Effect of Ship-Stack Effluents on Cloud Reflectivity
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Authors
Coakley, James A.
Bernstein, Robert L.
Durkee, Philip A.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1987-08
Date
Publisher
JSTOR
Language
Abstract
Under stable meteorological conditions the effect of ship-stack exhaust on overlying clouds was detected in daytime satellite images as an enhancement in cloud reflectivity at 3.7 micrometers. The exhaust is a source of cloud-condensation nuclei that increases the number of cloud droplets while reducing droplet size. This reduction in droplet size causes the reflectivity at 3.7 micrometers to be greater than the levels for nearby noncontaminated clouds of similar physical characteristics. The increase in droplet number causes the reflectivity at 0.63 micrometer to be significantly higher for the contaminated clouds despite the likelihood that the exhaust is a source of particles that absorb at visible wavelengths. The effect of aerosols on cloud reflectivity is expected to have a larger influence on the earth's albedo than that due to the direct scattering and absorption of sunlight by the aerosols alone.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at https://www.jstor.org/stable/169974
Series/Report No
Department
Meteorology
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
3 p.
Citation
Coakley, James A., Robert L. Bernstein, and Philip A. Durkee. "Effect of ship-stack effluents on cloud reflectivity." Science237.4818 (1987): 1020-1022.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.