Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss
Clouds play an important role in the climate system: (1) cooling Earth by reflecting incoming sunlight to space and (2) warming Earth by reducing thermal energy loss to space. Cloud radiative effects are especially important in polar regions and have the potential to significantly alter the impact o...
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COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
2020
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Online Access: | https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC114584 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/2673/2020/ https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020 |
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ftjrc:oai:publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu:JRC114584 2023-05-15T13:11:19+02:00 Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss ALKAMA Romain TAYLOR Patric GARCIA SAN MARTIN Lorea DOUVILLE Herve DUVEILLER BOGDAN Grégory Henry E FORZIERI Giovanni SWINGEDOUW Didier CESCATTI Alessandro 2020 Online https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC114584 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/2673/2020/ https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020 ENG eng COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH JRC114584 2020 ftjrc https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020 2022-05-01T08:21:20Z Clouds play an important role in the climate system: (1) cooling Earth by reflecting incoming sunlight to space and (2) warming Earth by reducing thermal energy loss to space. Cloud radiative effects are especially important in polar regions and have the potential to significantly alter the impact of sea ice decline on the surface radiation budget. Using CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) data and 32 CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) climate models, we quantify the influence of polar clouds on the radiative impact of polar sea ice variability. Our results show that the cloud short-wave cooling effect strongly influences the impact of sea ice variability on the surface radiation budget and does so in a counter-intuitive manner over the polar seas: years with less sea ice and a larger net surface radiative flux show a more negative cloud radiative effect. Our results indicate that 66±2% of this change in the net cloud radiative effect is due to the reduction in surface albedo and that the remaining 34±1 % is due to an increase in cloud cover and optical thickness. The overall cloud radiative damping effect is 56±2 % over the Antarctic and 47±3 % over the Arctic. Thus, present-day cloud properties significantly reduce the net radiative impact of sea ice loss on the Arctic and Antarctic surface radiation budgets. As a result, climate models must accurately represent present-day polar cloud properties in order to capture the surface radiation budget impact of polar sea ice loss and thus the surface albedo feedback. JRC.D.1 - Bio-economy Other/Unknown Material albedo Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice Joint Research Centre, European Commission: JRC Publications Repository Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic The Cryosphere 14 8 2673 2686 |
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Open Polar |
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Joint Research Centre, European Commission: JRC Publications Repository |
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ftjrc |
language |
English |
description |
Clouds play an important role in the climate system: (1) cooling Earth by reflecting incoming sunlight to space and (2) warming Earth by reducing thermal energy loss to space. Cloud radiative effects are especially important in polar regions and have the potential to significantly alter the impact of sea ice decline on the surface radiation budget. Using CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) data and 32 CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) climate models, we quantify the influence of polar clouds on the radiative impact of polar sea ice variability. Our results show that the cloud short-wave cooling effect strongly influences the impact of sea ice variability on the surface radiation budget and does so in a counter-intuitive manner over the polar seas: years with less sea ice and a larger net surface radiative flux show a more negative cloud radiative effect. Our results indicate that 66±2% of this change in the net cloud radiative effect is due to the reduction in surface albedo and that the remaining 34±1 % is due to an increase in cloud cover and optical thickness. The overall cloud radiative damping effect is 56±2 % over the Antarctic and 47±3 % over the Arctic. Thus, present-day cloud properties significantly reduce the net radiative impact of sea ice loss on the Arctic and Antarctic surface radiation budgets. As a result, climate models must accurately represent present-day polar cloud properties in order to capture the surface radiation budget impact of polar sea ice loss and thus the surface albedo feedback. JRC.D.1 - Bio-economy |
author |
ALKAMA Romain TAYLOR Patric GARCIA SAN MARTIN Lorea DOUVILLE Herve DUVEILLER BOGDAN Grégory Henry E FORZIERI Giovanni SWINGEDOUW Didier CESCATTI Alessandro |
spellingShingle |
ALKAMA Romain TAYLOR Patric GARCIA SAN MARTIN Lorea DOUVILLE Herve DUVEILLER BOGDAN Grégory Henry E FORZIERI Giovanni SWINGEDOUW Didier CESCATTI Alessandro Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
author_facet |
ALKAMA Romain TAYLOR Patric GARCIA SAN MARTIN Lorea DOUVILLE Herve DUVEILLER BOGDAN Grégory Henry E FORZIERI Giovanni SWINGEDOUW Didier CESCATTI Alessandro |
author_sort |
ALKAMA Romain |
title |
Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
title_short |
Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
title_full |
Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
title_fullStr |
Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
title_full_unstemmed |
Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
title_sort |
clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss |
publisher |
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC114584 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/2673/2020/ https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020 |
geographic |
Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
albedo Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Sea ice |
op_relation |
JRC114584 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
2673 |
op_container_end_page |
2686 |
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1766246863660384256 |