üzGlobal Cloud Coverage Shrinking: A New Study Suggests the Planet’s Canopy is Thinning, Amplifying Warming Trends*
BJakarta, DN – The Earth’s cloud cover is progressively diminishing, according to a NASA satellite-based study. This shrinkage, although subtle, could exacerbate global warming by allowing more sunlight to reach the planet’s surface.
ECurrently, Earth absorbs more solar energy than it reflects. Although this explanation suffices for many phenomena, our reliance on fossil fuels isn’t solely responsible for all climate shifts. The albedo effect – where the reduction of ice stimulates less sunlight reflection and more absorption – also plays a role.
In a study published last August, NASA’s George Tselioudis from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, along with his colleagues, examined satellite data spanning two periods: from 1984 to 2018, and from 2000 to 2018. They observed significant changes in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the area near the Earth’s equator where easterly and westerly trade winds converge.
Typically, thick clouds form in specific regions when warm air rises, only to be replaced by cooler air, causing the area to narrow and cloud cover to decrease. Conversely, subtropical dry zones are expanding, leading to an overall decline in global cloud cover. The rate of this decrease varies, but it hovers around 0.72% to 0.17% per decade.
"Some part of the heating we can now explain," mencioned Tselioudis, referring to the connection between global warming and decreasing cloud cover, as reported by IFL Science.
Tselioudis’ latest research, presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting on December 11 and based on NASA’s Terra satellite data over the past 22 years, appears to confirm previous findings showing that cloud cover thinning around 1.5% every decade. This trend could contribute to heightened warming levels.
"These numbers might not seem significant, but there is something unexpected going on with the cloud feedback,"commented Bjorn Stevens, a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.
While the continuation of this trend and its overall impact on warming trajectories remain unclear, the study underscores the complexity of earth’s climate system. The findings were published in the journal Climate Dynamics.
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