GOES-17 Releases ‘First Light’ Imagery from Its Advanced Baseline Imager

Re:GOES-17 Releases ‘First Light’ Imagery from Its Advanced ... by kaybe on Saturday June 02, 2018 @09:17AM (#17214453)

Clouds work both ways: They reflect short-wave visible radiation back into space, but they also send long-wave thermal radiation back to the ground and keep it warmer (compare your experience with cloudless nights to ones with clouds).

So far it looks like high clouds have a cooling effect and low clouds have a warming effect. We are not sure yet which clouds will increase more (this may not be up-to-date or might be known soon) but we expect more clouds in general in a warmer climate.

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Re:GOES-17 Releases ‘First Light’ Imagery from Its Advanced ... by __x0x__ on Saturday June 02, 2018 @10:19AM (#17214680)

You have it backwards; the cirriform clouds are mostly transparent to visible but absorb and re-emit IR effectively (cloud greenhouse effect). Low clouds tend to have a very high albedo, hence effectively reflect incoming solar radiation, like ice/snow.

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Re:GOES-17 Releases ‘First Light’ Imagery from Its Advanced ... by kaybe on Saturday June 02, 2018 @03:49PM (#17216069)

Indeed, thanks for the correction!

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