Microplastics Could Be Making the Weather Worse
WiredTHIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Clouds form when water vapor—an invisible gas in the atmosphere—sticks to tiny floating particles, such as dust, and turns into liquid water droplets or ice crystals. In a newly published study, we show that microplastic particles can have the same effects, producing ice crystals at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius warmer than droplets without microplastics. Clouds in the atmosphere can be made up of liquid water droplets, ice particles or a mixture of the two. In clouds in the mid- to upper atmosphere where temperatures are between 32 and –36 degrees Fahrenheit, ice crystals normally form around mineral dust particles from dry soils or biological particles, such as pollen or bacteria.
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