EO News: Widespread 'Twilight Zone' Detected Around Clouds - May 3, 2007

EO News: Widespread 'Twilight Zone' Detected Around Clouds - May 3, 2007
There seems to be something new under the sun -- in the sky, specifically -- that could complicate scientists' efforts to get a fix on how much the world will warm in the future. Greenhouse gases are not the only things in the air that influence the temperature of our atmosphere. Clouds and small airborne particles called aerosols also play an important and complicated role. And now a new ingredient has been discovered: an extensive and previously unseen “twilight zone” of particles that represents a gradual transition from cloud droplets to dry particles.