NASA: Asia's pollution could be contributing to snowier winters in the west

Monday, March 9, 2015, 4:17 PM - In April 2014, a study by NASA scientists suggested Asia's air pollution could be influencing storms that form over the Pacific Ocean.

It was theorized that Asia's air pollution may play a role in the intense winter storms Canada and the U.S. have been seeing lately.

That argument was revisited in 2015, with the space agency arguing Asia's "tainted air" is contributing to "homegrown air-quality problems on the U.S. West Coast," while shaping global weather patterns.

"Soot particles at certain altitudes can cause cloud droplets to evaporate, leaving nothing but haze," NASA writes.

"At other altitudes, soot can cause clouds to be deeper and taller, producing heavy thunderstorms or hailstorms. With so many possibilities, aerosols [i.e., human and natural air-borne particles] are one of the largest sources of uncertainty in predicting the extent of future climate change."

RELATED: Asian air pollution and global weather patterns

Over the past 30 years, storms in the Northwest Pacific have become approximately 10 percent stronger and clouds over the area have grown deeper -- a phenomenon that coincides with Asia's rapid economic development.

The NASA researchers designed a series of experiments to see if there's a link and discovered that pollution from China influences cloud development in the North Pacific, leading to stronger extratropical cyclones.

These storms then influence North American weather patterns by helping produce heavy snow and freezing temperatures.

The authors of the study suspect the frigid temperatures observed across Canada and the U.S. last year were influenced by extratropical cyclones.

Scientists are now developing new experiments to determine how closely North American weather patterns are linked to air pollution in Asia.

Source: NASA