Earth's Albedo 1998-2017 as Measured From Earthshine

Goode, P. R.; Pallé, E.; Shoumko, A.; Shoumko, S.; Montañes-Rodriguez, P.; Koonin, S. E.
Bibliographical reference

Geophysical Research Letters

Advertised on:
9
2021
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
11
Refereed citations
11
Description
The reflectance of the Earth is a fundamental climate parameter that we measured from Big Bear Solar Observatory between 1998 and 2017 by observing the earthshine using modern photometric techniques to precisely determine daily, monthly, seasonal, yearly and decadal changes in terrestrial albedo from earthshine. We find the inter-annual fluctuations in albedo to be global, while the large variations in albedo within individual nights and seasonal wanderings tend to average out over each year. We measure a gradual, but climatologically significant ∼0.5 W/m2 decline in the global albedo over the two decades of data. We found no correlation between the changes in the terrestrial albedo and measures of solar activity. The inter-annual pattern of earthshine fluctuations are in good agreement with those measured by CERES (data began in 2001) even though the satellite observations are sensitive to retroflected light while earthshine is sensitive to wide-angle reflectivity. The CERES decline is about twice that of earthshine.
Related projects
Projects' name image
Exoplanets and Astrobiology

The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable

Enric
Pallé Bago