Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Atmospheric science

Sea-spray particles cause freezing in clouds

Nature volume 525, pages 194–195 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Ice clouds in marine regions at high latitudes might form in warmer and drier air than was previously believed because of freezing induced by airborne particles that contain organic materials from ocean surface waters. See Letter p.234

The oceans cover two-thirds of Earth's surface and are almost entirely, and rather uniformly, composed of water and inorganic salts1. The remaining fraction of a per cent of ocean water contains organic material. This has a variable concentration in space and time2 and is largely uncharacterized, but might be a key component in driving ice formation in the atmosphere. On page 234 of this issue, Wilson et al.3 report that organic material concentrated in the topmost millimetres of the ocean has the essential crystal-forming properties needed to freeze water and form ice clouds in the atmosphere — a process called ice nucleation. The findings might help to refine predictions of future climate.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Ice formation in clouds.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Holland, H. D. The Chemistry of the Atmosphere and Oceans (Wiley, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hansell, D. A., Carlson, C. A., Repeta, D. J. & Schlitzer, R. Oceanography 22(4), 202–211 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Wilson, T. W. et al. Nature 525, 234–238 (2015).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hoose, C. & Möhler, O. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 12, 9817–9854 (2012).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wendisch, M. & Brenguier, J.-L. (eds) Airborne Measurements for Environmental Research: Methods and Instruments (Wiley, 2013).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Burrows, S. M., Hoose, C., Pöschl, U. & Lawrence, M. G. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 13, 245–267 (2013).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Lynn M. Russell is at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0221, USA.

    Lynn M. Russell

Authors
  1. Lynn M. Russell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lynn M. Russell.

Related audio

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Atmospheric science: The seeds of ice in clouds

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Russell, L. Sea-spray particles cause freezing in clouds. Nature 525, 194–195 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525194a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/525194a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing