Climate mystery shrouded in clouds

DELFT, Netherlands: Wearing 3-D viewing goggles, scientists peer at virtual pink, blue and purple clouds billowing in cyberspace at a research laboratory in the Dutch city of Delft.

By tracking how particles move in and around computer-simulated clouds, they hope to shed light on one of the unknowns of climate forecasting: how these masses of water droplets and ice crystals influence changing temperatures.

The research was undertaken because of the growing urgency for scientists to improve ways of forecasting climate change.