News Climate

The Arctic is warming rapidly. These clouds may hold clues as to why

Eight flights into the odd clouds this year have provided needed intel on their inner workings

A photograph of a plane flying over Arctic clouds.

A heavily instrumented C-130 aircraft soars over the Arctic in the spring of 2024, collecting data on a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon called marine cold-air outbreaks.

Paquita Zuidema

By Carolyn Gramling

In the Arctic, a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon generates some of the oddest clouds on Earth.