Aerosols may affect climate more than previously thought

A key to improving climate prediction is to improve understanding of the impact of aerosol on clouds, commonly known as the aerosol-cloud-interaction, according to a new study led by Earth System Science Interdisciplinary ...

Video: Unraveling the mysteries of clouds

Clouds are one of the biggest mysteries in the climate system. They play a key role in regulating the temperature of our atmosphere. But we don't know how their behavior will change over time as Earth's atmosphere gets warmer. ...

page 1 from 40

Aerosol

Technically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are clouds, and air pollution such as smog and smoke. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can. The word aerosol derives from the fact that matter "floating" in air is a suspension (a mixture in which solid or liquid or combined solid–liquid particles are suspended in a fluid). To differentiate suspensions from true solutions, the term sol evolved—originally meant to cover dispersions of tiny (sub-microscopic) particles in a liquid. With studies of dispersions in air, the term aerosol evolved and now embraces both liquid droplets, solid particles, and combinations of these. The Earth atmosphere contains aerosols of various types and concentrations, including quantities of:

By far the most common aerosols in the atmosphere are clouds, which normally consist of suspensions of water droplets or ice particles of greater or lesser density.

Aerosols can be found in urban Ecosystems in various forms, for example:

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA