A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations

Madison_rogue@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.ml – 94 points – A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations
arstechnica.com

Scientists are learning more about “sesquiterpenes" vapors made from trees.

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by injecting the steel chamber with vapors that represent specific environments. (It’s called the CLOUD chamber, for Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets.)

It's a chamber they use to make clouds. Couldn't they just call it the Cloud Chamber, without resorting to the most awkward, contrived acronym I've ever seen?

I'm not educated in this matter at all, this is just a guess with no basis.

A "cloud chamber" is a device used to detect radiation, and it has been that for a long time. Perhaps they wanted to distance themselves from that device, hence the strained acronym CLOUD.

"Trees emit natural volatiles like isoprene and monoterpenes, which can spark cloud-forming chemical reactions. Dada’s new work focuses on an overlooked class of less abundant volatiles called sesquiterpenes, which smell woody, earthy, citrusy, or spicy, depending on the molecule and type of plant or microbe that emits them.

The team shows that sesquiterpenes are more effective than expected for seeding clouds. A mere 1-to-50 ratio of sesquiterpene to other volatiles doubled cloud formation."