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Observations refute the idea that warming strongly reduces cloudiness

The response of cumulus clouds in trade-wind regions to warming is a large uncertainty in climate projections. Observations now indicate that the mechanism leading to the strongest cloud reductions in models does not occur in nature, suggesting that extreme sensitivity of Earth’s temperatures to climate change is less likely than previously thought.

This is a summary of: Vogel, R. et al. Strong cloud–circulation coupling explains weak trade cumulus feedback. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05364-y (2022).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03640-5

‘Expert opinion’ and the figure are published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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