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NEW YORK, May 5 (UPI) -- A survey of 30 years worth of satellite data suggests high altitude clouds are shifting closer to the poles. Now, researchers have a good idea why. High altitude clouds are those found between three-and-a-half and six miles high. Some scientists have suggested the shifting jet streams are pulling middle-latitude cloud systems toward the poles. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies designed a model to analyze the correlation between cloud positions and climatic factors. Their simulations suggest the expansion of the tropics and the circulation of air known as the Hadley cell are the primary drivers of the polar drift. "What we find, and other people have found it as well, is that the sinking branch of the Hadley cell, as the climate warms, tends to be moving poleward," George Tselioudis, a climate scientist at Goddard and Columbia University, said in a news release. "It's like you're making the tropical region bigger." Tselioudis and his colleagues published their findings this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The Hadley cell circulation begins with rising air in the tropics, and as it pushes northward and southward away from the equators, it sinks back towards Earth's surface. As the tropics grow, these currents are pushing high-altitude clouds toward the North and South Pole. Cloud cover and cloud formation patterns play an important role in dictating the planet's climate, as their presence reflect a significant amount of sunlight, enduing them with a cooling presence. In their absence, land and sea absorb greater amounts of the sun's energy. The influence of global warming on cloud patterns -- and vice versa -- is an important part of understanding and predicting climate change. "If current behavior is not well simulated, then confidence in predicted future behavior will be lower," added Lazaros Oreopoulos, a cloud scientist at Goddard. "I anticipate this study to be looked at carefully and affect thinking on these matters."
originally posted by: Snarl
Anything from the Climate Change narrative is highly suspect.
Before I'll believe anything that Billionaire Al Gore's group has to say ... I'll see it confirmed by multiple independent sources.
ETA: NASA is full of crap too. They'll say anything their masters tell them to. And ... if they don't want you to know the truth ... well ... that's because it's classified.
originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: lostbook
Clouds can also trap heat beneath them, as well as reflecting sunlight back into space.
They are a double edged sword at best!
originally posted by: lostbook
IDK, they could be lying but what if they aren't?
originally posted by: Snarl
originally posted by: lostbook
IDK, they could be lying but what if they aren't?
LOL ... there's nothing 'they' can do about it anyway. Remember all the stories that lambasted Gore for his personal 'going green' BS?
The whole Global Warming agenda is another attempt to tax and control the masses.
The whole Global Warming agenda is another attempt to tax and control the masses.
originally posted by: NightFlight
I find fault with this premise. The angle of the sun's radiation hitting the poles is a low angle unlike the equator where the sun's output is 85 to 90 degrees above. Like true brit said, the clouds could trap heat with the sun shining under them and the radiation reflecting off the extreme northern and southern snow and terrain creating a greenhouse effect to a certain extent. Still, the extreme angle of the radiation pattern through our atmosphere would be almost double of what it is at the equator, which would filter more of the heat, UV, etc. from the sun.
The high clouds coupled with low clouds over the poles may create a situation where the region between the two cloud layers would be warmer that between the lowest cloud cover and the ground. Interesting...
originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: lostbook
No I do not.
I believe that these clouds will trap heat underneath them, warming the poles. The poles do not need that sort of activity at the moment. They need to be allowed to cool, the ice caps need to heal and solidify to a greater degree than they are at the moment, and this will not happen if they are enshrouded by a blanket of cloud.
originally posted by: Snarl
Anything from the Climate Change narrative is highly suspect.
Before I'll believe anything that Billionaire Al Gore's group has to say ... I'll see it confirmed by multiple independent sources.
ETA: NASA is full of crap too. They'll say anything their masters tell them to. And ... if they don't want you to know the truth ... well ... that's because it's classified.
originally posted by: lostbook
Clouds will reflect sunlight back into Space thus helping the poles to stay cool as these clouds move to the respective poles.
originally posted by: mc_squared
originally posted by: lostbook
Clouds will reflect sunlight back into Space thus helping the poles to stay cool as these clouds move to the respective poles.
Not high-altitude clouds. High-level clouds have more of a heat-trapping effect and thus provide a positive (warming) feedback, so the overall effect here on the poles would be more warming, not cooling.
Cloud feedback is the biggest unknown/wild card in determining climate sensitivity. It's complicated stuff, but there's some good info here: What is the net feedback from clouds?
There is more to this though than just migrating clouds. If the sinking branch of the Hadley cell is moving poleward, then this would also likely displace a lot of other things poleward, such as the world's deserts. Southern Europe could become the new Sahara.
originally posted by: lostbook
originally posted by: Snarl
originally posted by: lostbook
IDK, they could be lying but what if they aren't?
LOL ... there's nothing 'they' can do about it anyway. Remember all the stories that lambasted Gore for his personal 'going green' BS?
The whole Global Warming agenda is another attempt to tax and control the masses.
Just because those in power are taking advantage of the situation doesn't mean that Climate change doesn't exist.