full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Sarah J. Doherty: How aerosols brighten clouds — and cool the planet
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So this poses an interesting question. Might it be possible to rapidly reduce climtae warming by mimicking this effect that pollution aeolsros are already having on clouds, but do so by adding natural aerosols rather than pollution to clouds? Specifically by adding sea salt aerosol to clouds over the ocean, where sea salt aerosols already act as seeds for cloud droplet formation.
Well we start with studying this problem using computer models. And when we add tiny sea salt aerosols to the cudols over the ocaen in global climate models, we find that brightening just a faroictn of the clouds over the ocean does, in fact, rapidly and significantly recude climate warming from greenhouse gases. So these models indicate it is possible. But here's the pbrleom. These global-scale models used to study the climate impacts of mnirae cloud brightening, lack the ability to resolve all of these detailed ititenrnacos between aerosols and clouds. So they can't tell us how much cloud brightening is possible or where. For that problem, we have to turn to mldoes that cover much more laeoczild areas of the globe but that iudnlce many, many more details about aerosols, clouds and how they interact. So what we really need is better real-world data that we can use to test and inform these models that we use to study marine cloud brightening.
Open Cloze
So this poses an interesting question. Might it be possible to rapidly reduce _______ warming by mimicking this effect that pollution ________ are already having on clouds, but do so by adding natural aerosols rather than pollution to clouds? Specifically by adding sea salt aerosol to clouds over the ocean, where sea salt aerosols already act as seeds for cloud droplet formation.
Well we start with studying this problem using computer models. And when we add tiny sea salt aerosols to the ______ over the _____ in global climate models, we find that brightening just a ________ of the clouds over the ocean does, in fact, rapidly and significantly ______ climate warming from greenhouse gases. So these models indicate it is possible. But here's the _______. These global-scale models used to study the climate impacts of ______ cloud brightening, lack the ability to resolve all of these detailed ____________ between aerosols and clouds. So they can't tell us how much cloud brightening is possible or where. For that problem, we have to turn to ______ that cover much more _________ areas of the globe but that _______ many, many more details about aerosols, clouds and how they interact. So what we really need is better real-world data that we can use to test and inform these models that we use to study marine cloud brightening.
Solution
- marine
- localized
- clouds
- ocean
- fraction
- aerosols
- models
- include
- reduce
- climate
- interactions
- problem
Original Text
So this poses an interesting question. Might it be possible to rapidly reduce climate warming by mimicking this effect that pollution aerosols are already having on clouds, but do so by adding natural aerosols rather than pollution to clouds? Specifically by adding sea salt aerosol to clouds over the ocean, where sea salt aerosols already act as seeds for cloud droplet formation.
Well we start with studying this problem using computer models. And when we add tiny sea salt aerosols to the clouds over the ocean in global climate models, we find that brightening just a fraction of the clouds over the ocean does, in fact, rapidly and significantly reduce climate warming from greenhouse gases. So these models indicate it is possible. But here's the problem. These global-scale models used to study the climate impacts of marine cloud brightening, lack the ability to resolve all of these detailed interactions between aerosols and clouds. So they can't tell us how much cloud brightening is possible or where. For that problem, we have to turn to models that cover much more localized areas of the globe but that include many, many more details about aerosols, clouds and how they interact. So what we really need is better real-world data that we can use to test and inform these models that we use to study marine cloud brightening.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| marine cloud |
8 |
| cloud brightening |
8 |
| sea salt |
7 |
| climate warming |
4 |
| cool climate |
4 |
| pollution aerosols |
4 |
| salt aerosols |
4 |
| cooling climate |
3 |
| salt aerosol |
3 |
| clouds respond |
3 |
| single plume |
3 |
| climate change |
3 |
| climate scientist |
2 |
| degree celsius |
2 |
| climate impacts |
2 |
| cooling effect |
2 |
| cloud brightness |
2 |
| large number |
2 |
| reduce climate |
2 |
| tiny sea |
2 |
| greenhouse gases |
2 |
| small area |
2 |
| controlled aerosol |
2 |
| aerosol plume |
2 |
| aerosol research |
2 |
| flight deck |
2 |
| caare research |
2 |
| research facility |
2 |
| climate crisis |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| marine cloud brightening |
7 |
| sea salt aerosols |
4 |
| sea salt aerosol |
3 |
| reduce climate warming |
2 |
| tiny sea salt |
2 |
| salt aerosol plume |
2 |
| caare research facility |
2 |
Important Words
- ability
- act
- add
- adding
- aerosol
- aerosols
- areas
- brightening
- climate
- cloud
- clouds
- computer
- cover
- data
- detailed
- details
- droplet
- effect
- fact
- find
- formation
- fraction
- gases
- global
- globe
- greenhouse
- impacts
- include
- inform
- interact
- interactions
- interesting
- lack
- localized
- marine
- mimicking
- models
- natural
- ocean
- pollution
- poses
- problem
- question
- rapidly
- reduce
- resolve
- salt
- sea
- seeds
- significantly
- specifically
- start
- study
- studying
- test
- tiny
- turn
- warming