Lunar Eclipse May Shed Light on Climate Change

Mar. 3, 2008 — -- Last month's lunar eclipse not only treated skygazers to a ruddy view of the Moon – it revealed that Earth's atmosphere contains little light-blocking volcanic dust.

Some researchers say the low volcanic dust levels in the atmosphere over the last dozen years could be contributing to global warming, but others dispute the claim.

During a lunar eclipse, Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon directly. But some sunlight still gets through, refracted through Earth's atmosphere. The amount varies, depending mainly on how much dust from volcanic eruptions is floating around at high altitudes.

Because dust can block sunlight from passing through the atmosphere, more dust makes for a darker Moon during lunar eclipses. "All the big dimmings of the Moon during eclipses can be attributed to specific volcanoes," says Richard Keen of the University of Colorado in Boulder, US.

Keen and his collaborators have charted the brightness of eclipses back to 1960 and for a few years around the time of the 1883 eruption of Indonesia's Krakatoa volcano.

They are using the eclipse data to track changes in the opacity of Earth's atmosphere. While most of the light deflected by particles in the atmosphere is just temporarily diverted and eventually reaches the Earth's surface, the effects of atmospheric dust can have a significant, if temporary, impact on the climate, Keen says.

Global Average

Earth-orbiting satellites can measure atmospheric opacity, but only for a small part of the atmosphere at any given time. A lunar eclipse, on the other hand, conveniently gives an average over all latitudes, Keen says. Eclipse measurements are also easily compared with old eclipse records, which extend back much further in time than the satellite measurements, he says.

The most recent lunar eclipse, on 20-21 February, was a bright one, measuring a 3 – the second-brightest level – on an eclipse-rating scale that ranges from 0 to 4.

That is in line with eclipse data taken since 1995. In that time, the stratosphere has been especially clear, with very little haze-producing volcanic activity compared to the previous three decades, from 1965 to 1995, Keen says.