The earth is shining less and less, which is not good news

American scientists have discovered that the reflective power of the Earth, called albedo, is diminishing. A worrying phenomenon, because it leads to an increase in global warming.

The shine of the earth is fading! he to study The Big Bear Lake Solar Observatory, which specializes in studying the sun, is located in California, United States, as the magazine reveals. Science and the future He reports the news on his website. The scientists relied on observations of terrestrial radiation, between 1998 and 2017, from satellite data and by observing the amount of terrestrial light reflected by the moon.

This study documents the decline of our planet’s albedo. Albedo is, quite simply, a reflective force. The higher the albedo of the surface, the greater the reflection of sunlight and therefore the greater the luminosity. The great whiteness of the surface also means that it heats less, because the light “reflects” on it.

The phenomenon increased from 2014 to 2017

We know today that twenty years later, “The luminosity of the Earth has decreased by 0.5%, or the equivalent of half a watt less light per square meter” Determine the location of the magazine Science and the future . “It’s a lot” say scientists.

Finally, the luminosity of the Earth on the Moon was quite constant in the period from 1998 to 2014. Instead of 2014 to 2017, this phenomenon was accentuated. “We hesitated a little to analyze the data for these three years because they were identical”, So explained to CNN Lead author of the study, researcher Philip Judd of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

But when scientists looked at the data in detail, they found that: The reflection is greatly reduced.. So much so that researchers who have been monitoring Earth’s radiation since the mid-1990s initially thought they were wrong. They therefore repeated the analyzes and calculations several times.

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Global warming … contributes to global warming

What is the reason for this decrease in terrestrial albedo? For several years, low reflective clouds have been less reflective, especially over the eastern Pacific. This phenomenon is caused by the sharp increase in surface water temperature in this region.

Melting and shrinking sea ice and ice caps have also occurred nothing to worry about. This has a direct impact on the albedo of our planet, as the highly reflective white surface of the ice continues to decrease …

If the earth loses its shine, it is directly linked to climate change. And even worse, it has the effect of increasing the warming and melting of the ice. In other words, global warming… contributes to global warming. The “snowball effect” which gives little cause for optimism.

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