The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle
The surface energy and mass balance of ice sheets strongly depends on the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface, which is mainly controlled by the albedo of snow and ice. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we explore the role played by surface albedo for the si...
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ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:qBc9iIcBdbrxVwz6wH5G 2023-06-06T11:55:00+02:00 The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle Willeit, Matteo Ganopolski, Andrey 2018 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.34657/1337 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/655 eng eng München : European Geopyhsical Union CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Climate of the Past, Volume 14, Issue 5, Page 697-707 albedo climate modeling deglaciation glacier mass balance ice sheet Last Glacial Northern Hemisphere optical property snow solar radiation surface energy 550 article Text 2018 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.34657/1337 2023-04-16T23:32:48Z The surface energy and mass balance of ice sheets strongly depends on the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface, which is mainly controlled by the albedo of snow and ice. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we explore the role played by surface albedo for the simulation of glacial cycles. We show that the evolution of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to the representation of snow albedo in the model. It is well known that the albedo of snow depends strongly on snow grain size and the content of light-absorbing impurities. Excluding either the snow aging effect or the dust darkening effect on snow albedo leads to an excessive ice build-up during glacial times and consequently to a failure in simulating deglaciation. While the effect of snow grain growth on snow albedo is well constrained, the albedo reduction due to the presence of dust in snow is much more uncertain because the light-absorbing properties of dust vary widely as a function of dust mineral composition. We also show that assuming slightly different optical properties of dust leads to very different ice sheet and climate evolutions in the model. Conversely, ice sheet evolution is less sensitive to the choice of ice albedo in the model. We conclude that a proper representation of snow albedo is a fundamental prerequisite for a successful simulation of glacial cycles. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
ftleibnizopen |
language |
English |
topic |
albedo climate modeling deglaciation glacier mass balance ice sheet Last Glacial Northern Hemisphere optical property snow solar radiation surface energy 550 |
spellingShingle |
albedo climate modeling deglaciation glacier mass balance ice sheet Last Glacial Northern Hemisphere optical property snow solar radiation surface energy 550 Willeit, Matteo Ganopolski, Andrey The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
topic_facet |
albedo climate modeling deglaciation glacier mass balance ice sheet Last Glacial Northern Hemisphere optical property snow solar radiation surface energy 550 |
description |
The surface energy and mass balance of ice sheets strongly depends on the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface, which is mainly controlled by the albedo of snow and ice. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we explore the role played by surface albedo for the simulation of glacial cycles. We show that the evolution of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to the representation of snow albedo in the model. It is well known that the albedo of snow depends strongly on snow grain size and the content of light-absorbing impurities. Excluding either the snow aging effect or the dust darkening effect on snow albedo leads to an excessive ice build-up during glacial times and consequently to a failure in simulating deglaciation. While the effect of snow grain growth on snow albedo is well constrained, the albedo reduction due to the presence of dust in snow is much more uncertain because the light-absorbing properties of dust vary widely as a function of dust mineral composition. We also show that assuming slightly different optical properties of dust leads to very different ice sheet and climate evolutions in the model. Conversely, ice sheet evolution is less sensitive to the choice of ice albedo in the model. We conclude that a proper representation of snow albedo is a fundamental prerequisite for a successful simulation of glacial cycles. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Willeit, Matteo Ganopolski, Andrey |
author_facet |
Willeit, Matteo Ganopolski, Andrey |
author_sort |
Willeit, Matteo |
title |
The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
title_short |
The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
title_full |
The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
title_fullStr |
The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
title_full_unstemmed |
The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
title_sort |
importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle |
publisher |
München : European Geopyhsical Union |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.34657/1337 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/655 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Volume 14, Issue 5, Page 697-707 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/1337 |
_version_ |
1767961590636740608 |