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Climate science

Clouds of uncertainty

Nature volume 505, pages 34–35 (2014)Cite this article

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An evaluation of atmospheric convective mixing and low-level clouds in climate models suggests that Earth's climate will warm more than was thought in response to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. See Article p.37

Low-level clouds reflect incoming sunlight from space, and so cool the climate. If the amount of this cloud declines steeply as the climate warms, then more sunlight will reach the surface, an effect that contributes to higher climate sensitivity. By contrast, increases in low-level cloud result in lower climate sensitivity.

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Figure 1: More or less cloudy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hideo Shiogama and Tomoo Ogura are at the Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan.,

    Hideo Shiogama & Tomoo Ogura

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  1. Hideo Shiogama
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  2. Tomoo Ogura
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Correspondence to Hideo Shiogama or Tomoo Ogura.

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Shiogama, H., Ogura, T. Clouds of uncertainty. Nature 505, 34–35 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/505034a

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