Clouds and climate change in a polluted Arctic
Aerosol pollution typically makes clouds clouds more reflective, cooling the Earth. Evidence from the Arctic shows this cooling effect gets weaker as the Earth gets warmer, accelerating climate change.
Clouds of the world: Military contrails
By Edward Gryspeerdt -We spend a lot of time at Imperial looking contrails. These are usually from passenger or cargo aircraft, but military aircraft also contrails, making them visible from space even when they are not publicly reporting their position.
Clouds on screen: The Simpsons - Smoke make clouds rain?
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Not only is the world a cloudy place, clouds are really common in TV and film. But do they behave like real clouds? Is the physics correct? Let's start with The Simpsons. Smoke make clouds rain? That's unpossible!
Clouds of the world: The Hunga Tonga eruption
By Edward Gryspeerdt -The Hunga Tonga eruption on the 14th of January 2022 was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the modern satellite era. How tall with the resulting ash cloud, how did it change nearby clouds, and why is it a great reason to get a Nintendo 3DS?
Climate forcing (or how hard are we pushing the climate to change?)
By Edward Gryspeerdt -COP26, the UN climate change conference, is in Glasgow this week. Clouds have a number of important roles to play in climate change. Let's start with number 1 - how does human activity change clouds and the climate?
Clouds of the world: There is less cloud over rivers
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Rivers are made of water, clouds are made of water, a natural match? It turns out there are fewer clouds over rivers because they are too wet!
Contrails, climate and COVID-19
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Clouds created by aircraft (contrails) are responsible for a large amount of the warming from aircraft. How did they change during the COVID-19 shutdown and what does this tell us about the climate effect of aircraft?
How quickly can you change a cloud?
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Imagine you could change the properties the control a cloud, how quickly would the cloud respond?
Sunrise over London
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Why are some clouds brighter than others in this timelapse sunrise over London?
Cloud of the month (April 2021)
By Edward Gryspeerdt -Cloud of the month for April 2021 - Stratocumulus