What ‘earthshine’ means for our climate system

Our planet absorbs light and radiation from the sun and reflects some radiation back into space. But Earth’s reflectivity is reducing over time, according to new research.
Rising sea temperatures have reduced reflective low-lying cloud coverage.
This could accelerate the impact of climate change.

Look closely at a crescent moon and you may be able to see earthshine: light from the sun reflected by earth onto the moon. But, hurry, this light source is dimming over time, new research shows.

Our planet has no light source of its own but absorbs light and radiation from the sun, while reflecting a fraction of the sun’s radiation back into space. By methodically measuring the levels of earthshine Earth reflects onto the moon, scientists have found that its reflectance – or ‘albedo’ in technical terms – is diminishing over time.

Measuring earth’s albedo is a challenge. The level…