Enric Palle

Unexpected changes in Earth's climate observed on dark side of the moon

Scientists who monitor Earth's reflectance by measuring the moon's earthshine have observed unexpectedly large climate fluctuations during the past two decades. By combining eight years of earthshine data with nearly twenty years of partially overlapping satellite cloud data, they have found a gradual decline in the Earth's reflectance that became sharper in the last part of the 1990's, perhaps associated with the accelerated global warming in recent years. Surprisingly, the declining reflectance reversed completely in the past three years. Such changes, which are not understood, seem to be a natural variability of the Earth's clouds.