Tiny airborne particles affect the Earth's climate, in part by influencing the formation of clouds. But modelling the effects of these aerosols is proving to be one of the thorniest problems in climatology, says Mark Schrope. “If I wake up with a nightmare, it is the indirect aerosol effect," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Ramanathan studies how the Earth's climate is influenced by atmospheric aerosols — dust, soot and other tiny particles. His research has helped reveal just how poorly their effects — in particular the 'indirect' effects mediated by cloud formation — are understood. As the world struggles to predict and control the extent of global warming, and to mitigate its effects, Ramanathan's nightmares could come to haunt us all.
展开▼
机译：微小的空气悬浮颗粒会部分影响云的形成，从而影响地球的气候。 Mark Schrope说，对这些气溶胶的影响进行建模被证明是气候学中最棘手的问题之一。加利福尼亚拉霍亚斯克里普斯海洋学研究所的Veerabhadran Ramanathan说：“如果我噩梦醒来，那是间接的气溶胶效应。” Ramanathan研究了地球气候如何受到大气气溶胶（灰尘，烟灰和其他微小物质）的影响。他的研究帮助揭示了人们对它们的影响（尤其是由云形成介导的“间接”影响）的理解程度有多低，因为世界正努力预测和控制全球变暖的程度并减轻其影响，这是拉马纳森的噩梦可能会困扰我们所有人。
展开▼
