Aerosol-Cloud-Climate interactions
We discovered anthropogenic glaciation of supercooled liquid-water clouds and anthropogenic snowfall events downwind industrial aerosol hot spots (Toll et al., 2024 Science).
In the image on the left, the plume of snow is seen downwind of the cement factory when glaciated clouds have cleared away.
We discovered plume-shaped industrial aerosol perturbations on liquid-water clouds that we use as opportunistic experiments to better constrain anthropogenic climate forcing (Toll et al., 2019 Nature).
In the image on the right, bright greyish aerosol-polluted cloud lines are visible in the near-infrared composite satellite image. Polluted cloud tracks originate from the industrial and urban aerosol sources marked with bright white.
We discovered large-scale anthropogenic aerosol perturbations on liquid-water clouds (Trofimov et al., 2020 JGR Atmospheres).
In the image on the left, bright greyish large-scale aerosol-polluted cloud area is visible in the western part of the near-infrared composite satellite image.
Annual research award of UoT 2024 presented to Clouds & Climate Lab
Associate Professor in Climate Physics Velle Toll revealed that in industrial hot spots, anthropogenic air pollution causes snowfall and reduces cloud cover. https://ut.ee/en/news/university-tartu-research-award-went-centre-climate-research-discovery-about-anthropogenic-air
Velle’s presentation on climate change in the Parliament of Estonia
Velle presented the contemporary scientific understanding of anthropogenic climate change in the Parliament of Estonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHUI7APtqM
ERAD 2024 best oral presentation award presented to Jorma
Best Oral Presentation Award to Jorma Rahu for the presentation “Ground-based Precipitation Radar Signatures of Anthropogenic Snowfall Events Downwind of Industrial Air Pollution Hot Spots” 12th European Conference on RADar in Meteorology and Hydrology (ERAD 2024), September 9-13 https://www.erad2024.it/ https://poster.easyabstract.it/ERAD2024/abstract/15091/161/882 …
Industrial snow: Factories trigger local snowfall by freezing clouds
Our research was covered by phys.org https://phys.org/news/2024-11-industrial-factories-trigger-local-snowfall.html
Industrial plumes seed snow
Our research was covered by the Chemical and Engineering News https://cen.acs.org/environment/atmospheric-chemistry/Industrial-plumes-seed-snow/102/i36?sc=230901_cenrssfeed_eng_latestnewsrss_cen
When Pollution Brings Snow
Our research was covered by NAUTILUS https://nautil.us/when-pollution-brings-snow-1131658/?utm_source=tw-naut&utm_medium=organic-social
Plumes of pollution from big factories can make it snow
Our research was covered by the NewScientist https://www.newscientist.com/article/2456202-plumes-of-pollution-from-big-factories-can-make-it-snow
How industrial pollution is altering clouds and making it snow
Our research was covered by The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/14/industrial-pollution-ice-altering-clouds-snow
Link to freely access Science paper on the anthropogenic glaciation of clouds
https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-2255/full
Velle’s News & Views feature in Nature Geoscience “Polluted skies are cloudier”
Analyses of the 2014 Iceland–Holuhraun volcanic eruption revealed the emitted aerosols induced a 10% increase in cloud coverage above the region, suggesting anthropogenic aerosols might strongly cool the Earth’s climate by increasing the cloud coverage. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00997-0
