The Role of Clouds in the Long-Term Habitability of Planets

We proposed to conduct theoretical and laboratory investigations of the role that clouds play in the long-term climate history of the Earth and other habitable planets. We made significant progress in the first area we proposed to consider- the properties of carbon dioxide clouds in atmospheres that are rich in carbon dioxide. We submitted a modeling paper on the microphysical properties of the clouds to Icarus showing that such clouds are unlikely to play an important role in the early greenhouses on Earth or Mars. The model was based on lab studies of the nucleation and growth of carbon dioxide. We have also submitted a manuscript describing these lab studies to Icarus. These lab studies are critical not only to the ancient Mars atmosphere, but also to the current one. We also submitted a paper to Nature describing modeling of current Martian CO2 clouds. We will also model the properties of water clouds in the early history of Earth. Early in Earth's history the atmosphere contained no free oxygen. Without oxygen, sulfate aerosols that are currently the dominant cloud nuclei, cannot form. Without such nuclei the cloud structure would have been far different than it is now. We initiated studies of the aerosols on Titan as part of this work. We reported these studies in a short paper on nucleation and in several conferences.