Bibcode
Sanromá, E.; Pallé, E.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 744, Issue 2, article id. 188 (2012).
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1
2012
Journal
Citations
9
Refereed citations
9
Description
By utilizing satellite-based estimations of the distribution of clouds,
we have studied Earth's large-scale cloudiness behavior according to
latitude and surface types (ice, water, vegetation, and desert). These
empirical relationships are used here to reconstruct the possible cloud
distribution of historical epochs of Earth's history such as the Late
Cretaceous (90 Ma ago), the Late Triassic (230 Ma ago), the
Mississippian (340 Ma ago), and the Late Cambrian (500 Ma ago), when the
landmass distributions were different from today's. With this
information, we have been able to simulate the globally integrated
photometric variability of the planet at these epochs. We find that our
simple model reproduces well the observed cloud distribution and albedo
variability of the modern Earth. Moreover, the model suggests that the
photometric variability of the Earth was probably much larger in past
epochs. This enhanced photometric variability could improve the chances
for the difficult determination of the rotational period and the
identification of continental landmasses for a distant planets.