Albedo of ice in the Arctic seas according to data from aircraft observation

Albedo of ice in the Arctic seas according to data from aircraft observation by A. Ya Buzuyev Download PDF EPUB FB2

Ice-albedo feedback due to the albedo contrast between water and ice is a major factor in seasonal sea ice retreat, and has received increasing attention with the Arctic Ocean shifting to a Cited by: attempts to determine the albedo of various ice conditions in the Arctic by aircraft.

Albedo determination Airborne albedo measurements During the summer ofthe Applied Oceanography Branch of the U. Navy Hydrographic Office obtained airborne radiation measurements over parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

The Arctic has warmed by F (2 C) since the s. The summer minimum Arctic sea ice extent has decreased by 40 percent during the same time period. These factors have decreased the region's albedo, or the fraction of incoming light that Earth reflects back into space – a change that the CERES instruments are able to measure.

The summer sea ice is almost half what is used to be, exposing more ocean surface. The consequence is a change in the albedo due to a decrease in the Earth’s ability to reflect energy and an increase in its ability to absorb it. Modeling and estimates of albedo change have previously been used to access the impact of decreased sea ice on albedo.

Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice Article (PDF Available) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (9) February with Reads. [1] There is an ongoing shift in the Arctic sea ice cover from multiyear ice to seasonal ice.

Here we examine the impact of this shift on sea ice albedo. Our analysis of observations from four years of field experiments indicates that seasonal ice undergoes an albedo evolution with seven phases; cold snow, melting snow, pond formation, pond drainage, pond evolution, open water, and by:   1.

Introduction [2] The ice albedo feedback mechanism plays a key role in the heat and mass balance of the ice and upper ocean in the Arctic [Maykut and Untersteiner, ; Curry et al., ].During the summer melt season, the sea ice cover undergoes profound changes in its physical state and optical properties.

As incident solar radiation increases and the air warms, the ice cover Cited by: In this paper, we extend the BRDF-based direct-estimation algorithm for mapping the shortwave surface albedo of the Arctic sea-ice zone with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data.

Research. NASA Arctic sea ice surface darkening faster. NASA Sea ice effects. workshop (Sept Jan K Plistone. Exponential decrease prestn. Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice = globally 25% higher than CO2 caused global warming.

NAP Linkages Between Arctic Warming and Mid-Latitude Weather Patterns: Summary of a. Antarctic sea ice appears to be an important player in climate change (e.g., Rind et al. ; Holland and Bitz ; Holland et al. ), and knowledge of its albedo is needed for accurate simulations of climate (Meehl and Washington ; Rind et al.

).The input of solar energy to the ocean is limited by reflection of sunlight by the snow/ice by: Abstract [1] As part of ice albedo feedback studies during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) field experiment, we measured spectral and wavelength-integrated albedo on multiyear sea ice.

Measurements were made every m along a m survey line from April through October. Initially, this line was completely snow covered, but as the melt season progressed, it became a.

ARCTIC SEA ICE ALBEDO VARIABILITY AND TRENDS, Vesa Laine Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Helsinki, Finland Abstract Whole-summer and monthly sea ice regional albedo averages, variations and trends for the months of June, July and August from to have been processed from calibrated AVHRR data.

The most rapid drop in albedo is seen in the month of August, when snow and ice melt is highest. The data suggests a fall in albedo of about three per cent per decade over the study period. The loss is pretty clear in the satellite images below, which show albedo for the month of August in on the left and in on the right.

[] have used satellite sea ice cover and shortwave data to estimate the albedo drop for Northern Hemisphere sea ice regions. They obtain a planetary albedo change for a % change in sea ice cover. This is roughly half the surface albedo difference between a typical sea ice cover and seawater.

Introduction. Shortwave surface albedo of the Arctic sea-ice zone is an important parameter in the surface energy budget over the northern hemispheric cryosphere (Hall,Perovich et al.,Cao et al., ), which affects the solar heat input, separation, and reallocations among the earth-atmosphere system (Trenberth et al., ).As one of the most sensitive regions to the effects Cited by: 9.

in sea ice surface albedo. The same basic structure of the re-lationship between CERES albedo and SSM/I ice cover (Fig. S3) and between the observations and model (Fig.

S4) applies to each individual region and to the Arctic as a whole, and we see a similar seasonal cycle in sea ice surface albedo inferred for each region (Fig. S5). Arctic sea ice albedo may “average” in the summer, but it is NOT constant through the summer.

Arctic sea ice may “get as low as” in July, but it does NOT “stay” that low during the summer either. The best curve fit through the entire May to September summer melt season is = + * cos ( * DOY – ). Arctic albedo loss due to black carbon deposition. Arctic albedo loss due to land vegetation changes.

Warming Arctic seas due to runoff from warming lands. Arctic albedo decrease due to land snow and ice sheet melt. South to north heat transfer to the Arctic due to a weakening, retreating Jet Stream and increasing prevalence of high amplitude.

The Arctic has warmed by nearly 2 °C since the s, a temperature change three times larger than the global mean ().During this period, the Arctic sea ice cover has retreated significantly, with the summer minimum sea ice extent decreasing by 40% ().This retreat, if not compensated by other changes such as an increase in cloudiness (3 –6), should lead to a decrease in the Arctic planetary Cited by:   One recent example using a major NASA C research aircraft is the Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE; Smith et al.

), which combined shortwave and longwave radiation and cloud microphysical measurements with observations of sea ice type, fraction, and freeboard in the marginal ice zone during the critical late Cited by: 3.

Recently, Laine () estimated the Arctic sea ice albedo variability and trends during – Whole-summer and monthly sea ice regional albedo averages for June, July and August from to were processed from the AVHRR Polar Pathfinder data set.

Time series for albedo, sea ice con-centration, sea ice extent and surface air. The snow/sea-ice albedo was measured over coastal landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica (off Zhongshan Station) during the austral spring and summer of and The variation of the observed albedo was a combination of a gradual seasonal transition from spring to summer and abrupt changes resulting from synoptic events, including Cited by: 9.Wettlaufer (), Decadal to seasonal variability of Arctic sea ice albedo,Geophys.

Res. Lett., 38, L, doi/ GL 1. Introduction [2] The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice coverage during the last thirty years has led to substantial discussion and debate regarding the direct and indirect roles of the ice‐albedo.