Drizzle - Influence of Aerosols

Influence of Aerosols

It has been hypothesized that increasing the amounts of particulates in the atmosphere through human activities may lead to a suppression of drizzle. According to this hypothesis, because drizzle can be an effective means of removing moisture from a cloud, its suppression could help to increase the thickness, coverage, and longevity of marine stratocumulus clouds. This would lead to increased cloud albedo on the regional to global scale, and a cooling of the planet. Estimates using complex global climate models suggest that this effect may be partially masking the effects of greenhouse gas increases on the global surface temperature. However, it is not clear that the representation of the chemical and physical processes needed to accurately simulate the interaction between aerosols, clouds, and drizzle in our current climate models is sufficient to fully understand the global impacts of changes in particulates.