(6528), 485-489. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd3980

Aerosol-cloud-climate cooling overestimated by ship-track data

You May Also Like