During the past 30 years, the skies of Europe have become clearer. Robert Vautard of the Laboratory for Climatic and Environmental Science (LSCE) in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, and his colleagues studied records of visibility at weather stations across the continent. They found that low-visibility conditions such as fog, mist and haze have declined by as much as 50% over the period. The pattern of improvement is correlated with local declines in sulphur dioxide emissions, suggesting a role for pollution control.
This brightening of the skies, the researchers say, could have contributed to Europe's reported daytime warming during that time by 10–20%, with a particularly marked effect in eastern Europe.
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Climate: De-fogged. Nature 457, 361 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457361c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457361c