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Fire‐induced albedo change and its radiative forcing at the surface in northern Australia
Author(s) -
Jin Y.,
Roy D. P.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl022822
Subject(s) - albedo (alchemy) , radiative forcing , forcing (mathematics) , radiative transfer , climatology , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , cloud forcing , meteorology , climate change , geology , geography , oceanography , physics , art , quantum mechanics , performance art , art history
This paper investigates the impact of fire on surface albedo and the associated radiative forcing over 56% of continental Australia encompassing the fire‐prone northern tropical savanna. Fire‐affected areas and albedos are derived for the 2003 fire season using daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data. Near‐infrared and total shortwave albedos are observed to generally decrease after fire occurrence. Regionally, the total shortwave albedo drops by an average of 0.024, with increasing reductions as the dry season progresses and larger reductions in grasslands than woody savannas. These fire‐induced albedo changes exert a positive forcing at the surface that increases from March to November. A mean “instantaneous” shortwave surface radiative forcing of 0.52 Wm −2 is estimated for the study region.