05-09-2006 - Earth

sagar: Author=’Marc Airhart’ program=’4874′ video=”Graeme Stephens told Earth & Sky, “Art and science are both ways of expressing the world around us. Science is expressed in terms of math – and art is expressed in terms of shapes and colors. If you see it from both sides, you get a richer world view.” Useful Pursuit of Shadows_JB:_ This is “Earth & Sky”:/, speaking with “Graeme Stephens”:http://uav.noaa.gov/workshops/workshop3/stephens.html of Colorado State University. Many people think of Earth as a “water planet.”

_DB:_ But Stephens told Earth & Sky that Earth is also a cloud planet.

_Graeme Stephens:_ You know, we think about the Earth as a blue planet with lots and lots of water. But in fact, the water that’s in clouds, which is absolutely tiny compared to the water in the oceans is perhaps the most critical water of all for us because it’s the water that replenishes the lakes and rivers and restocks our aquifers and it’s the water that we use to sustain life and produce food. So water, in clouds, is really important for us. You know, how much rain falls from clouds is absolutely important for life on Earth.

_JB:_ Stephens also said that clouds profoundly affect Earth’s weather and climate.

_Graeme Stephens:_ It’s the heat generated inside the massive clouds and storms that drive hurricanes for example. So clouds shape our weather, they fuel the storms and very much influence our climate.

_DB:_ For all the reasons he mentioned above, Stephens studies clouds. He’s lead scientist for CloudSat – a satellite mission that measures how much water is in clouds around the world.

_JB:_ He hopes this information will help scientists understand how global warming might change patterns of rainfall and snowfall. We have more from Graeme Stephens – including his original oil paintings of clouds – at earthsky.org. Our thanks today to “NASA”:http://www.nasa.gov. We’re Block and Byrd for “Earth & Sky”:/http://208.96.63.114/.

Written by EarthSky