Nandini Pharasi, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
Drying environments burn more easily, and rainwater can assist put out existing flames. However, wildfire fumes may prevent that much-needed rain from dropping. When wildfires release smoke into the atmosphere, fine particles accompany it. Water molecules can condense onto cloud particles. Concerns are all about droughts are escalating as wildfires and heat waves affect the western United States.
What does the new study have to tell us?
According to a recent study, minute particles in wildfire smoke influence how raindrops form in clouds, perhaps resulting in less rain and aggravating drought conditions that feed a wildfire. The research gives a direct new understanding of wildfire-linked clouds, which can aid scientists in understanding the probable origins and impacts of temperature changes throughout wildfires. Because far more particles generate more droplets, the study’s authors predicted an increase in the number of water droplets formed in clouds as a result of wildfires.
However, the discrepancy between smoky and clean clouds was greater than predicted, with smoky clouds containing almost five times the amount of droplets as their clean equivalents. The size of smoky droplets was also half that of pure droplets. The size difference may be what prevents the droplets from falling. According to new research published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, since small droplets are less likely to develop and finally fall as rain, wildfire smoke in the western United States may result in less rain during wildfire season.
What did scientists say on this?
We were startled by how successful these mainly organic particles were at trying to produce cloud droplets and about how much influence they had on cloud microphysics. ‘What are the long-term repercussions of this? We have drought and a lot of wildfires, and they’re becoming worse over time,’ researchers wondered. ‘What role do clouds play in this picture?’”
Recent insights into the study:
Atmospheric scientist Cynthia Twohy and his team of atmospheric chemists sent a C130 Hercules research machine to sample medium-altitude alpine clouds during wildfires in the western United States in the summer of 2018. Instruments onboard the aircraft measured gases and particles emitted by sampled droplets of wildfires, the chemistry of which Twohy analyzed back in the lab. “What particularly piqued my interest in this research was the links to the hydrological cycle,” they detect a difference in cloud droplet size and precipitation, and cloud formation influences the hydrological cycle. Such significant cloud-related findings are unusual in my experience,” said Ann Marie Carlton, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California-Irvine who was not involved in the present study.
Smoky Cloud Complexities:
Prior research, irrelevant to the current study, discovered comparable variations in droplet concentration and size as a result of smoke in the Amazon, lending credence to the new findings. Adding additional particles to clouds that extend far into the atmosphere can energize them and generate rain, but the converse is true for lower-altitude cumulus clouds like the ones Twohy examined. Cloud microphysics is complicated, and Twohy points out that there are elements other than droplet size to consider when determining the overall influence of smoky clouds on regional climate.
The current research focused on tiny cumulus clouds, which cover roughly a fifth of the western United States in the summer, but other types of clouds, such as higher-altitude thunderstorms, may behave differently. The more frequent, smaller droplets in shallower clouds can also be more reflective, which may have a modest cooling impact at the surface. With summer rain in the region diminishing, Twohy believes that the drying impacts are outweighing variables that may enhance rain, such as cloud invigoration.
If wildfire smoke reduces the likelihood of rain, the feedback loop of smoke, dry spells, and more wildfires may become more prevalent in the future. Because cloud microphysics is so complicated, it may only be a matter of time before these correlations become evident. Regardless, Twohy’s new study connects wildfire smoke to cloud changes and, tentatively, precipitation, pushing atmospheric physics and chemistry to catch up with climate change.
Conclusion:
Because people have altered the composition of the atmosphere, there is a plethora of feedback and interactions that we are ill-informed that this experiment on Earth is altering clouds and the hydrologic cycle, at least regionally. This article, I believe, only scratches the surface of what we don’t know. Summer precipitation has decreased and temperatures have risen during the last two decades. The cloud impacts are most certainly a significant factor in all of this. I’m hopeful that these findings will inspire further thorough regional modeling studies. This will help us understand the overall influence of smoke on clouds and climate in the region, says the lead researcher.
Also read: Interference of human microbiome with cancer therapeutics
Reference:
- Twohy, C. H., Toohey, D. W., Levin, E. J. T., DeMott, P. J., Rainwater, B., Garofalo, L. A., Pothier, M. A., Farmer, D. K., Kreidenweis, S. M., Pokhrel, R. P., Murphy, S. M., Reeves, J. M., Moore, K. A., & Fischer, E. V. (2021). Biomass burning smoke and its influence on clouds over the western u. S. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(15). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094224
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Author info:
Nandini Pharasi is a third-year student, pursuing biotechnology from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology. She plans to be a researcher in the future.
Social media link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nandini-pharasi/
Publications:
well written, interesting