Arctic Is Getting Darker, Absorbing More Heat Kristine Wong - TakePart
go to original March 13, 2014

Study: Arctic Getting Darker, Making Earth Warmer (Wochit)

Climate scientists have hypothesized for decades that melting sea ice at the North Pole hastens global warming by decreasing the amount of heat from the sun that’s reflected back into space. More dark ocean, less snow-covered ice equals less reflection - makes sense, right?

While researchers developed models to demonstrate how this could happen, its occurrence has never been never been confirmed by data - until now.

According to a new study conducted at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, between 1979 and 2011, the average levels of Arctic albedo - the technical term for the fraction of solar energy reflected from Earth’s surface - decreased from 52 percent to 48 percent.

Here’s the problem: reduced albedo creates a feedback loop. Higher temperatures lead to less albedo lead to higher temperatures lead to less albedo…and so on. And the observed percentage is twice as much as model-based studies had forecast.

Read the rest at TakePart

Photo: Steve Humphreys/Getty Images

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