Cited by 254Atmospheric aerosols and cloudsAtmospheric chemistry and aerosolsClimate Change and Geoengineering

Weak average liquid-cloud-water response to anthropogenic aerosols

Open access
Toll, Velle, Christensen, Matthew, Quaas, Johannes, Bellouin, Nicolas·2019·Nature

Abstract

The cooling of the Earth's climate through the effects of anthropogenic aerosols on clouds offsets an unknown fraction of greenhouse gas warming. An increase in the amount of water inside liquid-phase clouds induced by aerosols, through the suppression of rain formation, has been postulated to lead to substantial cooling, which would imply that the Earth's surface temperature is highly sensitive to anthropogenic forcing. Here we provide direct observational evidence that, instead of a strong increase, aerosols cause a relatively weak average decrease in the amount of water in liquid-phase clouds compared with unpolluted clouds. Measurements of polluted clouds downwind of various anthropogenic sources-such as oil refineries, smelters, coal-fired power plants, cities, wildfires and ships-reveal that aerosol-induced cloud-water increases, caused by suppressed rain formation, and decreases, caused by enhanced evaporation of cloud water, partially cancel each other out. We estimate that the observed decrease in cloud water offsets 23% of the global climate-cooling effect caused by aerosol-induced increases in the concentration of cloud droplets. These findings invalidate the hypothesis that increases in cloud water cause a substantial climate cooling effect and translate into reduced uncertainty in projections of future climate.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41586-019-1423-9

Cites

62 of 62 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

4 of the 66 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Toll, V., Christensen, M., Quaas, J., & Bellouin, N.
Affiliations
  • University of Tartu (EE)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Leipzig University (DE)
  • University of Reading (GB)
Corresponding author
Toll, Velle
Venue
Nature
Published
2019-07-31
Volume
572
Issue
7767
Pages
51-55
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2965102826
Cited by
254
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 6
FWCI
15.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • CentAUR (University of Reading) (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • University of Reading
  • Eesti Teadusagentuur (PSG202)
  • Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L013746/1, NE/L013479/1)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Geoengineering
Keywords
anthropogenic aerosols, cloud water content, aerosol-cloud interactions, cloud droplet number concentration, cloud evaporation, climate cooling effect, global warming, climate sensitivity
MeSH terms
Aerosols, Air Pollution, Human Activities, Models, Theoretical, Rain, Temperature, Water, Greenhouse Effect, Uncertainty, Climate Change

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review