The Lutheran church he designed in Bagsvaerd, in his native Denmark, began as a study of drifting clouds and sunlight on a day at the beach.
That helps form clouds and reflects sunlight, cooling the surface of the planet.
Reductions in sunlight reduce photosynthesis, but clouds and atmospheric particles scatter sunlight, meaning plants are then able to convert more of the available sunlight into growth because fewer leaves are in the shade.
"Particulate pollution reflect incoming sunlight and make clouds brighter, " said research team-member Dr Paul Halloran from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre.
BBC: Particles from fossil fuels 'affect the growth of corals'
Scientists have known for a long time that aerosols cool climate by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter, but the new study is the first to use a global model to estimate the net effects on plant carbon intake resulting from this type of atmospheric pollution.
However, after three years of observations of low stratus, cumulus and stratocumulus clouds over land, Anthony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies discovered that when air temperatures were higher, clouds were thinner and thus less capable of reflecting sunlight.
The sunlight is stitching in and out of clouds, seemingly determined to hold its own.
Last September a team led by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla, California, looked at whether clouds could be whitened artificially (and thus caused to reflect more sunlight back into space) using particles emitted from a boat.
The juxtaposition of mouth organs and strings paints an overwhelming picture of rays of sunlight cutting through the clouds.
Pines rustle gently in the breeze and droplets of dew sparkle on the fields, reflecting watery sunlight filtering through the clouds.
应用推荐