WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. and Israeli scientists say they've discovered how aerosols from human activities affect cloud cover and the Earth's climate.
Aerosols are tiny particles that make up smoke, dust and ocean spray, researchers said. Traveling on wind currents, aerosols move from their source and into the atmosphere, where they become encased by water and turn into the droplets that create clouds.
The scientists -- Lorraine Remer from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, J. Vanderlei Martins of the University of Maryland and Ilan Koren of Israel's Weizmann Institute -- said they developed an analytical model combining knowledge of cloud development, satellite observations and mathematical calculations in an effort to explain how aerosols can, in different places, either increase or decrease cloud coverage and life cycle.
"This improved understanding leads to prediction and prediction can help us plan and perhaps prevent some of the potential consequences of putting aerosols from human activity into the atmosphere," said Remer.
The scientists' findings are reported in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science.
