for Meteorology in Hamburg conducted a major field campaign to analyze observational data collected in fields of cumulus clouds near the Atlantic island of Barbados. Through their analysis, they discovered that the contribution of these clouds to climate warming needs to be reevaluated.
To date, many climate models have simulated a major reduction in trade-wind clouds, which would mean much of their cooling function would be lost and the atmosphere would consequently warm even more. The new observational data shows that this isn’t likely to occur. The observational data from Barbados now offers the first robust quantification as to how pronounced the vertical mixing actually is, and how this affects moisture and cloud cover as a whole. As such, it is the first data to shed light on a process that is essential to understanding climate change. In brief: more intensive mixing does not make the lower layers drier or make the clouds dissipate. Rather, the data shows that the cloud cover actually increases with increasing vertical mixing.
The month-long field campaign EUREC4A was designed by the team members around extended flights with two research aircraft, which were equipped with different instruments and operated at different altitudes, and shipboard measurements from the R/V Meteor — A German research vessel managed by the University of Hamburg. One plane was used to drop hundreds of atmospheric probes from an altitude of nine kilometers.