The Climatic Influence of Earth Clouds (IMAGE)

University of Chicago

The Climatic Influence of Earth Clouds

Caption

Clouds exert a major influence on Earth¹s climate. If clouds only cooled the planet by reflecting solar energy back to space, Earth would completely ice over. But if clouds only warmed the planet by absorbing and reemitting infrared energy back to the surface, Earth would fry under a runaway greenhouse effect like the one on Venus.

Credit

Norman Kuring, NASA GSFC

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News organizations may use this image in connection with reports about the research of Dorian Abbot, Jun Yang and Nicolas Cowan.

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