Reshaping the Theory of Cloud Formation

By R. Charlson, John H. Seinfeld, A. Nenes, Markku Kulmala, Ari Laaksonen, M. Facchini. Science, 2001

185 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Man-made aerosols are believed to have a strong influence on cloud optical properties and albedo, with a radiative forcing opposite in sign to that exerted by greenhouse gases. The uncertainties associated with this indirect aerosol forcing are, however, very large. In their Perspective, Charlson et al. discuss recent insights into cloud formation. The results indicate that current estimates of both the magnitude and the uncertainty of indirect aerosol forcing may be too low.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2480bc4542b8590cd1a3902c6a3e2dcab357a4eb

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Citations in the corpus

Continued development of a cloud droplet formation parameterization for global climate models (2005, background): “The influence of surfactants depends on their concentration (e.g., Shulman et al., 1996; Charlson et al., 2001) which varies considerably with CCN dry size (e.g., Charlson et al., 2001; Rissman et al., 2004).”
Parameterization of cloud droplet formation in global climate models (2003, methodology): “To address the deficiencies of purely empirical correlations, first-principle approaches to predicting cloud droplet number have emerged [e.g., Ghan et al., 1997; Lohmann et al., 1999].”
Dynamics and chemistry of marine stratocumulus - DYCOMS II (2003, background): “, Rogers and Yau, 1989) links aerosol and cloud properties, its application is complicated by the difficulty in properly accounting for the complexity of actual aerosol composition or the competing effects of particles in polluted conditions (Bigg, 1986; Russell et al., 1999; Charlson et al., 2001).”
Global observations of aerosol‐cloud‐precipitation‐climate interactions (2014, background): “In polluted conditions, the effect of condensable trace gases will also reduce the critical supersaturation and so enhance the CCN activity of the small aerosols [e.g., Laaksonen et al., 1998; Charlson et al., 2001].”
Calibration and measurement uncertainties of a continuous-flow cloud condensation nuclei counter (DMT-CCNC): CCN activation of ammonium sulfate and sodium chloride aerosol particles in theory and experiment (2007, background): “The activation of CCN, i.e., the formation of cloud droplets by the condensation of water vapor on aerosol particles, is determined by particle size and composition as well as water vapor supersaturation (Charlson et al., 2001; Segal et al., 2004; Andreae et al., 2005, 2007; McFiggans et al., 2006).”