[PETER POULDING]

PETER POULDING  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Dear Chris.

Does the amount of cloud around the earth remain constant?
                                                                                                        Yours faithfully.
                                                                                                         Peter Poulding.

What do you think?

[litespeed]

Reply,

Cloud cover is one of the mighty variables that have not been even closely discoverred. Believe it or not, much cloud cover is the result of cosmic rays. These rays vary over time, but I am unaware of any definitive study on this matter.

Cloud cover over the Pacific Heat Vent seems to very with the temperature of the water underneith. Warmer Water, more clouds. It is yet one more variable that does not seem to be well understood.  These are a few of the things that keep me a skeptic. One poster claims I am technically a denier. It is an epithet true believers use when they have no intellectual contribution.

[Karsten]

Reply,

Cloud cover is one of the mighty variables that have not been even closely discoverred. Believe it or not, much cloud cover is the result of cosmic rays. These rays vary over time, but I am unaware of any definitive study on this matter.

Cloud cover over the Pacific Heat Vent seems to very with the temperature of the water underneith. Warmer Water, more clouds. It is yet one more variable that does not seem to be well understood.  These are a few of the things that keep me a skeptic. One poster claims I am technically a denier. It is an epithet true believers use when they have no intellectual contribution.

And here you continue with pointing out that certain posters have no intellectual contribution. Man, you want to get kicked out for not being able to any longer keep it civil? I can't do it but others can and if you don't tone it down I can see it will happen. You have pulled yourself together in the past. I recommend you find that previous attitude again. I would hate to not read from you again, but I would not mind not reading your insults or belittlements.

[Ho-ho-ho]

Presently, global cloud cover is fairly constant with between 65 and 68% of the Earths surface. But this hasn't and isn't always the case. These figures seem to change on a 30 (ish) year cycle.

Between the years 1960 and 1987 cloud cover increased above most continents. More noticable were the increases over the US of 10% and of 5% over Europe. This was the cause of Global Dimming

From 1987 to 2001 global cloud cover decreased by 4% and we are now in an increasing state / phase / cycle.

What you don't want to do is get bogged down in a global warming dispute over cloud cover and how it affects the models. The variables are too great unless this is your field of study or expertise.
Reason being that, for one, it depends on the atlitude and latitude of the clouds and this is something we can't predict.

Low and mid level cloud is increased by urban pollution and again this increase is dependant on the volume of airbourne pollutants. While air traffic leads to an increase in high altitude cloud.

The circulation of the atmospheric can also affect cloud cover. circulation. Low pressure systems have greater cloud cover associated with them than high pressure systems.

Try googling the "nternational Satellite Cloud Climatology Project"

[litespeed]

Karsten - I wrote: "...[I am] a skeptic. One poster claims I am technically a denier. It is an epithet true believers use when they have no intellectual contribution."

Then you wrote: "Man, you want to get kicked out for not being able to any longer keep it civil?"

MY RESPONSE: First, I am not a denier, I am a skeptical agnostic. Denier is the standard epithet used by true believers when they have no intellectual contribution. Second, if you believe this statement is so abhorrent as to require immediate banishment [not even a trial for heresy] then you are one very thin skinned customer indeed.  Accordingly, I suggest you stay out of strong sunlight as the climate continues to improve.

PS: At least we hope it will continue to improve. Apparently Denver climatologists are all-a-twitter because current climate models are insufficient to account for current cooling. The actual word used was 'travesty'.  Regardless of the insufficiency of current climate models, I hope we can all agree lower temperatures sufficient to walk an elephant across the Thames over the ice MIGHT be less then optimum....

[Karsten]

Karsten - I wrote: "...[I am] a skeptic. One poster claims I am technically a denier. It is an epithet true believers use when they have no intellectual contribution."

Then you wrote: "Man, you want to get kicked out for not being able to any longer keep it civil?"

MY RESPONSE: First, I am not a denier, I am a skeptical agnostic. Denier is the standard epithet used by true believers when they have no intellectual contribution. Second, if you believe this statement is so abhorrent as to require immediate banishment [not even a trial for heresy] then you are one very thin skinned customer indeed.  Accordingly, I suggest you stay out of strong sunlight as the climate continues to improve.

PS: At least we hope it will continue to improve. Apparently Denver climatologists are all-a-twitter because current climate models are insufficient to account for current cooling. The actual word used was 'travesty'.  Regardless of the insufficiency of current climate models, I hope we can all agree lower temperatures sufficient to walk an elephant across the Thames over the ice MIGHT be less then optimum....

You seriously expect to make friends or stay in a science forum for long if you accuse individuals here of making "no intellectual contributions" or  being "silly name-callers" in another thread? I am recommending that you tone it down, that's all. My skin is thick enough, but I have the feeling that you were pushing your luck with your tone. Keep insulting other people and tell them they are non-intellectual and find out for yourself. Won't be me who does the banning. Won't be me who even recommends it, but I have seen it happen. It was boring after for a while but the toes that were stepped on healed.

[litespeed]

Karsten - You wrote: "I have the feeling that you were pushing your luck..."

My posts here are so relatively mild I find myself chuckling.  In the old days when feeling my oats I spent time on Islamic Maniac sites where I routinely received death threats. And believe it or not, I may very well have been a target. Half a dozen bearded, black leather jacketed individuals rented the isolated house below mine.

Some of them began a walk towards my house then I forcefully confronted them to leave the property. They were indignant. I called the cops and we trapesed down to view the situation. They claimed to be from Peru; on my property just chasing a rabbit for the grill. They had hispanic accents like I have a Japanese accent. 

The cop and I consulted on accents. I knew they were not hispanic. Neither were they Eastern European nor Arabic. And not Romanian or Hungarian. My best quess is Balkan of some sort. Like Albania or Kosovo. They were gone that very day.

Perhaps just a coincidence. But a coincidence incarnate with precisely the characteristics HomeLand Security tells us to be wary of. And of course I was legally packing a KelTek .380 just in case. And you think banishment from this small accademic forum means something to me?

[Karsten]

Karsten - You wrote: "I have the feeling that you were pushing your luck..."

My posts here are so relatively mild I find myself chuckling.  In the old days when feeling my oats I spent time on Islamic Maniac sites where I routinely received death threats. And believe it or not, I may very well have been a target. Half a dozen bearded, black leather jacketed individuals rented the isolated house below mine.

Some of them began a walk towards my house then I forcefully confronted them to leave the property. They were indignant. I called the cops and we trapesed down to view the situation. They claimed to be from Peru; on my property just chasing a rabbit for the grill. They had hispanic accents like I have a Japanese accent. 

The cop and I consulted on accents. I knew they were not hispanic. Neither were they Eastern European nor Arabic. And not Romanian or Hungarian. My best quess is Balkan of some sort. Like Albania or Kosovo. They were gone that very day.

Perhaps just a coincidence. But a coincidence incarnate with precisely the characteristics HomeLand Security tells us to be wary of. And of course I was legally packing a KelTek .380 just in case. And you think banishment from this small accademic forum means something to me?

Guess not.