According to experts, the disappearance of stratocumulus clouds, which may occur due to the large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, will provoke an even greater increase in global temperature.
Stratocumulus clouds do not grab our attention at first: they are not as elegant as cirrus and not as majestic as cumulonimbus clouds. However, they are of great importance in a world increasingly threatened by global warming: their white tops reflect solar radiation back into space, preventing the rays from reaching Earth. However, this natural defenses have also been threatened by extreme climate change.
Scientists warn that stratocumulus clouds may disappear altogether in the near future, further exacerbating global warming. They came to this conclusion in a new study, the results of which are published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Experts used a computer model, which showed another negative side of global climate change.
Research team leader and climate scientist at the California Institute of Technology Tapio Schneider hypothesized that very high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could suppress stratocumulus clouds. He and his colleagues modeled the formation of such clouds and, after two years of computer calculations, concluded that a sustained rise in atmospheric CO2 could cause a sudden rise in temperature associated with the disappearance of stratocumulus clouds.
CO2 concentrations in excess of 1200 ppm can disrupt stratocumulus cloud formation, thereby increasing global warming / Caltech.
The effect took on serious proportions when CO2 reached 1200 parts per million (ppm) - three times the current level, which is already much higher than pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide. According to a new report, if CO2 reaches 1,300 ppm, the global atmospheric temperature will rise by eight degrees Celsius - higher than the level of warming already caused by greenhouse gases.
Stratocumulus clouds and varying concentration of CO2 / Nature Geoscience.
“Stratocumulus clouds can simply cease to exist. They will then be able to form only after CO2 concentrations fall well below the level at which instability first occurred,”the researchers say.
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There is no easy way to test if clouds will behave as predicted in a world with such frighteningly high carbon dioxide concentrations. There is no doubt that a spike of eight degrees Celsius, in addition to warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, is expected to be catastrophic not only for human civilization, but also for animals and entire ecosystems.
Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began burning fossil fuels on a massive scale, global temperatures have risen by about one degree Celsius. The warming was triggered by an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from about 280 to over 400 ppm, the first time in history in 2013. It's hard to imagine a world with 1300 ppm CO2, but scientists hope that humanity will soon find a solution to this critical problem.
Dmitry Mazalev