By Chris Murphy
Last updated at 6:43 PM on 22nd February 2012
Ever feel the sky is closing in on you – well, you’re right, it is.
Earth’s clouds got a little lower by around one per cent a year on average during the first decade of this century.
That’s the finding by a new NASA-funded university study based on satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.
Getting lower: The cloud level, like those encircling the Mattehorn, has fallen every year since 2000
Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analysed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft.
The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet.
Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes.
Lead researcher Roger Davies said that while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides a hint that something quite important might be going on. Longer-term monitoring will be required to determine the significance of the observation for global temperatures.
A cloudy world: The Earth made up of a mosaic of images taken by Nasa’s Terra spacecraft
A consistent reduction in cloud height would allow Earth to cool more efficiently, reducing the surface temperature of the planet and potentially slowing the effects of global warming.
This may represent a ‘negative feedback’ mechanism – a change caused by global warming that works to counteract it.
‘We don’t know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower,’ says Davies. ‘But it must be due to a change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude.’
NASA’s Terra spacecraft is scheduled to continue gathering data through the remainder of this decade. Scientists will continue to monitor the MISR data closely to see if this trend continues.
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