How clouds behave at the edge of a changing world
Unpredictable weather, extreme rainfall, and intense snow events are becoming more frequent, but surprisingly, cleaner air and clearer skies may be part of the cause. Understanding how clouds respond to a post-fossil pollution regime is now one of the most urgent challenges in climate science.
At the heart of this effort is CleanCloud ACI, an EU-funded project uniting 20 leading European research institutions that I have the honor to co-lead with Ulas Im, to study aerosol–cloud interactions (ACI), from the hashtagArctic to the hashtagMediterranean.
🌍 One of the most critical frontiers in climate research is the Arctic, where the atmosphere is changing faster than anywhere else on Earth. But field measurements in this remote region remain rare, making predictions highly uncertain.
During the spring of 2024, we headed to Villum Research Station in North Greenland, one of the most extreme and remote places on the planet, to observe how aerosols and clouds behave at the edge of a changing world.
🎬 We’re proud to show our short documentary, filmed on location during the CleanCloud Spring 2024 campaign. It captures the intense challenges, breathtaking landscapes, and the critical science driving this mission.
👉 Watch the full movie here.
CleanCloud funded the Arctic campaign for which the video is about. Credits: Video: Lionel Favre (EPFL), Romanos Foskinis (EPFL); Montage: Nikitas Diamantopoulos (EPFL/FORTH)
Athanasios Nenes heads the Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He is also an affiliate researcher of the Institute of Chemical Engineering Science at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Patras, Greece.
