Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016
Snow albedo feedback is one of the most crucial feedback processes that control equilibrium climate sensitivity, which is a central parameter for better prediction of future climate change. However, persistent large discrepancies and uncertainties are found in snow albedo feedback estimations. Remot...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9929be6a705142b8bef1a6da65fda845 2023-05-15T13:33:03+02:00 Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 Lin Xiao Tao Che Linling Chen Hongjie Xie Liyun Dai 2017-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9090883 https://doaj.org/article/9929be6a705142b8bef1a6da65fda845 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/9/883 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs9090883 https://doaj.org/article/9929be6a705142b8bef1a6da65fda845 Remote Sensing, Vol 9, Iss 9, p 883 (2017) snow albedo radiative forcing snow albedo feedback radiative kernel remote sensing Science Q article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9090883 2022-12-31T07:29:45Z Snow albedo feedback is one of the most crucial feedback processes that control equilibrium climate sensitivity, which is a central parameter for better prediction of future climate change. However, persistent large discrepancies and uncertainties are found in snow albedo feedback estimations. Remotely sensed snow cover products, atmospheric reanalysis data and radiative kernel data are used in this study to quantify snow albedo radiative forcing and its feedback on both hemispheric and global scales during 2003–2016. The strongest snow albedo radiative forcing is located north of 30°N, apart from Antarctica. In general, it has large monthly variation and peaks in spring. Snow albedo feedback is estimated to be 0.18 ± 0.08 W∙m−2∙°C−1 and 0.04 ± 0.02 W∙m−2∙°C−1 on hemispheric and global scales, respectively. Compared to previous studies, this paper focuses specifically on quantifying snow albedo feedback and demonstrates three improvements: (1) used high spatial and temporal resolution satellite-based snow cover data to determine the areas of snow albedo radiative forcing and feedback; (2) provided detailed information for model parameterization by using the results from (1), together with accurate description of snow cover change and constrained snow albedo and snow-free albedo data; and (3) effectively reduced the uncertainty of snow albedo feedback and increased its confidence level through the block bootstrap test. Our results of snow albedo feedback agreed well with other partially observation-based studies and indicate that the 25 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models might have overestimated the snow albedo feedback, largely due to the overestimation of surface albedo change between snow-covered and snow-free surface in these models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Remote Sensing 9 9 883 |
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topic |
snow albedo radiative forcing snow albedo feedback radiative kernel remote sensing Science Q |
spellingShingle |
snow albedo radiative forcing snow albedo feedback radiative kernel remote sensing Science Q Lin Xiao Tao Che Linling Chen Hongjie Xie Liyun Dai Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
topic_facet |
snow albedo radiative forcing snow albedo feedback radiative kernel remote sensing Science Q |
description |
Snow albedo feedback is one of the most crucial feedback processes that control equilibrium climate sensitivity, which is a central parameter for better prediction of future climate change. However, persistent large discrepancies and uncertainties are found in snow albedo feedback estimations. Remotely sensed snow cover products, atmospheric reanalysis data and radiative kernel data are used in this study to quantify snow albedo radiative forcing and its feedback on both hemispheric and global scales during 2003–2016. The strongest snow albedo radiative forcing is located north of 30°N, apart from Antarctica. In general, it has large monthly variation and peaks in spring. Snow albedo feedback is estimated to be 0.18 ± 0.08 W∙m−2∙°C−1 and 0.04 ± 0.02 W∙m−2∙°C−1 on hemispheric and global scales, respectively. Compared to previous studies, this paper focuses specifically on quantifying snow albedo feedback and demonstrates three improvements: (1) used high spatial and temporal resolution satellite-based snow cover data to determine the areas of snow albedo radiative forcing and feedback; (2) provided detailed information for model parameterization by using the results from (1), together with accurate description of snow cover change and constrained snow albedo and snow-free albedo data; and (3) effectively reduced the uncertainty of snow albedo feedback and increased its confidence level through the block bootstrap test. Our results of snow albedo feedback agreed well with other partially observation-based studies and indicate that the 25 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models might have overestimated the snow albedo feedback, largely due to the overestimation of surface albedo change between snow-covered and snow-free surface in these models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lin Xiao Tao Che Linling Chen Hongjie Xie Liyun Dai |
author_facet |
Lin Xiao Tao Che Linling Chen Hongjie Xie Liyun Dai |
author_sort |
Lin Xiao |
title |
Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
title_short |
Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
title_full |
Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying Snow Albedo Radiative Forcing and Its Feedback during 2003–2016 |
title_sort |
quantifying snow albedo radiative forcing and its feedback during 2003–2016 |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9090883 https://doaj.org/article/9929be6a705142b8bef1a6da65fda845 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 9, Iss 9, p 883 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/9/883 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs9090883 https://doaj.org/article/9929be6a705142b8bef1a6da65fda845 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9090883 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
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9 |
container_issue |
9 |
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883 |
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1766038034590990336 |