CERN experiment sheds new light on cloud formation

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CERN experiment sheds new light on cloud formation

Posted by Dan Noyes on 16 May 2014. Last updated 22 May 2014, 14.45.

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In an open access paper published in the journal Science (link is external) today, CERN’s CLOUD experiment has shown that biogenic vapours emitted by trees and oxidised in the atmosphere have a significant impact on the formation of clouds, thus helping to cool the planet. These biogenic aerosols are what give forests seen from afar their characteristic blue haze. The CLOUD study shows that the oxidised biogenic vapours bind with sulphuric acid to form embryonic particles which can then grow to become the seeds on which cloud droplets can form. This result follows previous measurements from CLOUD showing that sulphuric acid alone could not form new particles in the atmosphere as had been previously assumed.

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