Unraveling driving forces explaining significant reduction in satellite-inferred Arctic surface albedo since the 1980s

The Arctic has warmed significantly since the early 1980s and much of this warming can be attributed to the surface albedo feedback. In this study, satellite observations reveal a 1.25 to 1.51% per decade absolute reduction in the Arctic mean surface albedo in spring and summer during 1982 to 2014....

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 116; no. 48; pp. 23947 - 23953
Main Authors Zhang, Rudong, Wang, Hailong, Fu, Qiang, Rasch, Philip J., Wang, Xuanji
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 26.11.2019
Subjects
Air temperature
Albedo
albedo reduction
Arctic amplification
Electromagnetic absorption
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Ice
Ice cover
Ice environments
Physical Sciences
Polar environments
Reduction
Satellite observation
Sea ice
Snow
Snow cover
Snowfall
Soot
Terrestrial environments
Arctic region
Arctic amplification
soot
snow cover
albedo reduction
sea ice
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Summary:The Arctic has warmed significantly since the early 1980s and much of this warming can be attributed to the surface albedo feedback. In this study, satellite observations reveal a 1.25 to 1.51% per decade absolute reduction in the Arctic mean surface albedo in spring and summer during 1982 to 2014. Results from a global model and reanalysis data are used to unravel the causes of this albedo reduction. We find that reductions of terrestrial snow cover, snow cover fraction over sea ice, and sea ice extent appear to contribute equally to the Arctic albedo decline. We show that the decrease in snow cover fraction is primarily driven by the increase in surface air temperature, followed by declining snowfall. Although the total precipitation has increased as the Arctic warms, Arctic snowfall is reduced substantially in all analyzed data sets. Light-absorbing soot in snow has been decreasing in past decades over the Arctic, indicating that soot heating has not been the driver of changes in the Arctic snow cover, ice cover, and surface albedo since the 1980s.
Bibliography:AC05-76RL01830
PNNL-SA-144749
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Edited by V. Ramanathan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved October 10, 2019 (received for review September 3, 2019)
Author contributions: R.Z., H.W., and Q.F. designed research; R.Z. and H.W. performed research; R.Z. and X.W. analyzed AVHRR APP-x satellite data; and R.Z., H.W., Q.F., P.J.R., and X.W. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1915258116