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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Wispy clouds are born of dust in the wind

Dust from deserts and plains drives the formation of cirrus clouds, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere.
Cirrus cloud formations above a green landscape on 27th September 2020 near Wyre Forest in Callow Hill, United Kingdom.

Many of the high-altitude clouds called cirrus clouds are spawned by dust from Earth’s surface. Credit: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty

Dust from windswept deserts and plains plays an outsized part in the formation of thin, wispy clouds around the globe1.

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Nature 603, 204 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00587-5

References

  1. Froyd, K. D. et al. Nature Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00901-w (2022).

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