According to the study, the Earth’s brightness has decreased as a result of warming ocean waters. Now you’re probably wondering, “how do you even measure something like that?” But researchers…
Category: Albedo
Study: China’s Clean Air Policies are Triggering Additional Global Warming
According to a study whose authors include Ken Caldeira, China’s efforts to eliminate its infamous air pollution could cause an additional 0.1C NH warming, because less sunlight will be reflected…
NASA finds dirty glaciers in Alaska – may melt faster
Over the years, scientists have captured spectacular photographs while mapping ice during NASA’s Operation IceBridge mission. Many of the photographs have featured the icy landscapes of Greenland and Antarctica, over which lengthy…
Recycled science: Reflective surfaces alleviate heatwaves
From ETH ZURICH and the “obvious science” department comes this study that is little more than a recycle of what is already understood about crops and “shininess”, back in 2009 –…
Surprise! Greenland ice sheet melting being driven by ice-loving algae
From the American Geophysical Union and the “but we’ll still find a way to blame CO2, just you wait” department. It seems this is a frustrating day for climate-ice researchers,…
Study: Ice sheets may melt rapidly in response to soot from distant volcanoes
Study of ancient eruptions shows modern ice sheets could be vulnerable From THE EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and the “dirty ice” melts faster department Volcanic eruptions have been known…
Why Albedo is the Wrong Measure of Reflectivity for Modeling Climate
Guest essay by Clyde Spencer The total reflectivity of Earth is important in energy budget calculations and in Global Circulation Models used to predict climate. If the value used is…
Settled Science: Clusters of small satellites could help estimate Earth's reflected energy
From M.I.T. and the “Total outgoing radiation is actually one of the biggest uncertainties in climate change” department: Batches of shoebox-sized satellites could improve estimates of Earth’s reflected energy A…
And yet another unaccounted for climate variable: snow algae accelerates melting of Arctic glaciers
Earlier, we published a story about how clouds near airplane contrails get brighter, reflecting more solar radiation to space. Now, on the surface, this new study says that Arctic glaciers…
Another unaccounted for climate variable: Airplanes make existing clouds brighter
From STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY and the department of negative feedbacks comes this surprising finding that says not only do contrails add reflectivity for incoming solar radiation, they also increase reflectivity for…
Earthshine project reports on Earth's reflectance over the last 16 years
In the early days of WUWT, I reported on this project here: Earth’s Albedo Tells an Interesting Story Now data has been release in a new paper. From the INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA…
The Size of Icy Reflections
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach In my continuing wanderings through the regions cryospherical, I find more side roads than main highways. In my last two posts here and here, I discussed the…
Another alarmist pillar collapses – Greenland melting due to old soot feedback loops and albedo change – not AGW
From the EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and the “we told you so time and again at WUWT” department comes this study which not only explains the “insta-melt” in the…
No surprise here: Jet contrails affect surface temperatures
From Penn State High in the sky where the cirrus ice crystal clouds form, jet contrails draw their crisscross patterns. Now researchers have found that these elevated ice cloud trails…
From #AGU14 – satellites detect albedo change in the Arctic, resulting in more absorbed solar radiation
This press session at AGU conference today had quite a lot to say. Personally, I think the issue of carbon soot forcing is one of the strongest drivers of this,…
Red or Blue pill? Light sensitive diatoms may hold key to a big portion of the climate puzzle
From the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research: In between red light and blue light: Leipzig researchers discover new functionality of molecular light switches Diatoms play an important role in water…
Study: Greenland's July 2012 'insta-melt' was triggered by a combination of warm weather and carbon soot
WUWT readers surely remember all the media hype over this story. This was REP’s last entry on WUWT: As WUWT readers are aware, there has been a great deal of…
New paper finds solar UV-B output is correlated to global mean temperature
Map of correlations suggest it may be affecting biomass and planetary albedo. From the Hockey Schtick: A paper published today in Methods in Ecology and Evolution describes a new satellite…
An article and study from 1974 suggests global cooling would cause more extreme weather
Steve Goddard tips me to this article in the Canberra Times on May 16th, 1974: SUPPORT FOR A THEORY OF A COOLING WORLD It has some interesting claims in it…
The Magnificent Climate Heat Engine
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’ve been reflecting over the last few days about how the climate system of the earth functions as a giant natural heat engine. A “heat…
Black Carbon Soot shrank the 19th century glaciers – but why isn't it listed as a culprit today?
From the University of Colorado at Boulder comes this press release and accompanying photo. The photo, showing hazy pollution laden air in the Bernese Alps, makes me wonder why they…
Accuracy, Precision, and One Watt per Square Metre
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’ve been investigating one of my favorite datasets in the last few days, the CERES satellite-based top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation dataset. In particular, I’ve taken month-by-month…
Stalking the Rogue Hotspot
[I’m making this excellent essay a top sticky post for a day or two, I urge sharing it far and wide. New stories will appear below this one. – Anthony]…
In the Arctic, nearby soot may be a larger forcing than CO2
From the AGU Weekly Highlights, something I’ve pointed out more than a few times. See this photo of a moulin in upper Greenland, where carbon soot has collected at the…
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