In this video from the American Chemical Society, the effect of microbes on the weather is outlined. The ocean is covered with bacteria and nucleic acids; a very thin layer coats the top of the ocean. The ocean seems to treat those various particles differently. It launches a lot of organic material into the air, and scientists want to understand more about what stays in the sea and what gets sent into the air, and how those selections are made.
Atmospheric Chemist Kimberly Prather of University of California San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography discusses how chemists are investigating the particles in the center of water droplets or ice crystals. Some of those particles can cause rainfall. But not every particle in the atmosphere forms a water droplet. Chemists want to understand more about natural aerosols, as well as how they affect weather.
