Arctic sea ice and snow cover albedo variability and trends during the last three decades

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to assess the full effect on the albedo of both sea ice extent decrease and snowline retreat in the Arctic during the last three decades. Averaged over the globe, the overall warming effect due to Arctic land and ocean albedo change corresponds to adding about 44% to the direct effect of human CO2 emissions during the same period. In fact, the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice have both been declining in this time frame. This has caused feedbacks affecting the whole global climate system. One such is albedo feedback of sea ice shrinking which was previously estimated (Pistone et al., 2014) to add about 25% to the direct warming effect of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In this study, we demonstrate that the role of snowline retreat in albedo decrease is comparable to that of sea ice shrinking. To this aim, we estimate the radiative forcing (W/m2) due to snow and ice decrease during 34 years (1982–2015) from the analysis of changes of observed albedo based on the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Energy Balanced And Filled (CERES EBAF) dataset, paired with sea ice and snow cover data from the US National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC).