14 DAY TRIAL // In addition to causing harm to agriculture, changes in precipitation patterns over a certain region can also influence similar patterns around the world, even if indirectly. A new study reveals how airborne pollution is affecting rain clouds, causing such changes at different locations.
Moderate, dependable precipitations are always preferable to widely-variable ones, especially as far as farmers and authorities handling water management are concerned. Being exposed to months of drought, and then weeks of heavy rain causes significant damage on crops or cities as well.
As predicted by climate scientists, weather patterns that have been known for centuries are beginning to change, bringing about more droughts and more floods. Areas that only received moderate amounts of yearly precipitations are now being drench, while the opposite is true for regions that once had rain.
These changes in cloud cover are partially caused by air pollution, a broad term used to refer to the release of airborne particles such as soot (black carbon) and aerosols into the atmosphere. These very small particles can affect cloud development, and influence when rain is finally released.
These conclusions are derived from a 10-year study conducted at a federal research station in central Oklahoma, by investigators at the University of Maryland, in College Park. The team was led by investigator Zhanqing Li, Science News reports.
Over the study period, the investigators analyzed thousands of clouds that passed over the research station, which belongs to the US Department of Energy (DOE). An accurate dataset was compiled on each individual cloud, and this is what gave the research team the data resolution it needed for the study.
Details of the research effort were published in the November 13 online issue of the esteemed journal Nature Geoscience. The findings were presented on November 10, at the Symposium on Stratospheric Ozone and Climate Change, which was held in Washington, DC.
“Haze, storms, drought and flood: We found very strong evidence that they are well connected,” Zhanqing Li told attendants. “This is the first study to clearly establish the link between aerosols, precipitation and climate,” comments Texas A&M University in College Station expert Renyi Zhang.
The team reports that the particulate matter caused not only shifts in precipitations, but also changes in the type of clouds that formed over a particular area, and in the moisture levels at these locations.
These effects are far-reaching, and are most likely to grow even worse in the coming years, so researchers will continue to keep an eye out on the effects airborne pollution has on cloud covers.