I gave a talk today about this. Abstract follows. There was also a talk by Bill Cotton today about aerosol influences on clouds and precipitation, which I may write about tomorrow. Until then, this abstract will have to suffice.

In July 2005 off the coast of Monterey, California, the Marine Stratocumulus Experiment (MASE) field campaign looked at the relationship between aerosols and cloud properties. Aircraft measured a variety of meteorological, radiative, and microphysical parameters, including cloud drop number concentration (CDNC), liquid water content (LWC), and the size distribution of the aerosol and cloud particles. Spectral shape parameter, k, which describes the dispersion of the droplet distribution, was derived from the size distribution. A 290 meter thick stratocumulus cloud deck was sampled in a 620 meter thick boundary layer, which included a 4 kilometer wide “ship track” that was characterized by enhanced aerosol number and mass concentrations. Principle components analysis (PCA) was conducted on the time series of CDNC, LWC, and k to determine independent relationships among the three microphysical variables. The first component of the PCA shows a high correspondence with the general overturning circulation of the cloud as evidenced by its correlation with large-scale pertubations in the vertical velocity field. This structure can be seen from satellite images as areas of bright and dark regions. A significant correlation was found when the second mode of variability was compared to the interstitial aerosol concentration, which itself had a high correlation with the below-cloud aerosol concentration that was modified by the exhaust from a passing ship. Since the PCA did not include the updraft velocity nor below-cloud aerosol concentration, the two modes of variability were separated from just the microphysical parameters, which strongly suggests they correspond to two distinct processes in the cloud. The first mode is interpreted as the natural variability within the cloud, and the second mode as the effects of the anthropogenic aerosol emissions from the ship.

Thanks to De Rerum Natura

The Midwestern and Upper Midwestern are no surprise… but Yankee? Methinks they have a bug in their code.

This reminded me of part of a conversation I heard last night walking home.

Global warming isn’t natural. It’s 95% caused by humans.

Taking the quote literally would mean that 5% of global warming is not caused by humans, which would make the first sentance incorrect. Maybe he meant that someone (for sure not him) was 95% certain that global warming is caused by humans. I don’t know, but it made me chuckle.

Beyond the pale: anti-gay, racist emails from Army recruiter
Here’s some of the email exchange

Not really much to say about this one.

Those pesky rightwing nuts are coming to the defense Ms. Ramode though - Riehl World View.

There is no doubt the recruiter was set up. Its so clear anyone can see it. First a gay person like this Corey fellow posts a resume on a job site because they claim they are looking for a job. But what they are really doing is setting a trap, and Sgt. Marcia Ramode fell for it hook line and sinker. Its now clear that Corey just posted the resume so to snare some God fearing good American. Ramode never would have contacted Corey were it not for the fact that Corey posted their resume on line looking for work. If gay people don’t want this sort of thing to happen, they should just not look for work. Period.

If gay people don’t want to be discriminated against, then they shouldn’t look for work. Now there’s some good logic. Instead of that, how about we take away the voting rights of all bigots. They’ve proven themselves too stupid to vote.