NASA, FAMA CLAMOSA
Scientists have identified a natural laboratory in which they can study the relationship between atmospheric aerosols and cloud cover. In the Southern Ocean, far from man-made particulates and aerosols, researchers have been able to appreciate the effects of ocean microbes on the region’s notoriously cloudy skies. In a study published in Science Advances last week (July 17), researchers reported evidence to suggest that particles produced by bacteria and plankton near the surface of the Southern Ocean can seed cloud droplets in the atmosphere.
“Life in the ocean directly influences the brightness of clouds,” study coauthor Dennis Hartmann, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, told Scientific American.
Hartmann and his colleagues used satellite imaging and spectroscopy data to estimate the density of droplets within ...
