CloudRoots

Clouds depend on water to form, organize, intensify and transform into other clouds. The roots of clouds are turbulent thermals that transport heat and moisture. Over land, this moisture content is strongly regulated by plants through photosynthesis and evaporation. This cloud-atmosphere-vegetation continuum – namely CloudRoots – connect clouds to the Earth’s surface where vegetation controls the partitioning of the available radiative energy into heat, water vapor and momentum. In turn, this available energy rely on the partitioning of radiation
into direct and diffuse contributions largely controlled by clouds. This interactive circle is composed of a myriad of biological, chemical and physical processes acting at different spatial and temporal scales. Current weather and carbon-climate models struggle to effectively describe and link this cloud-atmosphere-surface system. The CloudRoots project intends to change this.