Open AccessEffects of clouds, ice sheet, and sea ice on the Earth radiation budget in the Antarctic
Author(s) -
Yamanouchi Takashi,
Charlock Thomas P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/96jd02866
Subject(s) - sea ice , outgoing longwave radiation , environmental science , ice albedo feedback , cryosphere , climatology , ice sheet , antarctic sea ice , arctic ice pack , earth's energy budget , sea ice thickness , cloud cover , albedo (alchemy) , antarctic ice sheet , geology , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , meteorology , radiation , convection , geography , physics , cloud computing , art , quantum mechanics , computer science , performance art , art history , operating system
The effects of clouds, the continental ice sheet, and sea ice on the radiation budget in the Antarctic are examined by using Earth Radiation Budget Experiment, International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project, and special sensor microwave/imager data in 1987/1988. The continental ice sheet affects not only the albedo but also the surface temperature because of elevation and hence the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). The high elevation of the Antarctic continent makes the radiation budget in both polar regions asymmetric. At elevations below 2 km the OLR is reduced at the rate of 5–10 W/m 2 /km; above 2 km the rate is about 20 W/m 2 /km. Sea ice, which is a critical climate feedback factor, appears to have less impact on radiation than do clouds. Between 60° and 65°S in October, sea ice increases the top of the atmosphere albedo by about 0.2 and reduces the OLR by 7–10 W/m 2 ; this seems smaller than the formal cloud forcing, which increases the albedo by 0.3 and reduces the OLR by 30–40 W/m 2 . However, these numbers do not fully differentiate the independent effects of sea ice and cloudiness. A more detailed analysis shows that the independent effect of sea ice is as large as clouds, with clouds masking the radiative effect of sea ice by more than one half.