For more than two decades, the Earth has become darker slowly. Using 24 years of data from NASA clouds and the Earth’s radiological power system (CERES), researchers discovered that this creeping darkness is that the Earth reflects less sunlight, with the most dramatic blackout in the northern hemisphere.
Posted in The facts of the National Academy of SciencesThis new study highlights the emerging imbalance in the “radiation budget” on the planet. The radiation budget is the exact balance between the sunlight that is absorbed by the Earth and the energy from which it is emitted again into space.
Northern and southern hemisphere
On average, half of the northern and southern ball receives the same amount of solar energy received, which means that it must reflect the same amount as well. However, the northern hemisphere now absorbs more sunlight and makes more long -wave radiation (OLR) compared to its southern counterpart.
According to the research team, this transformation is no longer the overall air currents able to fully compensate it.
The authors said in their article: “The overall increase in cooling the long radiation in the hemispheres of the globe is the result of contributions of changes in temperature and clouds partially corresponds to contributions from changes in water vapor and trace gases.”
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Why the Earth becomes darker?
The main factor behind this global fear lies in the changes in the Earth’s whiteness. White is a measure of the amount of sunlight reflected by the surface. Light -colored areas such as ice, snow and clouds are a lot of sun energy due to space, while dark surfaces such as forests, oceans and asphalt absorb them. More reflection means cooler temperatures, and more absorption means warmer temperatures.
Rapid blackout in the northern hemisphere can be returned to changes in its whiteness, with a decrease in snow cover and the melting of marine ice in this region, which reduced the reflection significantly.
In a more strange development, the effect of clean air in the northern hemisphere negatively on its whiteness. For decades, industrial pollution dispersed sunlight and helped form bright and reflective clouds. These small portable particles, known as aerosols, were natural mirrors, as they restore energy to space.
Thanks to the most stringent air quality laws across Europe, North America and China, the air has become more clean, but also reflects less than sunlight. With fewer aerosols in the atmosphere, the planet absorbs more heat.
On the other hand, the southern hemisphere witnessed temporary fiery bursts of reflection. The major natural events, such as forest fires in Australia and the Honga Tonga volcano, are periodically filled with atmosphere and an increase in sunlight.
How does the dark land affect our future?
These new results indicate a disturbing possibility: that withdrawing the ground, which has long been believed to have the ability to compensate for radiological changes automatically, may not be able to save us from the high temperatures. Many current climatic models assume that clouds will act in this expected way and stabilize the energy balance on the planet. However, the new study indicates otherwise.
“Since darkness in the northern hemisphere (in relation to the southern hemisphere) is due to the changes of non -cloud characteristics, it is not compensated by the cloud changes, this indicates that there may be an end to the role of clouds in maintaining the consistency of the hemisphere in the white.”
And if this is true, the temperatures may continue in the northern hemisphere more quickly than the global average, and continue to see more dense and longer summer seasons in the coming years. To counter this and prepare for it, researchers suggest that climatic models may need to be re -calibrated to reflect these changes in the role of decreasing withdrawal in helping to control the Earth’s climate.
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condition sources
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