Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on May 7, 2005 2:08:20 GMT -6
More Sunlight is Hitting the Earth
(May 6, 2005) The amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface has been on the rise for the past decade on average, potentially accelerating the effects of global warming. Scientists had been measuring a decrease in sunlight from the 1960s to the 1990s, because of rising pollution was actually blocking sunlight. With better pollution controls in place, the planet's surface has brightened by about 4% in the last 10 years.
Sunlight that isn't absorbed or reflected by clouds as it plunges earthward will heat the surface. Because the atmosphere includes greenhouse gasses, solar warming and greenhouse warming are related.
"The atmosphere is heated from the bottom up, and more solar energy at the surface means we might finally see the increases in temperature that we expected to see with global greenhouse warming," Long said.
In fact, he said, many believe that we have already been seeing those effects in our most temperature-sensitive climates, with the melting of polar ice and high altitude glaciers.
More here from Universe today: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/more_sunlight_hitting.html?652005
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Now...I have been telling people this for years. Haven't you noticed that the sun energy falling on your skin is hot, very hot, not just warm...as it was when I was a kid in the '60's and '70's?
I always knew something was different with the sun's energy, and this is the first confirmation of my sentiments.