Climate change will make clouds disappear forever

According to Nature GeoScience, clouds have long been one of the great uncertainties of the climate. Clouds are complex, small, and change rapidly. Current disaster prediction tools easily capture the complexity and detail of most climate systems, but are not advanced enough to predict changes in clouds.

In meteorology, clouds are divided into several types based on their shape and altitude. Stratocumulus clouds are large layers or rolls of cloud that are usually found below 2,000 meters. They are the “white blankets” you can see out of an airplane window.

Clouds cool by shading much of the Earth's surface from sunlight.

These clouds cover 20% of low-latitude oceans and are especially common in subtropical regions. They cool the Earth by shielding much of its surface from sunlight.

Scientists have long suspected that some of the sudden temperature changes in the past may have been caused by changes in cloud formation.

To answer that question, meteorologists at the California Institute of Technology (USA) recently modeled a small patch of sky using a supercomputer. They found that if the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached about 1,200 parts per million (ppm), stratocumulus clouds would disappear. At present, the amount of CO2 has exceeded 410 ppm.

As industry grows, humans are adding more and more CO2 to the atmosphere. If this trend continues, the Earth could reach 1,200 ppm in 100 to 150 years. When the cloud layer disappears, the Earth’s average temperature will rise by at least another 8 degrees.

It's a worrying change and it won't just be melting ice or rising sea levels that cause disaster around the world.