Rob Wood acts as flight scientist on a Sept. 6 flight, coordinating between scientists and crew and deciding where to fly next.
Sarah Doherty/University of Washington
Rob Wood acts as flight scientist on a Sept. 6 flight, coordinating between scientists and crew and deciding where to fly next.

Tiny aerosol particles, emitted by everything from tailpipes to trees, float above us reflecting sunlight, seeding clouds and absorbing solar heat. How exactly this happens — and how it might change in the future — is one of the biggest uncertainties in how humans are influencing climate.

University of Washington scientists are part of a NASA field campaign, Observations of Aerosols Above Clouds and their Interactions, or ORACLES, that is flying research planes around clouds off the coast of Namibia to see how smoke and clouds interact.

“The Namibians are being wonderful hosts and are really helping to make this a success,” said deputy principal investigator Robert Wood, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.

Wood plans to be in the field until late September. Sarah Doherty, a research scientist with the UW Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, is also among the roughly 100 participating scientists.

Read more at UW Today »