Arctic Region As A Whole Now Reflecting 3.3 Watts/M3 - Was 3.75 In 1979 - Nature Geoscience

[hatrack]

The Northern Hemisphere’s shrinking ice and snow cover is causing less and less sunlight to reflect back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, according to a new study on the subject.

Satellite data indicated that Arctic sea ice, glaciers, winter snow pack and Greenland’s ice were reflecting less energy back into space between 1979 and 2008. The dwindling amount of reflective energy exposes the ground and water, both of which are darker and absorb more heat. The study estimated that ice and snow in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in the Arctic, were now reflecting on average 3.3 watts per square meter of solar energy back into the upper atmosphere, a reduction of 0.45 watts per square meter since the late 1970s.

“The cooling effect is reduced and this is increasing the amount of solar energy that the planet absorbs,” Mark Flanner, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study, told Reuters.

“This reduction in reflected solar energy through warming is greater than simulated by the current crop of climate models,” Flanner said of the findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience Sunday. “The conclusion is that the cryosphere (areas of ice and snow) is both responding more sensitively to, and also driving, stronger climate change than thought,” he said.

EDIT

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1979998/arctic_thaw_fans_the_flames_of_global_warming/index.html?source=r_science

[joshcryer]

1. Feedbacks. They exist.

[Nihil]

5. And they have a nasty way of combining their effects too.

Roller-coasters are *such* fun aren't they?

[joshcryer]

6. As long as you're not on a full stomach.

And civilizations belly is full.

[Nihil]

7. Good point ...

Far too good and appropriate a point for comfort.
:-(

[phantom power]

2. lots of square meters up there

[XemaSab]

3. .

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Watts up with THAT?

I doubt there will be any reasonable attempt for his blog to address this....

The moran....

[hatrack]

8. M3 - Jeez Louise - SQUARE Meters!

:dunce:

Sorry, y'all - too early in the day when I posted.