Cloud formation boosts soot albedo
A team in the US has found that soot becomes more compact under the conditions of cloud formation, scattering more light as it does so.
The compaction, which is greater for icy than supercooled cloud droplets, should be taken into account in future climate models, the researchers say.
“A change in the scattering [resulting from compaction] can have quite a large effect on how much soot would warm the atmosphere,” said Claudio Mazzoleni of Michigan Technological University in the US. “Therefore, knowing how soot compaction might affect the scattering is important to better understand future climate.”
Read more at Environmental Research Web, by Jon Cartwright.
Morphology of diesel soot residuals from supercooled water droplets
and ice crystals: implications for optical properties
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/11/114010