Scientists demonstrate high-resolution lidar sees birth zone of cloud droplets, a first-ever remote observation

A team led by atmospheric scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has demonstrated the first-ever remote observations of the fine-scale structure at the base of clouds. The results, just published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, show that the air-cloud interface is not a perfect boundary but rather is a transition zone where aerosol particles suspended in Earth's atmosphere give rise to the droplets that ultimately form clouds.