Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-665-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-665-2021
Opinion
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18 Jan 2021
Opinion | Highlight paper |  | 18 Jan 2021

Opinion: Cloud-phase climate feedback and the importance of ice-nucleating particles

Benjamin J. Murray, Kenneth S. Carslaw, and Paul R. Field

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Measurement report: The ice-nucleating activity of lichen sampled in a northern European boreal forest
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Cited articles

Amino, T., Iizuka, Y., Matoba, S., Shimada, R., Oshima, N., Suzuki, T., Ando, T., Aoki, T., and Fujita, K.: Increasing dust emission from ice free terrain in southeastern Greenland since 2000, Polar Sci., 100599, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2020.100599, 2020. 
Andrews, T., Andrews, M. B., Bodas-Salcedo, A., Jones, G. S., Kuhlbrodt, T., Manners, J., Menary, M. B., Ridley, J., Ringer, M. A., Sellar, A. A., Senior, C. A., and Tang, Y.: Forcings, Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity in HadGEM3-GC3.1 and UKESM1, J. Adv. Model. Earth Sy., 11, 4377–4394, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001866, 2019. 
Atkinson, J. D., Murray, B. J., Woodhouse, M. T., Whale, T. F., Baustian, K. J., Carslaw, K. S., Dobbie, S., O'Sullivan, D., and Malkin, T. L.: The importance of feldspar for ice nucleation by mineral dust in mixed-phase clouds, Nature, 498, 355–358, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12278, 2013. 
Belosi, F., Santachiara, G., and Prodi, F.: Ice-forming nuclei in Antarctica: New and past measurements, Atmos. Res., 145–146, 105–111, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2014.03.030, 2014. 
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Short summary
The balance between the amounts of ice and supercooled water in clouds over the world's oceans strongly influences how much these clouds can dampen or amplify global warming. Aerosol particles which catalyse ice formation can dramatically reduce the amount of supercooled water in clouds; hence we argue that we need a concerted effort to improve our understanding of these ice-nucleating particles if we are to improve our predictions of climate change.
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