Clouds and climate

Clouds significantly influence the heat budget of our planet and consequently its climate. We regularly experience their influence on our own skin, for example when a dark cloud protects us from the Sun on a warm day. Determining exactly how a cloud affects thermal radiation is a complex task and depends on many different cloud characteristics, including size, location, and optical depth. Quantifying the response of these characteristics to warming is currently one of the biggest obstacles to accurately constraining the sensitivity of surface temperature to greenhouse gas emissions. This month's issue features three studies investigating the radiative effects of clouds using observations, stories, machine learning, and high-resolution modeling. These studies demonstrate how innovative methods and multiple approaches are bringing long-awaited progress to the toughest questions in climate science. (More on nature.com)