Changes in Earth's reflectance over the past two decades

E. Pallé, P. R. Goode, P. Montanes-Rodriguez, S. E. Koonin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

We correlate an overlapping period of earthshine measurements of Earth's reflectance (from 1999 through mid-2001) with satellite observations of global cloud properties to construct from the latter a proxy measure of Earth's global shortwave reflectance. This proxy shows a steady decrease in Earth's reflectance from 1984 to 2000, with a strong climatologically significant drop after 1995. From 2001 to 2003, only earthshine data are available, and they indicate a complete reversal of the decline. Understanding how the causes of these decadal changes are apportioned between natural variability, direct forcing, and feedbacks is fundamental to confidently assessing and predicting climate change.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1299-1301
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume304
Issue number5675
DOIs
StatePublished - May 28 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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