Clouds & Global Warming

We all know that clouds play an important role in determining weather as well as past and future climate. This is due to the absoptive and reflective nature of the water vapor. The clouds capture and then release the solar radiation from the Sun and infrared radiation from the surface of the Earth. Due to the ever-changing cloud formation, the contained amount of moisture, the height of the cloud formation, temperature, as well as the droplet size, this energy transfer mechanism is very complicated, making their effect on global warming difficult to model. This link to a NASA Earth Observatory article will hopefully add a bit of clarity to this phenomena.