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Scatter plots of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) above- and below-cloud on the x-axis and cloud droplet number concentration on the y-axis. The measurements and images are from the NASA ORACLES campaign studying the interactions between smoke from fires in southern Africa (which produce CCN) and clouds over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. The relationship between the below-cloud CCN and the cloud microphysics is within the expected range, but that between the above-cloud CCN and the cloud microphysics is much weaker.

This has implications for satellite studies that primarily rely on measures of smoke-cloud contact to determine whether or not the below-cloud air is polluted. Because the process that mixes air above the clouds down below via turbulence, called entrainment, takes place on a timescale of several days, a single snapshot of smoke-cloud contact lacks the necessary context to determine how much influence the smoke has had on the clouds.

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