Book contents
10 - The future cryosphere: impacts of global warming
from Part III - The cryosphere past and future
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Introduction
In recent decades, there have been countless studies showing that the Earth is experiencing unprecedented climate warming on a global scale. Under continued climate warming, a critical issue is the contributions to sea level rise through the melting of mountain glaciers and possible disintegration of parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet, added to ocean thermal expansion. Meltwater from Greenland, together with ice export from the Arctic Ocean, affect circulation in the North Atlantic through the associated energy and water fluxes, and these changes further modify atmospheric storm tracks. Snow-covered surfaces in the northern continents reflect 70 percent or more of the incoming solar radiation, so as snow and ice cover melts because of climate warming, the reduction in surface albedo to 15–25 percent due to exposed ground leads to increased absorption of solar radiation. This, in turn, results in more melting, leading to further warming or a positive feedback. A similar ice–albedo feedback arises from the reduction of sea ice cover exposing an ocean surface with an albedo of about 5 percent. However, quantitative understanding of the contribution of snow/ice–albedo feedback to the pronounced warming signal in high latitude regions is still lacking (Le Treut et al., 2007).
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- Information
- The Global CryospherePast, Present and Future, pp. 318 - 332Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011