How Pollution Suppresses Rain

摘要

Submicrometer-sized particles suspended in the atmosphere may have as great an impact on Earth's climate as the greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere over the past century. Aerosols affect climate directly by scattering sunlight back to space and indirectly by augmenting the numbers of droplets within clouds. These effects cool Earth, counteracting the greenhouse effect. On page 1793 of this issue, Rosenfeld provides evidence from satellite data that aerosol pollution suppresses precipitation, making the indirect effect of aerosols on climate even more substantial than previously thought.