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Bioaerosols influence the climate processes, human health and overall ecosystem. Their type, concentration and diversity have important implications on various atmospheric processes however the limited understanding of bioaerosols-cloud-climate connection has resulted in existing uncertainty in climate models. Bioaerosols as ice nucleating particles (INPs) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) govern precipitation initiation, cloud formation and thus the complex hydrological cycle. Homogeneous nucleation takes place at colder temperatures (< − 38 ℃), while owing to their unique properties, certain ice nucleating bioaerosols can initiate freezing at much warmer temperatures (≧ − 10 °C) and thus are important for precipitation initiation through heterogenous nucleation mechanism. Flux of bioaerosols from diverse terrestrial and marine sources lead to their build-up in the atmosphere but rare bioaerosols act as CCN and INP. These rare characteristics of bioaerosols remain largely unexplored and need further attention and research. This work presents fundamental insights on the role of bioaerosols in cloud formation and ice nucleation mechanism along with an overview on the types, diversity and sources of bioaerosols. Most studies reviewed here on bioaerosol-cloud-climate connections are restricted to from specific research groups. Bioaerosol research is still in evolving stage and limited usage of advanced techniques of sampling and characterization is noticed particularly in developing countries. Lack of even baseline database on bioaerosols has resulted in poor understanding of their implications. The discussion presented here on species level information of cloud forming and ice nucleating bioaerosols will help researchers in developing fundamental understanding on characteristics and implications of bioaerosols. Bioaerosol research is expensive and thus joint campaigns by researchers from interdisciplinary areas should be encouraged. Application of high-throughput sequencing allows rapid taxonomic identification and such modern molecular methods should be routinely used for understanding implications of bioaerosols on climate as well as human health.Highlights: Overview of the types, diversity and sources of bioaerosols is presented. Bioaerosols initiate heterogeneous nucleation at much warmer temperatures than other classes of aerosols. Specific properties of bioaerosols are responsible for their cloud forming and ice nucleating potential. Species level information of bioaerosols is necessary to understand indirect climate implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to determine the types of thunderstorms formed in the thickness of the cloud (determine the Dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR) and Environmental lapse rate (ELR)) in the case of precipitation during the day. Data were taken by Temperature, Dew point, Atmospheric Pressure, and Height from re-analysis by the (ECMWF) for the heights (0-18000) m, the levels of pressure (1000-100) mbar, low cloud cover data, and the characteristic days ((18, 24, 27) February, 28 April, and 25 November) of the year 2018 for Baghdad station were chosen to obtain the largest possible number of clouds and their diversity to use them in calculating the cloud cover and weather stability in terms of calculating the daily change, temperature, dew point in addition to calculating the low cloud cover with altitude and atmospheric instability. The Sigma Plot program was used in this research to determine the base of clouds and thunderstorms. The change in temperature, Dew point, clouds base, and altitude was determined, then the cloud thickness, types, and classification were calculated. The clouds found are strong thunderstorm clouds characterized by thickness and height, such as the clouds of Nimbostratus (Ns) and Cumulonimbus (Cb). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many phenomena and events in which children are included are suitable to be researched and discovered by children within the scope of science education. Children ask many questions while researching the scientific facts and phenomena they are curious about and learn new concepts. In this process, it is essential to teach the concepts children will learn and the new education to be formed. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the concept of cloud, which mainly attracts children's attention, and the current conceptual knowledge and misconceptions about cloud formation. For this purpose, the phenomenology pattern was used in the research. The study group consisted of 5-6 year-old children studying in an independent kindergarten affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Antalya. A total of 12 children and one teacher were included in the study. The research used the 'Personal Information Form', ‘Children's Scientific Concepts Evaluation Form' and 'Teacher Interview Form for Science Education' as data collection tools for children and their teachers. The data were analyzed by the descriptive analysis method. Findings obtained from children were presented in the form of themes by coding. As a result of the research, it was determined that children had concept deficiencies and misconceptions about the formation of the cloud and that there were errors in the formation of meaning. In addition, suggestions were made to teachers for practices to assess and change children's misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses diatoms and the role they play in cloud formation as a prompt to consider histories of weather modification in practice, science fiction and possible future applications to address climate change. Diatoms are a form of microalgae that are present in all waterways and contribute significantly to atmospheric oxygen. They also provide condensation nuclei around which water droplets form, effectively creating clouds. Such naturally occurring particulate matter interacts with intentional and unintentional anthropogenic influence on the atmosphere. The long history of folk speculation and scientific experimentation about effective ways of seeding clouds for rain can help us consider the potential impacts of new forms of atmospheric intervention. From the use of algae as a tool for bioremediation to marine cloud brightening techniques, a multiscalar ecological awareness needs to be publicly fostered in making choices about how to influence climate futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several plant species emit different volatile organic compounds constitutively under typical physiological conditions, and all plant species can be elicited to emit volatiles under stress conditions when physiological activity is curbed. Plant emissions constitute the biggest global source of reactive volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. These volatiles play major biological roles in plant–plant interactions and in plant interactions with other organisms. In addition, plant-emitted volatiles often dominate the volatile-driven large-scale biosphere–atmosphere processes. In particular, plant volatiles participate in ozone- and secondary organic aerosol (SOA)-forming reactions and in cloud formation. Both enhanced SOA and cloud formation contribute to the cooling of the Earth’s surface, implying that plants can alter their own life environment. At the global scale, amelioration of vegetation growing conditions via volatile emissions can reduce the rate of global environmental change, but there are currently major uncertainties in understanding how plant emissions change in future climates and the quantitative impact of plant emissions on future climate change. Climate change is a complex phenomenon that entails alterations in a series of environmental factors. For plants, climate change is expected to enhance the severity and duration of stress periods when plant physiological activity is strongly reduced. This includes both the enhancement of abiotic stresses such as rising temperatures and more severe drought episodes in many parts of the globe and more devastating biotic stresses such as frequent outbreaks of herbivore and pathogen attacks. These changes in the frequency and duration of stress episodes can strongly impact volatile emissions. Stress typically reduces the emissions of constitutively released plant volatiles and elicits emissions of specific volatiles in a stress-severity-dependent manner. Thus, the plant-dependent feedback on global change is expected to become stronger in more stress-prone climates.

Children begin to fully understand evaporation at the age of 11 years, but they already have some idea of this phenomenon in preschool age. The paper presents the results of a research exploring the understanding of evaporation by 6- and 9-year-old children. The research used the method of a narrative based on incorrect information in order to verify whether and how well children would discover the errors in that narrative and how they could explain the process of evaporation. The incorrect narrative method is inspired by the science fiction film genre, which uses false assumptions to prove something that is not true. According to the research, half of the children knew that evaporation accompanies the process of cloud formation, but only half of the children who knew that (one-fourth of the respondents) could detect an error in the narrative. The reason for that is believed to be children’s lack of critical thinking and limited structured knowledge of evaporation in the water cycle in nature.

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Several plant species emit different volatile organic compounds constitutively under typical physiological conditions, and all plant species can be elicited to emit volatiles under stress conditions when physiological activity is curbed. Plant emissions constitute the biggest global source of reactive volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. These volatiles play major biological roles in plant–plant interactions and in plant interactions with other organisms. In addition, plant-emitted volatiles often dominate the volatile-driven large-scale biosphere–atmosphere processes. In particular, plant volatiles participate in ozone- and secondary organic aerosol (SOA)-forming reactions and in cloud formation. Both enhanced SOA and cloud formation contribute to the cooling of the Earth's surface, implying that plants can alter their own life environment. At the global scale, amelioration of vegetation growing conditions via volatile emissions can reduce the rate of global environmental change, but there are currently major uncertainties in understanding how plant emissions change in future climates and the quantitative impact of plant emissions on future climate change. Climate change is a complex phenomenon that entails alterations in a series of environmental factors. For plants, climate change is expected to enhance the severity and duration of stress periods when plant physiological activity is strongly reduced. This includes both the enhancement of abiotic stresses such as rising temperatures and more severe drought episodes in many parts of the globe and more devastating biotic stresses such as frequent outbreaks of herbivore and pathogen attacks. These changes in the frequency and duration of stress episodes can strongly impact volatile emissions. Stress typically reduces the emissions of constitutively released plant volatiles and elicits emissions of specific volatiles in a stress-severity-dependent manner. Thus, the plant-dependent feedback on global change is expected to become stronger in more stress-prone climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosol–cloud interactions (ACI) are in the spotlight of atmospheric science since the limited knowledge about these processes produces large uncertainties in climate predictions. These interactions can be quantified by the aerosol–cloud interaction index (ACI index), which establishes a relationship between aerosol and cloud microphysics. The experimental determination of the ACI index through a synergistic combination of lidar and cloud radar is still quite challenging due to the difficulties in disentangling the aerosol influence on cloud formation from other processes and in retrieving aerosol-particle and cloud microphysics from remote sensing measurements. For a better understanding of the ACI and to evaluate the optimal experimental conditions for the measurement of these processes, a Lidar and Radar Signal Simulator (LARSS) is presented. LARSS simulate vertically-resolved lidar and cloud-radar signals during the formation process of a convective cloud, from the aerosol hygroscopic enhancement to the condensation droplet growth. Through LARSS simulations, it is observed a dependence of the ACI index with height, associated with the increase in number ( A C I N d ) and effective radius ( A C I r e f f ) of the droplets with altitude. Furthermore, A C I N d and A C I r e f f for several aerosol types (such as ammonium sulfate, biomass burning, and dust) are estimated using LARSS, presenting different values as a function of the aerosol model. Minimum A C I N d values are obtained when the activation of new droplets stops, while A C I r e f f reaches its maximum values several meters above. These simulations are carried out considering standard atmospheric conditions, with a relative humidity of 30 % at the surface, reaching the supersaturation of the air mass at 3500 m. To assess the stability of the ACI index, a sensitivity study using LARSS is performed. It is obtained that the dry modal aerosol radius presents a strong influence on the ACI index fluctuations of 18 % cause an ACI variability of 30 % while the updraft velocity within the cloud and the wet modal aerosol radius have a weaker impact. LARSS ACI index uncertainty is obtained through the Monte Carlo technique, obtaining A C I r e f f uncertainty below 16 % for the uncertainty of all LARSS input parameters of 10 % . Finally, a new ACI index is introduced in this study, called the remote-sensing ACI index ( A C I R s ), to simplify the quantification of the ACI processes with remote sensors. This new index presents a linear relationship with the A C I r e f f , which depends on the Angstrom exponent. The use of A C I R s to derive A C I r e f f presents the advantage that it is possible to quantify the aerosol–cloud interaction without the need to perform microphysical inversion retrievals, thus reducing the uncertainty sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the relative contribution of primary marine organic matter to the subset of atmospheric particles that nucleate cloud droplets is highly uncertain. Here, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements were conducted on aerosolized sea surface microlayer (SML) samples collected from the North Atlantic Ocean during the NASA North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES), κ values were predicted for three representative high molecular weight (HMW) organic components of marine aerosol: 6-glucose, humic acid, and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO). The predicted κ values for pure organic aerosols varied by only ±0.01 across all of the organics chosen. For the desalted SML samples, calculations assuming an organic composition of entirely RuBisCO provided the closest predicted κ values for the desalted SML samples with a mean κ value of 0.53 ± 0.10. These results indicate that it is the sea salt in the SML which drives the cloud formation potential of marine aerosols. While the presence of organic material from the ocean surface waters may increase aerosol mass due to enrichment processes, cloud formation potential of mixed organic/salt primary marine aerosols will be slightly weakened or unchanged compared to sea spray aerosol.

Aerosol–cloud interactions (ACI) are in the spotlight of atmospheric science since the limited knowledge about these processes produces large uncertainties in climate predictions. These interactions can be quantified by the aerosol–cloud interaction index (ACI index), which establishes a relationship between aerosol and cloud microphysics. The experimental determination of the ACI index through a synergistic combination of lidar and cloud radar is still quite challenging due to the difficulties in disentangling the aerosol influence on cloud formation from other processes and in retrieving aerosol-particle and cloud microphysics from remote sensing measurements. For a better understanding of the ACI and to evaluate the optimal experimental conditions for the measurement of these processes, a Lidar and Radar Signal Simulator (LARSS) is presented. LARSS simulate vertically-resolved lidar and cloud-radar signals during the formation process of a convective cloud, from the aerosol hygroscopic enhancement to the condensation droplet growth. Through LARSS simulations, it is observed a dependence of the ACI index with height, associated with the increase in number (ACINd) and effective radius (ACIreff) of the droplets with altitude. Furthermore, ACINd and ACIreff for several aerosol types (such as ammonium sulfate, biomass burning, and dust) are estimated using LARSS, presenting different values as a function of the aerosol model. Minimum ACINd values are obtained when the activation of new droplets stops, while ACIreff reaches its maximum values several meters above. These simulations are carried out considering standard atmospheric conditions, with a relative humidity of 30% at the surface, reaching the supersaturation of the air mass at 3500 m. To assess the stability of the ACI index, a sensitivity study using LARSS is performed. It is obtained that the dry modal aerosol radius presents a strong influence on the ACI index fluctuations of 18% cause an ACI variability of 30% while the updraft velocity within the cloud and the wet modal aerosol radius have a weaker impact. LARSS ACI index uncertainty is obtained through the Monte Carlo technique, obtaining ACIreff uncertainty below 16% for the uncertainty of all LARSS input parameters of 10%. Finally, a new ACI index is introduced in this study, called the remote-sensing ACI index (ACIRs), to simplify the quantification of the ACI processes with remote sensors. This new index presents a linear relationship with the ACIreff, which depends on the Angstrom exponent. The use of ACIRs to derive ACIreff presents the advantage that it is possible to quantify the aerosol–cloud interaction without the need to perform microphysical inversion retrievals, thus reducing the uncertainty sources.

Tropospheric humidity inversions are an important component of the Earth's climate system as well as a significant factor affecting the global radiation budget and cloud formation. Their occurrence enlarges the amount of downward longwave radiation trapped near the Earth's surface and provides moisture to maintain the top of clouds from evaporation. The aim of this paper is to examine the spatiotemporal variability of the humidity inversions over Europe. For the first time, we provide also a comprehensive analysis of relations between the humidity inversions and temperature inversions over the domain considered. The study is based on data derived from the ERA-Interim reanalysis for the period 1981–2015. We have confirmed that the temporal and spatial variability of the humidity inversions is strongly related to inversion type. The mean seasonal frequency of surface-based humidity inversions (SBHI) usually does not exceed 20%, while the mean seasonal frequency of elevated humidity inversions (EHI) ranges from 5 to 60% depending on the region and season. On average, EHI are substantially deeper and stronger than SBHI. We found also that the low-tropospheric humidity inversions often occur simultaneously with the temperature inversions. Moderate positive correlations exist, however, only among the parameters (depth and strength) of the same inversion type, but not between the humidity inversions and the temperature inversions. Considering the links between EHI and ETI (elevated temperature inversions) parameters, slightly higher values of the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (ρs > 0.50) are found between EHI base height and ETI base height. Nonetheless, the simultaneous occurrence of EHI and ETI usually fosters the intensity of both inversion types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratocumulus clouds are important to the Arctic climate because they are prevalent and exert a strong radiative forcing on the surface. However, relatively little is known about how stratocumulus clouds form in the Arctic. In this study, radiative transfer calculations are used to show that the timescale over which stably stratified Arctic temperature and water vapor profiles cool to saturation is less than typical residence times for individual air parcels in the Arctic. This result is consistent with previous studies in suggesting that elevated stratocumulus can form naturally through clear‐sky radiative cooling during all seasons, without assistance from frontal lifting or other atmospheric forcing. Single column model simulations of the cloud formation process, after radiative cooling has resulted in saturation in a stably stratified profile, suggest that stratocumulus cloud properties are sensitive to the characteristics of the environment in which the formation process takes place. For example, sensitivity tests suggest that clouds may attain liquid water paths of over 50 g/m2 if they form in moist environments but may become locked in a low‐liquid water path quasi steady state or dissipate within hours if they form in dry environments. A potential consequence of these sensitivities is that when an Arctic stratocumulus layer forms by radiative cooling, it is more likely to become optically thick, optically thin, or dissipate than it is to obtain an intermediate optical thickness. This could help explain why the cloudy and radiatively clear atmospheric states are so prevalent across the Arctic. Plain Language Summary: While Arctic stratocumulus cloud layers play a strong role in the Arctic climate and may be contributing to rapid Arctic climate change, relatively little research has focused on how the cloud layers form. In this study, we found that Arctic stratocumulus cloud layers can form naturally as the Arctic atmosphere cools through radiative emission, confirming results from previous studies. This may help explain why the stratocumulus cloud layers are so prevalent across the Arctic. We also found that the properties of stratocumulus layers that form through radiative cooling are sensitive to characteristics of the environment in which the formation process takes place. A potential consequence of these sensitivities is that cloud layers that form by this mechanism are more likely to contain large or small amounts of liquid than intermediate amounts of liquid. This might help explain a key characteristic of the Arctic climate: That the atmosphere is more likely to emit large or small amounts of infrared radiation than intermediate amounts of infrared radiation toward the surface. Key Points: Radiative transfer calculations suggest that Arctic stratocumuli can form naturally through clear‐sky radiative cooling during all seasonsProperties of Arctic stratocumuli that form by radiative cooling are sensitive to the characteristics of the environment in which they formThese sensitivities might have important implications for the Arctic climate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been recently shown for two forests in France (Les Landes and Sologne) that summer cloud cover over the forest is increased relative to its surroundings. This study aims to contribute to the elucidation of the physical mechanisms responsible for this increased cloud cover, focusing on surface flux partitioning. This was done by performing a case study for a heatwave day on which enhanced cloud cover over the forest of Les Landes was observed. Two numerical experiments (large‐eddy simulations) with a homogeneous forest cover were performed, one in which the sensible heat flux was increased by approximately 5% of the total available energy and another one in which the same amount of energy was added to the latent heat flux. The addition of energy to the sensible heat flux led to a stronger increase in cloud cover than the same addition to the latent heat flux. The mean relative humidity at the boundary layer top showed only small differences, indicating it was not a sufficient indicator for cloud formation in this case. Important information, which immediately underlines the need for large‐eddy simulations, is contained in modifications of the shape of the probability density functions of temperature and humidity. With enhanced sensible heating, the higher peak values of relative humidity contribute to an increased cloud cover. A crucial reason for the differences in cloud cover between the experiments is conjectured to be a decrease in the required amount of energy for air parcels to reach the lifting condensation level, indirectly caused by the boundary layer and near‐surface warming associated with the stronger sensible heat flux. As forests in the region do have a higher sensible heat flux than their surroundings, we highlight one potential mechanism for enhanced cloud cover. Cloud cover strongly depends on the distribution of the incoming solar and thermal energy between heating and evaporation, and therefore land use is crucial in determining cloud cover. We performed large‐eddy simulation experiments with various combinations of heating and evaporation. We found for our case study of a temperate forest that increases in the sensible heat flux are more important for cloud cover than increases in the latent heat flux, and have illustrated the mechanisms responsible for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazards related to transportation and storage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are widely studied due to an increasing importance of LNG in the overall energy supply. Large scale LNG spills on water are of particular interest as much of LNG transport is conducted by sea. The present work focuses on modelling approaches and their capabilities to predict different phenomena related to LNG spills. It describes in detail a developed CFD based methodology that is able to simulate the behaviour of LNG spills from their initial release, spreading on the water surface, Rapid Phase Transition (RPT) to subsequent dispersion. The methodology is based on a homogeneous multiphase formulation of the liquid layer and therefore suitable for implementation in most of commercial CFD packages. An LNG release from a process train on a FLNG vessel was used to demonstrate capabilities of the developed approach. A CFD simulation was conducted to calculate the volume and distribution of the flammable cloud, and the overpressure generated by an RPT event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a vehicular cloud (VC) model is adopted where vehicles offer data as a service. We propose solutions for efficient data delivery based on transmission scheduling methods where vehicles gather data from their mounted sensors. This is done by first organizing vehicles into clusters, so that each cluster works as VC. A distributed D-hop cluster formation algorithm is presented to dynamically form vehicle clouds. The algorithm groups vehicles into non-overlapping clusters, which have adaptive sizes according to their mobility. VCs are created in such a way that each vehicle is at most D-hops away from a cloud coordinator (broker). Each vehicle chooses its broker based on relative mobility calculations within its D-hop neighbors. After cloud construction, a mathematical optimization scheduling algorithm is used to maximize throughput and minimize delay in delivering data from vehicles to their VC broker. Our proposed optimization model implements a contention-free-based medium access control where physical conditions of the channel are fully analyzed. Extensive simulations were performed for different scenarios to evaluate the performance of the proposed cloud formation and cloud-based transmission scheduling algorithms. Results show that VCs formed by our algorithms are more stable and provide higher data throughputs compared with others.

The abundance and viability of bacterial cells in rainwater at a suburban site in southwestern Japan between October 2014 and September 2015 were measured and their distinctiveness, according to synoptic weather systems, i.e., cyclones (cold fronts), stationary fronts (including Meiyu and non-Meiyu fronts) and typhoons, was examined. On average, the cell concentration of bacteria in the rainwater was 2.3 ± 1.5 × 10 4 cells mL −1 , and bacterial viability, the ratio of viable cells to total cells, was 80 ± 10%. In the rainwater of cyclones when clouds were induced by the intrusion of continental air, the bacterial concentration was higher (3.5 ± 1.6 × 10 4 cells mL −1 ) and the viability was lower (75 ± 8%) than in the rainwater of other types. In the rainwater of Meiyu fronts and typhoons when clouds were significantly influenced by marine air, bacterial concentrations were 1.5 ± 0.5 × 10 4 and 1.2 ± 0.3 × 10 4 cells mL −1 , and bacterial viabilities were 84 ± 7% and 85 ± 7%, respectively. In the rainwater of non-Meiyu stationary fronts, the bacterial concentration was 2.4 ± 1.6 × 10 4 cells mL −1 , and the viability was 78 ± 14%. Abundant bacteria were associated with ions nss-SO 4 2− , nss-Ca 2+ , and NO 3 − in rainwater, but bacterial concentrations did not correlate with the ratios of airborne particle concentrations to the precipitation amounts. Further investigations with correlation and principal component analysis combining bacteria and ion species revealed that bacteria in the rainwater were likely enclosed in clouds at the stage of cloud formation in addition to below-cloud removal, and bacteria involved in the rainwater did not show confirmable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the chemical pre-conditions for planet formation, in terms of gas and ice abundances in a protoplanetary disk, as function of time and position, and the resulting chemical composition and cloud properties in the atmosphere when young gas giant planets form, in particular discussing the effects of unusual, non-solar carbon and oxygen abundances. Large deviations between the abundances of the host star and its gas giants seem likely to occur if the planet formation follows the core-accretion scenario. These deviations stem from the separate evolution of gas and dust in the disk, where the dust forms the planet cores, followed by the final run-away accretion of the left-over gas. This gas will contain only traces of elements like C, N and O, because those elements have frozen out as ices. PRODIMO protoplanetary disk models are used to predict the chemical evolution of gas and ice in the midplane. We find that cosmic rays play a crucial role in slowly un-blocking the CO, where the liberated oxygen forms water, which then freezes out quickly. Therefore, the C/O ratio in the gas phase is found to gradually increase with time, in a region bracketed by the water and CO ice-lines. In this regions, C/O is found to approach unity after about 5 Myrs, scaling with the cosmic ray ionization rate assumed. We then explore how the atmospheric chemistry and cloud properties in young gas giants are affected when the non-solar C/O ratios predicted by the disk models are assumed. The DRIFT cloud formation model is applied to study the formation of atmospheric clouds under the influence of varying premordial element abundances and its feedback onto the local gas. We demonstrate that element depletion by cloud formation plays a crucial role in converting an oxygen-rich atmosphere gas into carbon-rich gas when non-solar, premordial element abundances are considered as suggested by disk models.

The purpose of this research was to explore children's understandings of everyday, synthetic and scientific concepts to enable a description of how abstract, verbally taught material relates to previous experience-based knowledge and the consistency of understanding about cloud formation. This study examined the conceptual understandings of cloud formation and rain in kindergarten (age 5-7), second (age 8-9) and fourth (age 10-11) grade children, who were questioned on the basis of structured interview technique. In order to represent consistency in children's answers, three different types of clouds were introduced (a cirrus cloud, a cumulus cloud, and a rain cloud). Our results indicate that children in different age groups gave a similarly high amount of synthetic answers, which suggests the need for teachers to understand the formation process of different misconceptions to better support the learning process. Even children in kindergarten may have conceptions that represent different elements of scientific understanding and misconceptions cannot be considered age-specific. Synthetic understanding was also shown to be more consistent (not depending on cloud type) suggesting that gaining scientific understanding requires the reorganisation of existing concepts, that is time-consuming. Our results also show that the appearance of the cloud influences children's answers more in kindergarten where they mostly related rain cloud formation with water. An ability to create abstract connections between different concepts should also be supported at school as a part of learning new scientific information in order to better understand weather-related processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

he aerosols loading and retention over West Africa have grave effect on life-forms through the impact on health, farming, rainfall pattern, cloud formation, and regional climate. Bolgatanga can be found on the latitude and longitude of 10.78°N and 0.85°W, respectively. This research is focused on an investigative consideration of the negative effect of atmospheric aerosols over Bolgatanga in Ghana through a conceptual model using analytical and descriptive statistical methods with MATLAB curve-fitting tool. The model was verified using aerosol optical depth data set from satellite imagery--multi-angle imaging specto-reflectometer (MISR)--obtained over a period of 13 years. The highest percentage increase of aerosol retention was 64.27% over the research site. The model was used to estimate the atmospheric constants as 0.67, tuning constants as 0.24, and phase difference as ± π/4 4 . The physical interpretation of the results was analyzed systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Rainfall and altitude might affect vertical profiles of airborne fungi. • After the rainfall, the concentration of fungal spores at 0 m remained unchanged. • At 150 and 300 m, rainfall reduced fungal spore concentration to up 2.5-fold. • Fungi richness was not different between before and after the rain. • Cladosporium dominated all sampling heights, accounting for > 80% of all spores. Whilst fungi are a large fraction of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) and their impact on global climate has been widely recognised, few studies have empirically assessed fungal vertical profiles and diversity relating those with rainfall. Here, we show the results of fungal PBAPs before and after a rainfall event during a fieldwork campaign using a hot-air balloon over a mixed land-use context at the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. Four flights of c. 1 hour each were performed in the early morning from 8th until 11th of March 2022, and data were collected at three sampling heights (0, 150 and 300 m). Rainfall estimation using IMERG data indicated the precipitation event was of 15–20 mm and ERA5/ECMWF data highlighted that most of the airborne samples were taken above the boundary layer height. After the rainfall, the concentration of fungal spores at the ground level remained unchanged, whereas it was reduced to between 2- and 2.5-fold for the 150 and the 300 m heights, respectively. This was also accompanied by a reduction in the number of Pink-CFU, indicating a major drop in fungal PBAPs at higher altitudes associated with the rain. In addition, total spore concentration indicated Cladosporium sp. as dominant at all sampling heights, accounting for more than 80% of all spores, whereas Aspergillus/Penicillium -like represented less than 20%. Our results show the effects of rainfall and altitude on the concentration of fungal PBAPs, indicating how wet removal impacts fungi vertical profiles which has knock-on-effects on cloud and precipitation formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]