Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008
The extent of snow cover and sea ice in the Northern Hemispherehas declined since 1979, coincident with hemispheric warming and indicative of a positive feedback of surface reflectivity on climate. This albedo feedback of snow on land has been quantified from observations at seasonal timescales, and...
Published in: | Nature Geoscience |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2011
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Online Access: | http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-000-997 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_18131 2023-09-05T13:23:03+02:00 Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 Flanner, M. (author) Shell, K. (author) Barlage, Michael (author) Perovich, D. (author) Tschudi, M. (author) 2011-03-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-000-997 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062 en eng Nature Publishing Group Nature Geoscience articles:18131 ark:/85065/d7k075vb http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-000-997 doi:10.1038/ngeo1062 Copyright 2011 Author(s). Text article 2011 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062 2023-08-14T18:46:47Z The extent of snow cover and sea ice in the Northern Hemispherehas declined since 1979, coincident with hemispheric warming and indicative of a positive feedback of surface reflectivity on climate. This albedo feedback of snow on land has been quantified from observations at seasonal timescales, and century-scale feedback has been assessed using climate models. However, the total impact of the cryosphere on radiative forcing and albedo feedback has yet to be determined from measurements. Here we assess the influence of the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere on Earth’s radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere - termed cryosphere radiative forcing - by synthesizing a variety of remote sensing and field measurements. We estimate mean Northern Hemisphere forcing at −4.6 to −2.2Wm⁻², with a peak in May of −9.0±2.7Wm⁻². We find that cyrospheric cooling declined by 0.45Wm⁻² from 1979 to 2008, with nearly equal contributions from changes in land snow cover and sea ice. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that the albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere falls between 0.3 and 1.1Wm⁻²K⁻¹, substantially larger than comparable estimates obtained from 18 climate models. National Science Foundation (NSF): ATM-0904092 National Science Foundation (NSF): NSF ATM-0852775 Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Nature Geoscience 4 3 151 155 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
The extent of snow cover and sea ice in the Northern Hemispherehas declined since 1979, coincident with hemispheric warming and indicative of a positive feedback of surface reflectivity on climate. This albedo feedback of snow on land has been quantified from observations at seasonal timescales, and century-scale feedback has been assessed using climate models. However, the total impact of the cryosphere on radiative forcing and albedo feedback has yet to be determined from measurements. Here we assess the influence of the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere on Earth’s radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere - termed cryosphere radiative forcing - by synthesizing a variety of remote sensing and field measurements. We estimate mean Northern Hemisphere forcing at −4.6 to −2.2Wm⁻², with a peak in May of −9.0±2.7Wm⁻². We find that cyrospheric cooling declined by 0.45Wm⁻² from 1979 to 2008, with nearly equal contributions from changes in land snow cover and sea ice. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that the albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere falls between 0.3 and 1.1Wm⁻²K⁻¹, substantially larger than comparable estimates obtained from 18 climate models. National Science Foundation (NSF): ATM-0904092 National Science Foundation (NSF): NSF ATM-0852775 |
author2 |
Flanner, M. (author) Shell, K. (author) Barlage, Michael (author) Perovich, D. (author) Tschudi, M. (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
spellingShingle |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
title_short |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
title_full |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
title_fullStr |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
title_sort |
radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the northern hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-000-997 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_relation |
Nature Geoscience articles:18131 ark:/85065/d7k075vb http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-000-997 doi:10.1038/ngeo1062 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2011 Author(s). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
151 |
op_container_end_page |
155 |
_version_ |
1776203628586991616 |