Category Archives: Aerosols

Tiny Particles, Big Impact?

By Laura Wilcox Aerosols are tiny particles or liquid droplets suspended in the atmosphere. They can be created by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels or clearing land, or have natural sources, such as volcanoes. Depending on their composition, … Continue reading

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Uncrewed Aircraft for Cloud and Atmospheric Electricity Research

By: Keri Nicoll The popularity and availability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), has led to a surge in their use in many areas, including aerial photography, surveying, search and rescue, and traffic monitoring.  This is also the case for atmospheric … Continue reading

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Modelling Dust Extremes Over East Asia

 By: Dhirendra Kumar Mineral dust plays an important role in the earth system due to its interaction with climate, ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, and human society in direct and indirect ways [1,2,3]. Their interactions with the weather and climate occur at … Continue reading

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Do cuts in particle pollution accelerate climate change?

By: Richard Allan  Glorious weather over much of the UK in April 2020 replaced the seemingly relentless winter rain, sodden ground and flooding, making the lockdown bearable for those lucky enough to be able to enjoy time outside. I was … Continue reading

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Desert Dust in the Atmosphere: Giant Particles, Giant Consequences?

By: Claire Ryder As I write, storm Gloria decays over the Mediterranean Sea, while large amounts of desert dust whipped up by strong winds over the Sahara desert have been whirled in to action by Gloria and remain in the … Continue reading

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The latest on aerosol radiative forcing

By: Nicolas Bellouin Aerosols are tiny liquid or solid particles suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere. Some aerosols form naturally, like the sea spray emitted by breaking waves, the mineral dust that form sandstorms, or smoke from wildfires. But human activities, … Continue reading

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Why was there decadal increase in summer heat waves over China across the mid-1990s?

By: Buwen Dong Heat waves (HWs), commonly defined as prolonged periods of excessive hot weather, are a distinctive type of high-temperature extreme (Perkins 2015). These high-temperature extremes can lead to severe damage to human society and ecosystems. In our studies, … Continue reading

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How climate modelling can help us better understand the historical temperature evolution

By: Andrea Dittus Figure 1: Annual global mean surface temperatures from NASA GISTemp, NOAA GlobalTemp, Hadley/UEA HadCRUT4, Berkeley Earth, Cowtan and Way, Copernicus/ECMWF and Carbon Brief’s raw temperature record. Anomalies plotted with respect to a 1981-2010 baseline. Figure and caption from Carbon Brief (https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-how-world-warmed-2018). Earth’s climate has warmed … Continue reading

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Why was the sky Orange?

By William Davies I was sitting in my house one morning in October 2017, engrossed in what I was doing. Gradually I noticed that an eerie darkness was smothering the natural light in the room. I stopped and looked outside. … Continue reading

Posted in Aerosols, Atmospheric chemistry, Atmospheric optics, Climate, Climate modelling, earth observation, Environmental hazards, Numerical modelling, Remote sensing, University of Reading | Leave a comment

Characteristics of cumulus population and microphysical properties observed over Southeast Atlantic

By Yann Blanchard Figure 1. Cumulus in the vicinity of Ascension Island, in a 100 x 100km image (which is close to global climate model spatial resolution) from MODIS onboard AQUA (22 July 2016) Shallow cumulus cover large areas in … Continue reading

Posted in Aerosols, Atlantic, Atmospheric chemistry, Climate modelling, earth observation, Numerical modelling, Oceans, Remote sensing, Solar radiation, University of Reading | Leave a comment