High-Resolution Image

Aerosols advected over the Atlantic Ocean following wildfires in Portugal in 2008. The dark smoke can be seen on the left side of the image; as it passes over the brighter cloud deck, it darkens the scene, reducing the clouds' ability to reflect sunlight back to space. In contrast, over the darker cloud-free ocean, the smoke appears brighter than the background, increasing the ocean's ability to reflect sunlight back to space. Recently Chand et al., (2009) used space-borne measurements of aerosols and cloud cover to show that low-level clouds can alter the radiative impact of aerosols.

Image: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC obtained through NASA's Visible Earth and recently appearing in a Nature Geoscience News & Views article (Remer, 2009).

Chand, D. R. Wood, T.L. Anderson, S.K. Satheesh and R.J. Charlson, 2009: Nature Geosci., Vol. 2, pp. 181-184.

Remer, L.A., 2009: Nature Geosci., Vol. 2, pp. 167-168.