Delayed Antarctic melt season reduces albedo feedback
Antarctica's response to climate change varies greatly both spatially and temporally. Surface melting impacts mass balance and also lowers surface albedo. We use a 43-year record (from 1978 to 2020) of Antarctic snow melt seasons from space-borne microwave radiometers with a machine-learning al...
| Published in: | National Science Review |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/de21c76f-8713-4927-afb0-b2927b94a1e0 https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad157 https://lacris.ulapland.fi/ws/files/38119572/nwad157.pdf |
| Summary: | Antarctica's response to climate change varies greatly both spatially and temporally. Surface melting impacts mass balance and also lowers surface albedo. We use a 43-year record (from 1978 to 2020) of Antarctic snow melt seasons from space-borne microwave radiometers with a machine-learning algorithm to show that both the onset and the end of the melt season are being delayed. Granger-causality analysis shows that melt end is delayed due to increased heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere at minimum sea-ice extent from warming oceans. Melt onset is Granger-caused primarily by the turbulent heat flux from ocean to atmosphere that is in turn driven by sea-ice variability. Delayed snowmelt season leads to a net decrease in the absorption of solar irradiance, as a delayed summer means that higher albedo occurs after the period of maximum solar radiation, which changes Antarctica's radiation balance more than sea-ice cover. |
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