Changes in Earth's Reflectance over the Past Two Decades
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.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References and Notes
1
J. Lean, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.35, 33 (1997).
2
R. D. Cesset al., J. Geophys. Res.101, 12791 (1996).
3
The ERBE instruments were flown on the ERBS, NOAA-9, and NOAA-10 satellites from late 1984 to 1990 (asd-www.larc.nasa.gov). ScaRab/Meteor and ScaRaB/Ressur also measured Earth's albedo during 1994–1995 and 1998–1999, respectively (www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/∼Scarab/). In 1998, CERES began taking albedo measurements (asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/), and the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (GERB), the first broadband radiometer on a geostationary satellite, has been in operation since December 2002 (www.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/gerb/). The future satellite missions EARTHSHINE (www.sstd.rl.ac.uk) and TRIANA (on hold) (triana.gsfc.nasa.gov) may also contribute by observing the full Earth disk reflectance from the privileged deep-space position of the L1 Lagrange point.
4
P. R. Goodeet al., Geophys. Res. Lett.28, 1671 (2001).
5
When referring to SW reflectance as observed by ES, we mean the visible region from 400 to 700 nm covered by our detector.
6
J. Qiuet al., J. Geophys. Res.108, 4709, 10.1029/2003JD003610 (2003).
7
E. Palléet al., J. Geophys. Res.108, 4710, 10.1029/2003JD003611 (2003).
8
W. B. Rossow, A. W. Walker, D. E. Beuschel, M. D. Roiter, International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP): Documentation of New Cloud Data-sets (WMO/TD-No. 737, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1996).
9
The latest ISCCP data, documentation, and related information can be downloaded from the ISCCP Web site at http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov.
10
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), J. T. Houghton et al., Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2001).
11
B. A. Wielickiet al., Science295, 841 (2002).
12
P. Wang, P. Minnis, B. A. Wielicki, T. Wong, L. B. Vann, Geophys. Res. Lett.29, 10.1029/2001GL014264 (2002).
13
J. Chen, B. E. Carlson, A. D. Del Genio, Science295, 838 (2002).
14
R. D. Cess, P. M. Udelhofen, Geophys. Res. Lett.30, 1019 (2003).
15
This research was supported in part by a grant from NASA (NAG5-11007). The cloud ISCCP D1 data sets were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center. We are grateful to Y. Yung, B. Soden, T. Schneider, and five anonymous referees for their comments on drafts of this paper.
(0)eLetters
eLetters is a forum for ongoing peer review. eLetters are not edited, proofread, or indexed, but they are screened. eLetters should provide substantive and scholarly commentary on the article. Embedded figures cannot be submitted, and we discourage the use of figures within eLetters in general. If a figure is essential, please include a link to the figure within the text of the eLetter. Please read our Terms of Service before submitting an eLetter.
Log In to Submit a ResponseNo eLetters have been published for this article yet.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 304 | Issue 5675
28 May 2004
28 May 2004
Copyright
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 26 November 2003
Accepted: 21 April 2004
Published in print: 28 May 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Cite as
- E. Pallé et al.
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
Cited by
- Changes in Earth's Albedo Measured by Satellite, Science, 308, 5723, (825-825), (2021)./doi/10.1126/science.1106484
- From Dimming to Brightening: Decadal Changes in Solar Radiation at Earth's Surface, Science, 308, 5723, (847-850), (2021)./doi/10.1126/science.1103215
- Do Satellites Detect Trends in Surface Solar Radiation?, Science, 308, 5723, (850-854), (2021)./doi/10.1126/science.1103159
Loading...
View Options
Check Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS Members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your AAAS ID
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Login or register for free to read this article.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.