APPARENTLY The earth has been getting dimmer lately. This means that the planet we live in reflects less light because of the presence of climate change which is getting worse.
This was revealed from a study published in Geophysical Research Letters.
In the study, researchers measured earthshine or Earth rays, which is light that is reflected from Earth and illuminates the surface of the Moon as well as measurements from satellites.
This was done to find that there has been a significant decrease in Earth’s reflectance, or albedo, over the past two decades.
The new findings use two decades of Earth’s light data collected at the Big Bear Solar Observatory using a special type of telescope to view the Moon.
The researchers analyzed data for approximately 800 nights between 1998 and 2017 which revealed a small but significant drop in light.
According to reports, Earth now reflects about half a watt less light per square meter than it did 20 years ago, with most of the decline occurring in the last three years.
That figure is equivalent to 0.5% decrease in the Earth’s ability to reflect light or the term albedo. In total, the Earth reflects about 30% of the incoming sunlight.
“This drop in albedo came as a surprise to us when we analyzed the data for the last three years after 17 years of flat albedo,” said Phlip Goode of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who was involved in the research.
One of the causes is thought to be low clouds over the Pacific Ocean that have decreased in number in recent years. This cloud is one of the objects on Earth that reflects sunlight.
The dimming of light on Earth can also be seen from how much solar energy is captured by the Earth’s climate system.
Once this significant additional solar energy is in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, it could contribute to global warming, as the extra sunlight is as large as the total anthropogenic climate imposed over the past two decades.
(DRM)
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