Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate
The Arctic Ocean is expected to transition into a seasonally ice-free state by mid-century, enhancing Arctic warming and leading to substantial ecological and socio-economic challenges across the Arctic region. It has been proposed that artificially increasing high latitude ocean albedo could restor...
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:57782 2023-05-15T13:10:21+02:00 Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate Cvijanovic, Ivana Caldeira, Ken MacMartin, Douglas G. 2015-04 application/pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/1/1748-9326_10_4_044020.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/2/erl044020_suppdata.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197 en eng IOP Publishing https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/1/1748-9326_10_4_044020.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/2/erl044020_suppdata.pdf Cvijanovic, Ivana and Caldeira, Ken and MacMartin, Douglas G. (2015) Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate. Environmental Research Letters, 10 (4). Art. No. 044020. ISSN 1748-9326. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197> cc_by CC-BY Article PeerReviewed 2015 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 2021-11-11T19:04:24Z The Arctic Ocean is expected to transition into a seasonally ice-free state by mid-century, enhancing Arctic warming and leading to substantial ecological and socio-economic challenges across the Arctic region. It has been proposed that artificially increasing high latitude ocean albedo could restore sea ice, but the climate impacts of such a strategy have not been previously explored. Motivated by this, we investigate the impacts of idealized high latitude ocean albedo changes on Arctic sea ice restoration and climate. In our simulated 4xCO_2 climate, imposing surface albedo alterations over the Arctic Ocean leads to partial sea ice recovery and a modest reduction in Arctic warming. With the most extreme ocean albedo changes, imposed over the area 70°–90°N, September sea ice cover stabilizes at ~40% of its preindustrial value (compared to ~3% without imposed albedo modifications). This is accompanied by an annual mean Arctic surface temperature decrease of ~2 °C but no substantial global mean temperature decrease. Imposed albedo changes and sea ice recovery alter climate outside the Arctic region too, affecting precipitation distribution over parts of the continental United States and Northeastern Pacific. For example, following sea ice recovery, wetter and milder winter conditions are present in the Southwest United States while the East Coast experiences cooling. We conclude that although ocean albedo alteration could lead to some sea ice recovery, it does not appear to be an effective way of offsetting the overall effects of CO_2 induced global warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Sea ice Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific Environmental Research Letters 10 4 044020 |
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Open Polar |
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Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
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ftcaltechauth |
language |
English |
description |
The Arctic Ocean is expected to transition into a seasonally ice-free state by mid-century, enhancing Arctic warming and leading to substantial ecological and socio-economic challenges across the Arctic region. It has been proposed that artificially increasing high latitude ocean albedo could restore sea ice, but the climate impacts of such a strategy have not been previously explored. Motivated by this, we investigate the impacts of idealized high latitude ocean albedo changes on Arctic sea ice restoration and climate. In our simulated 4xCO_2 climate, imposing surface albedo alterations over the Arctic Ocean leads to partial sea ice recovery and a modest reduction in Arctic warming. With the most extreme ocean albedo changes, imposed over the area 70°–90°N, September sea ice cover stabilizes at ~40% of its preindustrial value (compared to ~3% without imposed albedo modifications). This is accompanied by an annual mean Arctic surface temperature decrease of ~2 °C but no substantial global mean temperature decrease. Imposed albedo changes and sea ice recovery alter climate outside the Arctic region too, affecting precipitation distribution over parts of the continental United States and Northeastern Pacific. For example, following sea ice recovery, wetter and milder winter conditions are present in the Southwest United States while the East Coast experiences cooling. We conclude that although ocean albedo alteration could lead to some sea ice recovery, it does not appear to be an effective way of offsetting the overall effects of CO_2 induced global warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cvijanovic, Ivana Caldeira, Ken MacMartin, Douglas G. |
spellingShingle |
Cvijanovic, Ivana Caldeira, Ken MacMartin, Douglas G. Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
author_facet |
Cvijanovic, Ivana Caldeira, Ken MacMartin, Douglas G. |
author_sort |
Cvijanovic, Ivana |
title |
Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
title_short |
Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
title_full |
Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
title_fullStr |
Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
title_sort |
impacts of ocean albedo alteration on arctic sea ice restoration and northern hemisphere climate |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/ https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/1/1748-9326_10_4_044020.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/2/erl044020_suppdata.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/1/1748-9326_10_4_044020.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/57782/2/erl044020_suppdata.pdf Cvijanovic, Ivana and Caldeira, Ken and MacMartin, Douglas G. (2015) Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate. Environmental Research Letters, 10 (4). Art. No. 044020. ISSN 1748-9326. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150522-131924197> |
op_rights |
cc_by |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
044020 |
_version_ |
1766226649252102144 |