Suppression of rain and snow by urban and industrial air pollution

Daniel Rosenfeld*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1160 Scopus citations

Abstract

Direct evidence demonstrates that urban and industrial air pollution can completely shut off precipitation from clouds that have temperatures at their tops of about -10°C over large areas. Satellite data reveal plumes of reduced cloud particle size and suppressed precipitation originating from major urban areas and from industrial facilities such as power plants. Measurements obtained by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite reveal that both cloud droplet coalescence and ice precipitation formation are inhibited in polluted clouds.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1793-1796
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume287
Issue number5459
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Mar 2000

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