Earth’s cloud cover is rapidly shrinking and contributing to record-breaking temperatures.
New research, involving the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, found between 1.5 and three per cent of the world’s storm cloud zones had been contracting each decade over the past 24 years.
Study co-author Christian Jakob said the trend had been linked to changing wind patterns, the expansion of the tropics and storm systems shifting toward the North and South poles.
Professor Jakob said those factors were well-documented responses to climate change.
He said with less clouds reflecting sunlight back into space to keep the planet cool, the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions was being amplified and driving up global temperatures.
“Reduction in cloud cover is now understood to be the largest contributor to Earth’s increased absorption of solar radiation.”
Professor Jakob said it has been long known that changes in atmospheric circulation were affecting clouds.
“For the first time, we now have research showing those shifts are already driving major changes in how much energy the Earth absorbs.
“It’s an important piece in the puzzle of understanding the extraordinary recent warming we observed, and a wake-up call for urgent climate action.”
He said being able to more accurately predict where clouds formed and how much sunlight they reflected would be critical to anticipating the speed and scale of future warming.
“If you want to understand the climate crisis, and prepare for its impacts, you need this kind of data and this kind of analysis.”
Read the full study: Contraction of the World’s Storm-Cloud Zones the Primary Contributor to the 21st Century Increase in the Earth’s Sunlight Absorption.
