Science & technology | Climate science

Clouds of (slightly less) unknowing

Researchers are beginning to understand aerosols and clouds better. The result is to lower estimates of how much they cool the climate

|STOCKHOLM

CLOUDS and aerosols have long been two of the more mysterious forces in the climate. They sometimes warm and sometimes cool the Earth. The net effect, it was thought, was that they offset part of the overall warming trend, which would have been greater had it not been for their influence. But the details were obscure.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Clouds of (slightly less) unknowing”

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From the October 5th 2013 edition

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