Re:Climate change and the 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals
by Retric on Monday April 26, 2021 @06:44PM
(#26949257)
Conversely, further increased evaporation > even more water vapor > increased precipitation > fewer clouds.
Also, clouds reflect sunlight > less warming, but clouds reflect IR > less cooling.
It’s a really complex interaction that doesn’t have a clear global maximum as each region has a slightly different impact and they all interact. Atmosphere dust is one of the biggest drivers here and dust alone involves a lot of non linear feedback loops.
Re:Climate change and the 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals
by mcswell on Monday April 26, 2021 @08:20PM
(#26950071)
"further increased evaporation > even more water vapor > increased precipitation > fewer clouds." No. You can't get fewer clouds from more water vapor, that's not how equilibria work.
1) The most potent greenhouse gas is water vapor (not CO2) 2) Increased temperatures result in more water vapor (simple evaporation) 3) Water vapor forms clouds 4) Clouds are white and reflect incoming solar radiation
A lot of models have to make big assumptions about the strength of this negative feedback loop, and the assumptions have a big impact on the output of the models.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_feedback