2011/09/06 by A. E. Dessler · 2 citations
Environmental Science · #Atmospheric aerosols and clouds #Climate variability and models #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2011gl049236
openalex publication_date 2011/09/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/22
[1] The question of whether clouds are the cause of surface temperature changes, rather than acting as a feedback in response to those temperature changes, is explored using data obtained between 2000 and 2010. An energy budget calculation shows that the radiative impact of clouds accounts for little of the observed climate variations. It is also shown that observations of the lagged response of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy fluxes to surface temperature variations are not evidence that clouds are causing climate change.