Pollen could lead to rainy days, says study. Find out how.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 11:45 AM - "April showers bring May flowers," says the common expression but according to new research flowers may be bringing showers as well.
The news comes from a study conducted by Allison Steiner, an associate professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences.
Small floating particles play a key part when it comes to cloud formation.
"In order to initiate cloud development and growth one key ingredient is a cloud condensation nuclei that forms on a pre-existing aerosol like dust or salt that's in the atmosphere," said Tyler Hamilton, meteorologist at The Weather Network. "These small particles vary in size depending on if you’re located in a continental or maritime environment. Once the nuclei forms different complex physical processes such as droplet collision and condensation growth grows droplets into the precipitation we see at the surface"
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Pollen has often been ignored as an aerosol by atmospheric experts due to its size.
"The grains were thought to be too large to be important in the climate system, too large to form clouds or interact with the sun's radiation," Steiner told Michigan News . "And also the large particles don't last in the atmosphere. They tend to settle out relatively quickly."
After looking through allergy literature, Steiner found that pollen can break down easily and those smaller grains could have implications when it comes to climate."What we found is when pollen gets wet, it can rupture very easily in seconds or minutes and make lots of smaller particles that can act as cloud condensation nuclei, or collectors for water," Steiner said."
To test whether her idea was possible, Steiner teamed up with a team at Texas A&M, where researchers took soaked pollen from different trees and sprayed the fragments into a cloud-making chamber.
"Samples entering the cloud chamber are exposed to moist conditions representative of the relative humidity found in the atmosphere," said Sarah Brooks, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M in a conversation with Michigan News. "If a sample is an effective cloud activator, droplets will rapidly grow on the sample fragments forming large cloud droplets."
As hypothesized the pollen fragments did form clouds, which could have interesting ramifications in nature.
"It's possible," Steiner said," that when trees emit pollen, that makes clouds, which in turn makes rain and that feeds back into the trees and can influence the whole growth cycle of the plant."
Source: Michigan News
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