Scientists have found that the air pollution absorbs and disperses sunlight and thereby reduces the amount that reaches the Earth’s surface.
Scientists have found that the air pollution absorbs and disperses sunlight and thereby reduces the amount that reaches the Earth’s surface. The latest study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on Aug 20, 2019 also reports that the smaller the particles, the more harmful the impacts are.
The study highlights findings that have several implications, the most consequential of which is the negative effect of air pollution on renewable energy harvest and the associated economic burden. These findings also increase awareness of how pollution affects air purity and can thereby usher in potential methods to enhance it and thereby increase air quality.
The sun delivers energy to Earth's surface in the form of solar radiation, called surface solar radiation (SSR). The amount of sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface fluctuates over time. Cloud cover and aerosols – particulates like dust or ash, kicked up into the air or coughed out of smokestacks – can disperse orscatter sunlight, resulting in less of it actually arriving on Earth.
Read more at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Image by Tomasz Proszek from Pixabay
