Thunderstorms clumping together: How understanding water vapor helps scientists predict future climate change

Phys.org  October 2, 2023 Convective clouds in the atmosphere can aggregate in a variety of ways, from individual cells to larger systems like tropical cyclones and squall lines. An international team of researchers (USA – University of New Mexico, MIT, Germany, Ethiopia, France) used remote sensing datasets of water vapor isotopic composition along with objective measures of convective aggregation to better understand the impact of convective aggregation on the atmospheric hydrologic cycle in the global tropics for the period 2015–2020. When convection was unaggregated, vertical velocity profiles were top-heavy, mixing ratios increased and water vapor δD decreased as the mean […]

The Tonga Eruption’s 50 Million Tons of Water Vapor May Warm Earth For Months to Come

Scince Alert  September 25, 2022 Recently, researchers calculated that the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apa spewed a staggering 50 million tons of water vapor into the atmosphere, in addition to enormous quantities of ash and volcanic gases. Particles of rock and ash can also temporarily cool the planet by blocking sunlight. Widespread and violent volcanic activity in Earth’s distant past may have contributed to global climate change, triggering mass extinctions millions of years ago. In underwater volcanoes, submarine eruptions can draw large parts of their explosive energy from the interaction of water and hot magma, which propels huge quantities of […]