Climate|There used to be a balance between the reflectivity of the northern and southern hemispheres, but now it seems to be crumbling.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The Northern Hemisphere of the Earth now absorbs more of the Sun’s energy than the Southern Hemisphere. This is how the researchers calculated from satellite observations made between 2001 and 2024.
NASA’s research concludes that the causes are, among other things, melted ice and an increase in the amount of water vapor. The phenomenon affects the weather.
A German research institute warns that the seas of the southern hemisphere may release heat bound to the seas as a “post-unification”. It would prolong climate change by decades.
Terrestrial the northern hemisphere absorbs more sunlight than the southern. The northern hemisphere is therefore warming faster.
Researchers have considered how the phenomenon affects climate change, or whether it affects it at all.
Terrestrial climate scientists already noticed years ago that both halves of the Earth reflect almost exactly the same amount of sunlight back into space.
It is special because the Northern Hemisphere has more land, cities and pollution such as emissions from industry aerosols.
The Northern Hemisphere therefore reflects more sunlight than it absorbs.
The southern hemisphere, on the other hand, is mostly sea. The sea surface is dark and therefore absorbs a lot of sunlight.
The balance was maintained, for example, by moving clouds. Now, however, it seems that the balance between the northern and southern hemispheres is crumbling.
OF SATELLITES new data compiled by scientists suggest that the hemispheric symmetry is breaking.
Science journal Pnas tells From a NASA or US Space Administration study in which a climate scientist Norman Loeb explained with his groups Satellites assembled in the Ceres project observations.
There were observations from 2001–2024.
Researchers concluded with the help of different models that now the northern hemisphere has darkened.
In a decade, the northern hemisphere absorbs about 0.34 watts more solar energy per square meter.
“The difference doesn’t sound big, but on the scale of the entire planet, the number is huge,” says a climate scientist at the University of Maryland Zhangqing Li online service in Live Science. He was not involved in this study.
The reason for the darkening is, among other things, more and more melting ice. It reveals dark soil. The increased amount of water vapor also affects the darkening. Water vapor absorbs sunlight.
The change will affect weather patterns and rainfall amounts in the coming decades.
The Germans climate scientists, on the other hand, have calculated what would happen if people no longer released various greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The climate would then start to cool in the next century at the latest.
The seas have restrained global warming. They have absorbed about a quarter of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions.
If the climate cools down, the Southern Arctic Ocean sea area can release a big “burp” of heat, says the website Physics.org.
The belching occurs because a lot of heat bound to the sea areas is released. The heat does not stay in the sea forever.
Belching can lead to the climate warming again in the next century, says the science journal Agu Advances.
Its effects could last decades, even a century, writes the geochemist Ivy Frenger of the oceans From the Geomar research center From the German language.
Climate change therefore, at least according to the models and calculations, you can’t be tamed suddenly.
The effects of post-heating would be more visible in the southern hemisphere, write online service Science Alert.