Considering the globe as a whole, high clouds and cloud-free scenes result in warming of the Earth's atmosphere, as less energy escapes into space than arrives from the sun. For low clouds, it's the ...

Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci proposed a radical theory to explain a scientific mystery: earthshine. Now the planet is less reflective because of melting ice and changing clouds. Five ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The sun’s warming rays met less resistance in 2023, as Earth experienced a record low in cloud cover. Planetary albedo is how much sunlight is reflected into space by Earth’s ...

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Have you ever wondered why people randomly say to not wear black outside when it’s hot? Or they would emphasize how much hotter you will be if you wore a black shirt? As ...

Venus is a particularly strange planet, and this is part of the reason why planetary scientists have taken so much interest in learning more about it. Unfortunately, deploying landers on the Venusian ...

In a new posting, climate scientist James Hansen calls our attention to a “BFD”: Earth’s albedo (or reflectivity) is the portion (percent) of incoming solar radiation that is reflected back to space.

Astronomers have discovered that the well-studied exoplanet WASP-12b reflects almost no light, making it appear essentially pitch black. This discovery sheds new light on the atmospheric composition ...

Considering the globe as a whole, high clouds and cloud-free scenes result in warming of the Earth's atmosphere, as less energy escapes into space than arrives from the sun. For low clouds, it's the ...