Another Article Of Faith Among Climate Liars Evaporates - The "Iris Effect" On Cloud Cover
Once upon a time, long ago, there was a something called the “Iris theory”, which posited that, as the earth warmed, cloud cover would increase, shielding the planet from incoming solar radiation, analogous to the way the iris in our eyes constricts in a bright light. It was pronounced among climate deniers that such an effect would mitigate the impacts of increasing heat trapping gases and global warming. Now we know more, and in fact, looks like the opposite might be the case.
Phys.org:
Warming ocean waters have caused a drop in the brightness of the Earth, according to a new study. Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine—the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon—as well as satellite measurements to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth’s reflectance, or albedo, over the past two decades.
The Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years of earthshine data, according to the new study in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.
That’s the equivalent of 0.5% decrease in the Earth’s reflectance. Earth reflects about 30% of the sunlight that shines on it. “The albedo drop was such a surprise to us when we analyzed the last three years of data after 17 years of nearly flat albedo,” said Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the lead author of the new study, referring to the earthshine data from 1998 to 2017 gathered by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California. When the latest data were added to the previous years, the dimming trend became clear.
EDIT
https://climatecrocks.com/2021/10/04/the-dimming-of-planet-earth/#more-68602
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