The research, titled ‘Clouds dissipate quickly during solar eclipses as the land surface cools’, suggests interfering with solar radiation to try and weaken natural warming would be even riskier than previously thought.
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Cumulus clouds over land start to disappear almost instantly during a partial solar eclipse, says Phys.org.
Until recently, satellite measurements during the eclipse resulted in dark spots in the cloud map, but researchers from TU Delft and KNMI were able to recover the satellite measurements by using a new method.
The results may have implications for proposed climate engineering ideas because disappearing clouds can partly oppose the cooling effect of artificial solar eclipses.
The results were published today (Feb. 12) in Communications Earth and Environment.
Although the effects of solar eclipses have been studied for centuries, it was unknown how strong clouds precisely react. “From Earth, you can count the clouds and watch them disappear, but that only provides anecdotal evidence,” explains Ph.D. candidate Victor Trees. “Even without a solar eclipse, clouds are constantly changing.”
Measuring solar eclipses from space
Satellites in geostationary orbit can continuously measure many clouds simultaneously, in large areas including impassable terrain. During a solar eclipse, measurements were not reliable, because the satellite algorithms did not take into account the decrease in sunlight during solar eclipses. This resulted in large dark patches in the cloud maps.
Researchers have now succeeded in restoring satellite measurements during solar eclipses by accurately calculating the percentage of the sun that is obscured, for each location and time on Earth.
“By far most of the solar eclipse consists of a partial eclipse, where there is still plenty of light outside. In this partial eclipse, satellites receive enough reflected sunlight, after correcting for the obscuration, to reliably measure clouds.”
Cumulus clouds over land are very sensitive to solar eclipses
In the recovered cloud maps from three solar eclipses over Africa, the researchers saw that cumulus clouds started to disappear on a large scale starting from just 15% solar obscuration.
Once the solar eclipse is over, the cumulus clouds return. On days when there is no solar eclipse, this cloud behavior does not occur.
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Possible implications for climate engineering
Currently, strategies to artificially cool the Earth are being proposed. For example, placing reflective solar sails into space or aerosols into the stratosphere. These concepts create a subtle and possibly varying solar eclipse. But, according to Trees’ research, clouds begin to disappear on a large scale with only a partial eclipse.
“This could be a warning for climate engineering. If we eclipse the sun in the future with technological solutions, it may affect the clouds. Fewer clouds could partly oppose the intended effect of climate engineering, because clouds reflect sunlight and thus actually help to cool down the Earth.”
In addition, clouds determine local precipitation patterns. The high sensitivity of clouds to solar eclipses calls for more research on the possible effects of artificial shadows.
Full article here.
Image: Cumuliform cloudscape over Swifts Creek, Australia [credit: Wikipedia]
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Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Oh, for Flips sake, just going thru another “trigger ” moment on other topics at work ,… How many time have we wanted to watch an event and the Clouds CAME or APPEARED or DRIFTED over the Sun. All a matter of perspective, surely. …. Hit the red button Dog,
Um, Genius! It happens every evening, quite sudden in the tropics where the serious cumulus is. Not exactly hard to follow. Any fisherman can probably tell you that. WHich highlights a bigger point.
THe bloat of pointless academe, bloated by inadequates avoiding useful work at public expense. If there’s a any old daft idea that can be made to sound like research to a stupid bureaucarat, recommended by a crony supervisor in the food chain, some useless parasite in a University of modelling/ ‘ology, who never did anything that added value to society for their whole life at taxpayers expense, and can never prove what they do is real because it can’t be proven, and then gets a pension FFS, will make a grant application for our money to sustain their useless parasitic lives making up such obvious s*** …….. and getting their consensual science mates to review it and publish.
And some cynical University bureaucrat will approve it to take their admin cut. Most post graduate research and acdemic tenure is so obviously about the money and avoiding real work and risk. All at the expense of the public who take real risk to earn the money that pays the academic parasites by adding real value to output purchased by others, that academics mostly don’t. Don’t even try or care. The need to contribute usefully to a society they despise and seek to control is unclear to them
You really can’t make up the utter self serving corruption of the University system. They know they are entitled to this life, because they are Blair’s new elites, all better than us, and 50% of people are suddenly clever enough to join their pointless ranks, while we, the people who are made to pay by our productive employment for this cancerous growth of pointless academics to make up useless science in models, some to falsely support political agendas as “the science”, AND to pay for the even more parasitic hordes of the various secondary tumours, the human equivalents of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, the neon goby, and the cleaner shrimp bureaucrat failed academics that take care of the money for them. When will this invasive disease, that is so crippling the progress of developed humanity, be ended? There has to be an antidote….. or are we doomed…. regressing to the tribal ignorance and stupidities of our ape ancestors, many of whom already represent us in our government ……. and even some of them understand things change when the Sun stops shining and oceans cease to evaporarte at the same f****** rate. FFS, or is that FRS? Whatever, almost the same thing now. Don’t get me started.
Ah, but that was a fine kick-start!
Now that’s what I call a very good rant! 10/10
How kind. I have the knowledge and the time. Worked in both Worlds. Or rather loafed at taxpayer’s expense in Govrnment science to get qualified, then Imperial in applied control research, before realising how useless my efforts were for those paying for me (I never taught until after I retired, a more worthy pastime most formerly tech lecturers now “University” “professors” would do better to stick to). IMO.
So I did an MBA and got a real job in applied science with consequences for failure if you didn’t do it right. Just reprised the thought as regards publishing the truth for GSL-Position, how to get scientific truths to lay people.
Why I do radio and TV now. Peer reviewed publishing through the Ministry of Truth ain’t it. etc. People in acdeme don’t know they’re f****** born, never live a real life as led by the people outside academe forced to pay their wages, and see themselves as superior, based on NO measurable value added. Probably. Thanks again. B
PS Perhaps we need a cultural revolution? Purge the self appointed elites who serve no one except themselves and add no value to society, put the rest put to manual work in the fields, none allowed to become state bureaucrats, as bin persons perhaps. But who would be in charge, and decide who to label bourgeoisie. “Who would be, the bourgeoisie, now-ow…. ?” etc. “J’accuse!”. But craft Universities stuffed with pseudo acdemics tecaing nursing, environmental studies, hairdressing, meeja, etc. have got to go. We could perhaps, build a Golgafrinchan B Ark to “save ” them?
Having spent my whole carear as a physicist in industry, where as you say, failure carries a heavy price, I have become more and more contemptuous of academia. It is past time for the ivory towers to be raised to the ground. All important developments in science over the past 50 years have been through industry, not academia.
The sun powers most of everything that happens on earth, just like they want our machines and grid to be under powered, they want everything on earth to be under powered. Blocking the sun will under power their windmills, solar panels, powering our grid, growth of crops, ruin trips to the beach on sunny days, afternoon showers powered by morning evaporation, there is no way to calculate all the harm, even after it be done.
Currently, strategies to artificially cool the Earth are being proposed.
‘Controller of Earth cooling’ could be an interesting job. Naughty countries, according to whoever was in post, could be dimmed as a punishment or threatened with such a fate.
Who would be doing the interviewing for that one?
Could a hurricane survive a solar eclipse? They seem to be surviving even overnight ..
This thread is becoming too political TB!
‘Clouds’ absorb radiation from both ‘insolation’ (incoming radiation from the Sun) and ‘outgoing radiation’ from the Earth.
It isn’t a surprise that ‘clouds’ are affected when/where ‘insolation’ becomes obstructed. Have you ever seen ‘cumulus clouds’ generated at night?
‘Clouds’ absorb energy from any ‘energy source’ that’s available. The ‘full spectrum’ is available when the Sun shines, but only the IR from Earth is available when the Sun ‘doesn’t shine’.
Why did you post this thread OB?
Regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
Why did you post this thread?
See the intro.
Well, if anyone wants to do a complementary Sussex and fly to USA: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eclipse-road-trip-hot-springs-arkansas where you’ll be bound to find the answer !
oldbrew says: February 14, 2024 at 10:57 am
“See the intro.”
I did!
Kind regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
The problem here is that we are trying to predict the ‘predictable’ outcomes from a chaotic system.
Best regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
Your response is what?
‘A warning for climate engineering’.