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https://theconversation.com/clouds-are-vital-to-life-but-many-are-becoming-wispy-ghosts-heres-how-to-see-the-changes-above-us-265575>
"As a scholar researching clouds, I have spent much of my time trying to
understand the economy of the sky. Not the weather reports showing scudding
rainclouds, but the deeper logic of cloud movements, their distributions and
densities and the way they intervene in light, regulate temperatures and
choreograph heat flows across our restless planet.
Recently, I have been noticing something strange: skies that feel hollowed out,
clouds that look like they have lost their conviction. I think of them as ghost
clouds. Not quite absent, but not fully there. These wispy formations drift
unmoored from the systems that once gave them coherence. Too thin to reflect
sunlight, too fragmented to produce rain, too sluggish to stir up wind, they
give the illusion of a cloud without its function.
We think of clouds as insubstantial. But they matter far beyond their weight or
tangibility. In dry Western Australia where I live, rain-bringing clouds are
eagerly anticipated. But the winter storms which bring most rain to the
south-west are being pushed south, depositing vital fresh water into the
oceans. More and more days pass under a hard, endless blue – beautiful, but
also brutal in its vacancy.
Worldwide, cloud patterns are now changing in concerning ways. Scientists have
found the expanse of Earth’s highly reflective clouds is steadily shrinking.
With less heat reflected, the Earth is now trapping more heat than expected."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
