In recent years, the climate change crisis has escalated to unprecedented levels, resulting in unimaginable and life-changing consequences. An acclaimed new study contends that global warming is dimming our planet, literally!
Global warming is causing the Earth's brightness to decrease, according to a new study. Now you're probably wondering, "how do you even measure something like that?" But researchers have their ways. Keeping track of the Earth's shine requires them to calculate the Earth's 'albedo', or reflectance. The albedo is calculated utilizing something called the 'earthshine'.
The crescent moon is most noticeable immediately after sunset or before sunrise, when its dazzling crescent gives way to a dark disc with a faint glow. A crescent moon's unlit parts are known as earthshine because they are glowing from the light reflected from the Earth.
The study revealed that earthshine data over the last three years indicates that our home planet is reflected almost half a watt less light than it did 20 years ago. This is equivalent to a 0.5% reduction in Earth's reflectance.
Between 1998 and 2017, researchers studied earthshine at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California to determine the Earth's 'albedo.' Over 1,500 nights of data were collected. This analysis allowed them to calculate the amount of light reflected by the planet.