global brightening


Also found in: Wikipedia.

global brightening

n.
An increase in sunlight reaching the surface of the earth caused by a decrease in light-absorbing compounds in the earth's atmosphere.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
The only region that does not show an increase in aerosols is Europe, which has actually experienced a "global brightening."
Clear sky visibility over land has decreased globally over past 30 years
But anti-pollution efforts in the industrialized West, along with the 1990s economic crash in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, curbed the release of aerosols in the northern temperate zone, and that appears to have led to overall global brightening in the last decade or so.
Fiddling with the dimmer switch
Dictionary browser ?
Full browser ?