Environment

The sky has gone dimmer over the past 35 years

by JeffHuang | March 13, 2009 at 09:57 am

401 views | 19 Recommendations | 10 comments

Over the past 30 years, the increase in pollution has caused skies to dim slightly over most of the world. Aerosol is the main culprit as the burning of fossil fuel blocks sunlight from reaching the earth's surface.

Research was conducted by Dickinson and Kaicun Wang from the University of Maryland. A database of 3,250 meteorological stations worldwide was collected between the time periods of 1973 to 2007. The data can now be used to compare temperature, rainfall, and cloud-cover data from the past 35 years to see the impact of aerosol has on climate change.

The dimming has been nearly worldwide. The report says that while visibility worsened only slightly in North America, it "decreased substantially over south and east Asia, South America, Australia and Africa, resulting in net global dimming over land."

Europe, however, has actually experienced brightening skies, the authors say, where visibility has increased since the mid-1980s. This is because of declines in pollution over that continent, likely because of controls on using sulfur in coal, says study co-author Robert Dickinson of the University of Texas.

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Billy Wilson

at 10:26 on March 13th, 2009

This is the paper mill is the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the main industries in the city along with the Essar Steel Mill.

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wulverstane

at 11:15 on March 13th, 2009

This shot was taken at the Ring of Brodgar on the Island of Orkney, situated off the north coast of mainland Scotland in September 2007.
I went back later that night and the difference in the sky from my home in industrial central Scotland was hard to believe.
There were more stars visible than I had ever seen, before and the spiral arm of the milky way could bee seen clearly.

wulverstane has contributed a photo to this story.

numberonetwice

at 15:07 on March 13th, 2009

This photo is overlooking the city of Cairo, Egypt. There is a large layer of dark yellow-ish smog over the city. It's not very pleasant...

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starvingjack

at 16:19 on March 13th, 2009

This was taken in jeju island, korea, behind a supermarket near the coast. There are no factories there and the sky is a beautiful blue. And yes the air there is fresh and you can see quite a number of people running along the coast 5am in the morning. I wonder if it prolong their life span...

when i went back to Singapore, i feel like I'm choking on the air and the heat was unbelievable...

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jssutt

at 07:22 on March 14th, 2009

Early morning commuters headed to work on a smoggy winter morning.

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astaarael

at 16:05 on March 14th, 2009

The typical sunset in Los Angeles during traffic on the freeway and a sad layer of green tint.

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eastvanray

at 18:27 on March 14th, 2009

So we can solce Global Warming if we return to using aerosols?

voxbacchus

at 15:27 on March 15th, 2009

The contrast between what the sky should look like (this is after a brief rainstorm) and the amount of pollution hanging at the level the population is generally at is astounding.

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