Data collected by NASA's satellites reveal a decline in global cloud cover, exacerbating the effects of global warming.

Research shows that the Earth receives more solar energy than it loses, but fossil fuel use does not fully explain the changes we are seeing.

These changes, like "albedo" (which describes how ice levels drop and light absorption rises), defy simple explanations.

Climate scientist George Tselios from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and his colleagues analyzed satellite data covering two time periods: the first from 1984 to 2018 and the second from 2000 to 2018.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a low-pressure area near the equator where the northeastern and southeastern trade winds meet, has undergone a significant change.

In this region, dense clouds usually form when warm air rises and is replaced by cold air.

According to the results, the extent of this area has diminished, leading to a reduction in cloud coverage there.

In contrast, the subtropical dry zone has expanded. These changes have led to a decrease in global cloud cover levels, with the rate of cloud retreat varying according to the data and time period, but the decline seems to range between 0.72% and 0.17% per decade. Tseliodis expressed his confidence in the connection between global warming and cloud retreat, stating that it is the missing element.

At the American Geophysical Union meeting on December 11, recent research presented data from NASA's Terra satellite over a 22-year period, confirming the findings of earlier studies.

These data show that cloud cover is diminishing at a pace of roughly 1.5% every decade, implying that these alterations lead to an increase in temperatures.

And although these numbers may not seem large, they indicate "unprecedented cloud responses," according to Bjorn Stevens, a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

It is still unclear whether these trends will continue and how they will affect global warming's overall trends.

However, this study highlights the complexity of the Earth's climate systems and the multiple and intertwined effects that influence climate change.