Posted on 07/10/2009 12:48:12 PM PDT by Bulwinkle
Clouds absorb heat and in the process dissipate moisture and clouds.
I spent some time lying on my back watching the clouds sail over the Cimmaron Range onto the New Mexico plains. You could literally watch them disappear as they encountered the warm air.
The west to east flow carries massive amounts of clouds and moisture but the rising heat of the plains makes it disappear.
Weather is caused by uneven heating...but not by clouds...but uneven heating b/w the poles and the equator.
True clouds act as an isolator at night and a shield at day...but my point was they are not the primary driver of temps.
Sorry to be picky...been a meteorologist for 22 years.
Ok, you far outclass me. I’ve read there are far fewer clouds offshore because there are fewer nucleotides such as from saltwater spray. If we used wave action to spray saltwater a few feet in the air couldn’t we leverage mother nature to cool the oceans from more clouds? I think influencing cloud formation is key to active climate management and far more effective than CO2 management. With clouds we could prevent the next ice age or cool the climate if needed. I’m amazed how climate scientists say we know very little about clouds. AWGers seem to avoid the subject because they fear clouds are a more controllable factor than CO2.
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