Kind: captions
Language: en
at any given time clouds cover about 70%
of our planet as you might expect this
has a huge influence on all kinds of
things from the global weather patterns
you see here to earth's climate
including our planet's overall
temperature energy in the form of solar
radiation from the Sun is constantly
beating down on Earth this energy is
either reflected away or taken in and
then radiated back into space as heat if
the Earth is to remain at the same
temperature the planet has to return to
space as much energy as it receives from
the
Sun clouds influence this energy
Exchange in both directions by
reflecting away some incoming solar
radiation and insulating the Planet by
absorbing some of the outgoing heat all
of Earth's clouds combined reflect more
energy than they absorb and have an
overall cooling effect that means if our
planet were completely cloudless it
would be about 22° F warmer than it is
now but not all clouds are equal some
types are better reflectors While others
are better
absorbers for example low dense layers
like these stratus clouds reflect more
energy than they absorb and tend to have
an overall cooling effect high wispy
formations like these cirrus clouds
absorb more energy than they reflect and
have an overall warming
effect but clouds not only affect
temperature they're also affected by
temperature with the level of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere expected to
continue to Skyrocket Earth's
temperature is predicted to rise as well
this is sure to influence the types
numbers and locations of clouds that
form now the burning question for
climate scientists is how will clouds
respond as the planet warms could we see
an increase in reflecting clouds which
would help slow the global warming Trend
or will there be an increase in
absorbing clouds which could
dramatically speed up the warming in
fact if Sirrus clouds increased
significantly it's potentially far worse
than previous predictions with some
estimates suggesting that in the next
few centuries polar regions could heat
up by as much as
25° melting ice sheets and raising ocean
Levels by as much as 6 ft so the role
clouds might play in climate change is
not just an interesting scientific
question it's one that's critical to our
planet's future and it's one that
scientists want to answer as soon as
possible