Study: Climate Change Makes Earth’s Light Dimmer

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – According to recent research, Earth reflects less light due to its constantly changing climate. The beautiful phenomenon that connects Earth’s climate and brightness is clouds.

Cloud is part of the notoriously complex climate puzzle. Scientists struggle to model how clouds will respond climate change and how these responses will in turn shape climate future.

However, the scientists behind the latest research think that all reflectivity-related findings depend on the dynamics of the clouds over the Pacific Ocean.

Reported Live Science, Tuesday (5/10/2021), this research relies on two decades of observations of a phenomenon called ‘Earthshine‘, which is light reflected from Earth to the surface of the dark side of the Moon, then combined with satellite observations of Earth’s reflectivity or Albedo, and the brightness of the Sun.

Different features on Earth reflect different amounts of light: the oceans get very little, while the land gets about twice as much. Meanwhile, the clouds reflect about half of the sunlight that hits them. Snow and ice reflect most of the light they receive.

Scientists at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California have studied how light Earth has fluctuated since 1998. They look for changes in the time scale from daily to decade.

The researchers note that these measurements are relative and require more robust observations, perhaps even from cubesats (miniature versions of satellites for space research) or the Moon observatory.

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