A Seldom Used Method to Study Cloud Formation is Solar Eclipses,
The North American solar eclipse on April 8 is quickly approaching, and weather enthusiasts and astronomy enthusiasts are gearing up for an amazing spectacle. It's not all fun and games, though. Scientists have a unique opportunity to examine events that occur only occasionally—eclipses.
A group of Dutch meteorologists published a report last week outlining how eclipses can interfere with the development of specific kinds of clouds. Their conclusions have ramifications for potential geoengineering plans that suggest creating artificial solar shading to slow down global warming.
The study, which looks at satellite images of cloud cover during three solar eclipses between 2005 and 2016, was published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment. They discovered that shallow cumulus clouds often vanish after an eclipse. This phenomenon can happen even in the absence of a total eclipse; it can happen when only 15% of the Sun is covered.
There is a delay in the effect. There's a twenty-minute wait. This is so because the clouds aren't being directly destroyed by the eclipse. Rather, it's chilling the ground below by squelching warm air packets that are rushing skyward in updrafts to form clouds. An eclipse halts the development of cumulus clouds by stifling updrafts.
The idea behind plans to slow down climate change by purposefully obstructing the Sun is comparable to that of an eclipse. The quantity of solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface may be decreased by a swarm of sun-shading spacecraft or by injecting light-absorbing particles into the atmosphere, bringing the planet's temperature back to pre-industrial levels. This kind of undertaking would need blocking off 3.5% to 5% of the sun's light.
On the other hand, the cloud modeling data presented in this research suggests cause for caution. First and foremost, it implies that obstructing sunlight isn't as beneficial as you might imagine because, although it initially cools the earth, it also lessens cloud cover, which raises the quantity of solar radiation that reaches Earth.
Since genuine solar eclipses only last a few minutes locally, it's uncertain if the decrease in cumulus clouds would remain with a more prolonged, man-made eclipse. However, the results should impact the future design of any significant geoengineering initiatives, according to the scientists. For example, a solar shade placed at Lagrange point 1, between the Sun and Earth, might not completely obscure the Sun. These cloud-destroying effects would be more likely to occur if it created intermittent or partial local eclipses.
While injecting aerosols into the atmosphere may appear to be a more consistent way to block sunlight, large-scale weather patterns actually make these techniques potentially even more variable, sometimes preventing up to 45% of sunlight locally (far more than the 15% required to see a reduction in cloud formation).
To put it another way, these geoengineering initiatives may alleviate climate change but also bring up additional, unanticipated difficulties, and the associated expenses may not be distributed fairly worldwide.
What then is the lesson? You're not dreaming if you feel a slight cold in the air on April 8 when you go outside to witness the eclipse. The Earth is cooling around you, and when it passes, it may get a little bit sunnier because the development of cumulus clouds is disrupted. These effects serve as concrete warnings that there is a high likelihood of unforeseen consequences when messing with the complicated interaction between Earth's climate and the Sun.
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