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Andreas Mogensen
@astro_andreas

112,820 followers

Clouds cover an immense area of our planet every day (which can make photographing the Earth frustrating at times) and play an important role in shaping the Earth’s climate☁️Sunlight that hits the Earth, is either absorbed by the Earth or reflected back into space. When sunlight is absorbed, it heats up the planet. Hence, when more sunlight is reflected back into space, there is less energy to heat the Earth. Clouds are one of the primary features that reflect sunlight back into space, together with snow and ice-covered ground. Thus, the amount of cloud cover and the amount of ground covered by glaciers, snow, and ice determine how much sunlight is reflected into space and thus, how much energy is available from the sun to heat the Earth. This balance between absorbed and reflected sunlight determines the energy balance of the Earth and is important for understanding Earth’s climate☀️ This week I will start the EarthShine experiment, where I will take photos of the moon to measure the amount of sunlight that the Earth reflects into space. Some of the reflected sunlight from Earth hits the moon and lights up the moon’s surface. Normally, this is difficult to see because the direct sunlight that hits the moon outshines the Earthshine. But by taking pictures shortly before the New Moon, when the moon is just a very thin crescent, it is possible to see the Earthshine reflected onto the moon’s surface. By doing this from the International Space Station, the images are undisturbed by the Earth’s atmosphere 📷 You can help out by taking your own pictures around the time of the New Moon and share them on social media with #NewMoonSnap and #Huginn 🌕📸