Ashen Light

Ashen Light – The faint glow of the unlit part of the Moon observed from Earth is called ashen light. Its nature is due to the fact that, like the Moon in the night sky of the Earth, it illuminates the surface of the lunar surface with its light at night.
The area of the Earth’s disk observed from the surface of the Moon is 13.5 times larger than that of the Moon in the terrestrial sky, and the albedo of the Earth due to its light cloud layer is 5.8 times larger than if it were on the Moon. Because of this, the Earth, being in a state of “full earth”, illuminates the lunar surface 78.3 times more strongly than the Moon, which is in a state of “Full Moon”. In this context, it is often possible to observe on the celestial sphere how a thin crescent of the illuminated surface of the Moon seems to frame on one side the gray, illuminated part of its night.
As a result of ground-based observations of ash light, changes in the albedo of the Earth can be determined, as well as measurements using satellites. Such changes affect the Earth’s climate. Thus, as a result of changes, the proportion of solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere, oceans and continents changes, which means a change in their temperature. During long-term observations of ashen light, it can be concluded that over the past five years, the albedo of the Earth has decreased by 2.5%, which means that global warming of the Earth’s climate is really happening.