Re:How Long Was Venus Habitable?
by chris_va on Sunday May 10, 2020 @11:35AM
(#23133426)
(disclaimer: I work in a climate group)
Please do not do this :).
Deserts are great for shedding heat into space (highly reflective in the visible, highly emissive in the infrared, low moisture in the atmosphere).
We had a theory (not yet published, so take it with a grain of salt) that desertification might buffer the radiative forcing effects of CO2. Unfortunately, when we analyzed the last 20 years of satellite data, the opposite is happening--people have been watering the desert like crazy, leading to a net reduction on the order of ~100-200,000km^2.
Please do not do this :).
Deserts are great for shedding heat into space (highly reflective in the visible, highly emissive in the infrared, low moisture in the atmosphere).
We had a theory (not yet published, so take it with a grain of salt) that desertification might buffer the radiative forcing effects of CO2. Unfortunately, when we analyzed the last 20 years of satellite data, the opposite is happening--people have been watering the desert like crazy, leading to a net reduction on the order of ~100-200,000km^2.