Researchers say phytoplankton live in the ocean’s stormy waters. In a new study, researchers attempted to measure how particles and gases emitted by these creatures manage to enter the atmosphere and turn into the seeds of clouds.
This is the first study that has linked biological activity in the Southern Ocean to cloud formation. It is very important to establish that link to mark the beginning of gaining insight into how clouds and tiny air particles called aerosols could trigger climate change.
The role of clouds in climate change must not be underestimated as low-lying clouds make the planet cool as they bounce back solar radiation back into space. But higher clouds do exactly the opposite by trapping heat and enhancing warming on the planet.
Aerosol concentration is crucial for climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas inputs, says Susannah Burrows, an atmospheric scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and a co-author of the new study. He added, “If you had a higher preindustrial concentration of aerosols, then human perturbations to aerosols would have a smaller impact”.
The Southern Ocean could serve the purpose of a brilliant laboratory for scientists to look at aerosol-cloud interactions not only because of being the cloudiest place on Earth, but for also being the cleanest, relatively untouched region by human activity.
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