Why Are Clouds the Hardest Part of the Climate Puzzle?

Frank Kuhn · portrait · 1:21

Resources

Video ID

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Video

https://demo.lt.org/videos/portrait/frank-kuhn/video.mp4

Poster

https://demo.lt.org/videos/portrait/frank-kuhn/poster.jpg

Subtitles · English

https://demo.lt.org/videos/portrait/frank-kuhn/en.vtt

Document

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    "title": "Why Are Clouds the Hardest Part of the Climate Puzzle?",
    "author": "Frank Kuhn",
    "description": "Frank Kuhn takes on the piece of the climate system that still resists prediction: clouds. This publication shows how the tiny particles a cloud forms around decide its brightness and lifetime, why low marine clouds hold the key to climate sensitivity, and how aircraft observations and high-resolution simulation are finally narrowing an uncertainty that has stood for decades.",
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            "text": "My name is Frank Kuhn and I'm a doctoral researcher at PRIF, the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt."
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            "start": 11,
            "text": "Previously I was the project coordinator for the Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Control Research, or CNTR."
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            "start": 15.3,
            "text": "I hold an MA in International Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies from Goethe University Frankfurt and Technical University Darmstadt, and I've spent a semester at the University of Southampton."
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          {
            "start": 27.86,
            "text": "My research interests include nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence, arms control and non-proliferation, AI, military strategy, U.S. grand strategy, cyber operations and air power."
          },
          {
            "start": 37.3,
            "text": "In my dissertation I plan to investigate which role strategic stability theory played at the highest level of U.S. decision-making during the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks."
          },
          {
            "start": 52.64,
            "text": "In my recent piece, Making Nuclear Sharing Credible Again: What the F-35A Means for NATO, published in War on the Rocks, I've analyzed how the procurement of the F-35 Lightning II will influence the credibility of NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement."
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          {
            "start": 65.8,
            "text": "In my analysis I argue that the aircraft's sensor fusion, stealth and electronic warfare capabilities will significantly increase the likelihood of penetrating Russian airspace and help to deter further Russian aggression."
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        "keyTakeaway": "Cloud-aerosol interactions remain the largest single uncertainty in how strongly the climate responds to carbon dioxide.",
        "summary": "Clouds cool the planet by reflecting sunlight, and small changes in their brightness rival the forcing from greenhouse gases. Their properties hinge on aerosol particles thousands of times smaller than a raindrop. Combining airborne measurements with simulations that resolve cloud processes is closing in on how strongly aerosols brighten clouds, and with it on climate sensitivity itself."
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            "label": "Cloud condensation nuclei",
            "description": "The aerosol particles on which droplets form; their number sets a cloud's brightness.",
            "start": 0
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            "label": "Cloud feedback",
            "description": "How cloud cover and thickness respond to warming, amplifying or damping it.",
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          {
            "label": "Climate sensitivity",
            "description": "The warming that follows a doubling of carbon dioxide, still spanning a wide range because of clouds.",
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            "title": "Cloud physics",
            "description": "The microphysical life of droplets and ice, from nucleation to precipitation."
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            "title": "Constraining aerosol-cloud brightening from airborne observations",
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            "journal": "Nature Geoscience",
            "abstract": "Airborne campaigns and process modelling narrow the aerosol-cloud interaction term of the planetary energy budget.",
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