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<ul><li>A new study revealed that the earth is reflecting less light due to <keyword id="6361617" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword>.</li><li>The study found the reason behind this is due to the reduction in bright, low-lying clouds.</li><li>It also warned that the earth's dimming could contribute to <keyword id="6366055" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-warming" source="Orion">global warming</keyword>.</li></ul>Climate change is causing heat waves, melting glaciers and icebergs, intense droughts and possibly everything that can deteriorate the planet. A new study now says that climate change is causing the earth to lose its shine. What’s happening is that the “light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon” known as “earthshine” has dropped over the past two decades. According to a new <a href="https://news.agu.org/press-release/earth-is-dimming-due-to-climate-change/">study</a> by the Advancing Earth and Space Science, the earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago. This is a drop of about 0.5% in the last two decades. The study revealed that this drop can be caused by two things which are the sun’s brightness and the planet’s reflectivity. Based on the changes observed by the researchers, the periodic changes in the sun’s brightness which included two periods of maximum brightness and one quiet period did not relate to this drop which led to the conclusion that it is caused by something on the planet. <div type="image" title="earthshine" msid="86746205" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Example of earthshine.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Why is it happening?" comment="subhead" text="Why is it happening?">Why is it happening?</cmsannotation> The study found that satellite measurements from NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project recorded a reduction in bright and reflective low-lying clouds over the Pacific ocean have decreased in recent years. The biggest drop in <keyword id="1605689" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="earthshine" source="Orion">earthshine</keyword> occurred during the last three years which is between 2017 and 2019 based on the CERES data. This is also the same area where there have been increases in sea surface temperatures likely due to climate change. The researchers added that the dimming of the earth also shows how much solar energy is captured by its climate system, and once this additional solar energy is in the planet’s atmosphere and oceans, it may increase global warming. This extra sunlight is said to be of the same magnitude as the total anthropogenic climate which is regarded as the climate change caused by burning fossil fuels. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/the-james-webb-space-telescope-its-designed-to-search-the-first-galaxies-formed-after-big-bang/slidelist/86670502.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">The James Webb Space Telescope — it’s designed to search the first galaxies formed after Big Bang</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/india-set-to-witness-its-spacex-moment-soon-says-agnikul-ceo/articleshow/86723308.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">India set to witness its SpaceX moment soon, says Agnikul CEO</a>

The earth is losing its shine and here’s why we should be worried

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A study found that the <keyword id="11996554" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> has lost some of its shine over time, a study found.</li><li>They think it is because there are fewer clouds to bounce back the light.</li><li>The phenomenon may have implications for the climate, though that requires more study.</li></ul>The Earth is bouncing back less light into space because its <keyword id="11991849" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cloud" source="Orion">cloud</keyword> coverage isn't what it used to be, a study found. This is due to the cloud coverage being reduced due to a fluctuation in ocean temperatures, the researchers said.Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a lead author on the study, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/04/weather/earth-dimming-climate/index.html">described his findings to CNN.</a>"Off the west coast of the Americas, the low-lying clouds were burned away and more sunlight came in, so the way we saw it was, the reflectance of the Earth had dropped," he said.<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/04/weather/earth-dimming-climate/index.html"></a>The study looked at a phenomenon called "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beautiful-earthshine-effect-visible-tonight-2014-5">earthshine</a>."The same way that the moon bounces back the sunlight, which gives it that silver-gray look in the night sky, the Earth reflects about 30% of the sunlight, it receives which is why it looks like a blue marble from space. Scientists are able to measure the reflection of the Earth on the dark side of the moon, which is called earthshine. <div type="image" title="earthshine" height="2827" width="3769" msid="86782506" hostid="261"></div>The Earth's shine on the moon has been more or less constant over the past 17 years. "We were sort of reluctant to do the last three years of data because it looked the same," Goode told CNN. But when Goode and his colleagues did look, "the reflectance had...gone down noticeably," he told CNN. So much so that the scientists at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California, which has been monitoring the earthshine since the mid-90s, thought they had made a mistake."We redid it several times and it turns out it was correct," Goode said. The scientists found that the Earth's capacity to reflect sunlight - a measurable trait called its "albedo" - has gone down by 0.5 watts per square meter.That means the Earth is getting 0.5% more sunlight compared to levels in the first decade of the 2000s, per CNN, which is "climatologically significant," the scientists said in the study.<div type="image" title="A graph shows wavy lines aiming down and a grey trend cloud representing earthshine from the mid 90s to now." height="1235" width="2470" msid="86782507" hostid="261"></div>The findings <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL094888">were published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters</a> on August 29. The scientists attribute the loss of albedo to there being fewer clouds in the atmosphere to bounce back the light into space. Specifically, they attribute the change to <keyword id="12249254" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pacific" source="Orion">Pacific</keyword> Decadal Oscillation, a long-term fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean during which the ocean either warms or cools, influencing the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jet-stream-moving-north-climate-change-weather-2021-9">jet stream</a> and weather patterns along the way, <a href="https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/data/el-nino-la-nina-watch-and-pdo/pacific-decadal-oscillation-pdo/">per NASA.</a> A 2016 study found that <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> is also changing cloud coverage, shifting it towards the poles which are affecting the Earth's albedo, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-is-shifting-the-worlds-clouds-2016-7">Insider previously reported</a>.However, the scientists didn't mention climate change in the 2021 study.Speaking to CNN, Goode wouldn't venture the guess on how the loss of albedo could affect the planet. But Edward Schwieterman, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Riverside who was not involved in the study, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/930069">said in a statement that</a> it was "actually quite concerning," Scientists had hoped that the Earth warming would lead to more clouds in the atmosphere, potentially counteracting some of the warming by reflecting additional sunlight."But this shows the opposite is true," he said.

The Earth is less bright than it used to be because there are fewer clouds in the air, a study found

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The earth is losing its shine and here’s why we should be worried

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The Earth is less bright than it used to be because there are fewer clouds in the air, a study found

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