Even shallow clouds affect the climate

What do sugar, gravel, flowers and fish have in common? They are all poetic names for different types of shallow clouds. According to climate researcher Pouriya Alinaghi, these cloud patterns are not only beautiful but also influence the climate and should therefore be included in climate models.

Climate researcher Pouriya Alinaghi (CiTG) is fascinated by clouds. “Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they also have a significant impact on the climate.” For his PhD, Alinaghi studied how cloud patterns form and whether such patterns – even with the same overall cloud cover – regulate the Earth’s energy balance. “These types of cloud patterns are relatively too small to be represented in typical climate models which have coarse resolutions of about 100 km. This is one of the reasons why climate models show an uncertainty of 2 to 5 degrees Celsius when CO₂ doubles. In our latest article in PNAS, we created high-resolution (100-meter) atmospheric simulations. These show that including patterns on the mesoscale – from tens to a few hundred kilometers – is important for determining how cool our current climate is.”