Pollution Reduces Winter Precipitation
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In winter, moist air flows off the ocean and rises over the hills downwind of a coastal city, dropping its rain and snow mainly as it ascends the hills. As pollution from the city is pushed into the clouds by the hills downwind of the city, it interferes with droplet formation in the clouds as observed by NASA's satellites. The smaller cloud droplets convert more slowly into precipitation. Instead of precipitating, much of the water in the clouds evaporates, reducing the net rainfall downwind of the urban area by up to 15% to 25% on a seasonal basis. First is the unpolluted case.
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This animation shows what winter precipitation is like when pollution is not involved.
Duration: 19.0 seconds
Available formats:
320x240 (30 fps)
MPEG-1
2 MB
720x486
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320x240
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113 KB
160x80
PNG
24 KB
80x40
PNG
6 KB
320x240 (30 fps)
X-FLV
705 KB
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This animation shows what winter precipitation is like when pollution is involved.
Duration: 19.0 seconds
Available formats:
720x486
Frames
320x240 (30 fps)
MPEG-1
2 MB
320x240
PNG
112 KB
720x480 (29.97 fps)
MPEG-2
14 MB
640x480 (29.97 fps)
MPEG-4
6 MB
160x80
PNG
24 KB
320x240 (30 fps)
X-FLV
677 KB
How to play our movies
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