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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:2d60b6f28d0649488ad692c789997532 2023-09-05T13:11:21+02:00 Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate Ivana Cvijanovic Ken Caldeira Douglas G MacMartin 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 https://doaj.org/article/2d60b6f28d0649488ad692c789997532 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/2d60b6f28d0649488ad692c789997532 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 4, p 044020 (2015) Arctic sea ice restoration ocean albedo alteration atmospheric impacts Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 2023-08-13T00:37:54Z 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 Ocean Global warming Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific Environmental Research Letters 10 4 044020 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic sea ice restoration ocean albedo alteration atmospheric impacts Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic sea ice restoration ocean albedo alteration atmospheric impacts Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Ivana Cvijanovic Ken Caldeira Douglas G MacMartin Impacts of ocean albedo alteration on Arctic sea ice restoration and Northern Hemisphere climate |
topic_facet |
Arctic sea ice restoration ocean albedo alteration atmospheric impacts Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
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 |
Ivana Cvijanovic Ken Caldeira Douglas G MacMartin |
author_facet |
Ivana Cvijanovic Ken Caldeira Douglas G MacMartin |
author_sort |
Ivana Cvijanovic |
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://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 https://doaj.org/article/2d60b6f28d0649488ad692c789997532 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Ocean Global warming Sea ice |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 4, p 044020 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044020 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/2d60b6f28d0649488ad692c789997532 |
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_ |
1776204666355318784 |