Free Essay About How Do Clouds Ultimately Impact Climate?
Type of paper: Essay
Topic: Water, Atmosphere, Environment, Environmental Issues, Climate, Temperature, Affect, World
Pages: 2
Words: 550
Published: 2020/11/21
Various factors affect climate in the region. In Chapter 5 of the text, we studied properties of water within the context of the earth’s climate system, as well as relevant topics such as humidity, saturation, and atmospheric stability. Based on the reading, one of the factors that impact climate include clouds. Essentially, clouds impact climate because they affect and regulate humidity and saturation, and most importantly, the stability of the atmosphere. Hence, since clouds affect these conditions, they may also affect prevailing weather conditions in a region or territory over a long period.
Clouds impact climate due to various reasons. One reason is that clouds play an important role in precipitation. In the water cycle, clouds are involved in the process of evaporation and precipitation. During evaporation, water from the earth’s surface evaporate into the air, thus, forming water vapor. Evaporation leads to a cool temperature. From the water vapor, clouds generate and produce precipitation. During precipitation, heat is also released into the atmosphere. Hence, in the water cycle, clouds play a role in the regulation of temperature – absorption of water vapor from evaporation that cools the earth’s surface, and release of heat into the atmosphere during precipitation.
Another reason is that the location of clouds will either help cool or warm the earth’s surface. Clouds located at the lower part of the atmosphere keep the earth’s surface cool because they reflect solar radiation from the sun back into the atmosphere. On the other hand, clouds that are located at higher levels in the atmosphere allow solar radiation to pass through. Hence, if we observe cloud patterns and temperature, we would feel that when clouds are low and dense, the temperature is cool. When the clouds are sparse and high up in the atmosphere, the temperature is warmer. Therefore, determining the impact of clouds on climate, particularly on temperature, will depend on the monitoring of cloud patterns and movement.
Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere affect cloud formation and patterns. Consequently, when toxic chemicals and other substances in the atmosphere alter cloud patterns, they also affect atmospheric stability and lead to an imbalance in the way that heat is released or absorbed.
Works Cited
Kauffman, Chad M. Climate Studies: Introduction to Climate Science. AMS Bookstore, 2014.
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