{"id":336577,"date":"2024-07-16T08:04:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T06:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336577"},"modified":"2024-07-16T08:04:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T06:04:41","slug":"cooling-the-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336577","title":{"rendered":"Cooling The Ni\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Post by<\/em><\/strong><\/a> Willis Eschenbach<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a two-part post. The first part is to correct an oversight in my recent post entitled Rainergy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second part is to use that new information to analyze the effect of clouds on the El Nino region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, to the first part. In my post Rainergy<\/a>, I noted that it takes ~ 80 watts per square meter (W\/m2) over a year to evaporate a cubic meter of seawater. Thus, the evaporation that creates the ~1 meter of annual rain cools the surface by \u2013 80 W\/m2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the other day I thought \u201cDang! I forgot virga!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virga is rain that falls from a cloud but evaporates completely before it hits the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Virga diagram<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing. When the virga evaporates, it\u2019s just like evaporation from the surface. It cools both the raindrops and the surrounding air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what leads to the cold storm winds entrained by the rain that hit the ground vertically and spread out around the base of the storm. You can see all of that happening in this amazing time-lapse video, with the vertical entrained wind striking the surface, spreading out across the lake, and finally agitating the trees in the foreground. On the left of the video you can also see virga falling and evaporating before it hits the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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