Source: Shanghai Daily

05-05-2009 14:10

Special Report:   Tech Max

BEIJING, May 5 -- Wearing 3D viewing goggles, scientists peer at virtual pink, blue and purple clouds billowing in cyberspace at a research laboratory in the Dutch city of Delft.

The new levels of cloud research

By tracking how particles move in and around computer-simulated clouds, they hope to shed light on one of the unknowns of climate forecasting: How these masses of water droplets and ice crystals influence changing temperatures.

The research, at Delft University of Technology, was undertaken because of the growing urgency for scientists to improve methods of forecasting climate change.

Besides the Dutch scientists' work, a multi-million-euro satellite project funded by the European and Japanese space agencies will be launched shortly to help demystify clouds, which are also a source of inspiration for thousands of amateur cloud-spotters who post their comments and photos online.

Researcher Thijs Heus, a former student at the laboratory, explained that he used the simulations to chart data such as the speed, temperature and lifespan of clouds.

"We number the clouds and track them from their infancy through their entire life cycle," he said.

"We can also give them color to see if dust particles are moving up or down within and around the clouds," Heus added, demonstrating ways to observe clouds in more detail by magnifying their virtual images on screen.

Using computer technology and satellite data, the scientists at Delft hope to gain a more accurate picture of how clouds react to climate change.

"There is enormous uncertainty about what clouds will do, and how they will respond to a changing climate and that is a major impediment for climate predictions," said Harm Jonker, associate professor at the university.

Projections of how much the earth's temperature will rise in the next century vary from 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius, with the effect of clouds remaining one of the main sources of uncertainty, the UN Climate Panel found in its 2007 climate assessment report.

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