Science and Technology Facilities Council
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CERN experiment shows pine-fresh trees help cloud formation
A new study from CERN, in the journal Science, has shown for the first time that the molecules responsible for giving pine forests their distinctive smell are also a vital ingredient in cloud formation, important for keeping our planet cool.
The CLOUD (Cosmic Leaving Outdoor Droplets) experiment at CERN, an international collaboration including UK involvement from the Universities of Leeds and Manchester, is helping scientists to better understand the effect of clouds on our climate.
Clouds form when water vapour in the atmosphere condenses and attaches to particles in the atmosphere. This can be from particles such as sea spray, dust or car emissions, but most of them form in the atmosphere from gases emitted by natural sources or human activity. The new results show that the rate of this process of clustering, known as nucleation, significantly increases thanks to alpha-pinene, the molecule that is produced by pine trees and gives them their characteristic scent and blue haze.
STFC's Chief Executive Professor John Womersley commented, “Cloud cover in the atmosphere has a big impact on how much heat the Earth absorbs from the sun and how much is lost to space. Knowing how clouds form is critical in understanding our climate, and it’s very exciting to see particle physics technology being used at CERN to recreate and observe these kinds of atmospheric processes in detail. These new results contribute important knew knowledge on how plants and forests impact and drive our climate, which is one of the biggest uncertainties in our current climate models.”
STFC is the UK sponsor of particle physics and manages the UK subscription to CERN. The CLOUD project is also supported by NERC.
View the full press release on the CERN website.
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STFC Press Officer Corinne Mosese
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Image information
The cloud chamber used in the Cosmic Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD) experiment at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland.
Image credit: CERN
Further information
Professor Ken Carslaw from the University of Leeds is available for interview. Please contact him via the Leeds press office on 0113 343 4031 or email pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk.
The research paper, ‘Oxidation products of biogenic emissions contribute to nucleation of atmospheric particles’, is published in the journal Science.
