This page will
give you some help in understanding the concept of ice albedo feedback.
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Ice and snow can have a very high
albedo, possibly as high as 0.8. So if there is some sort of climate perturbation
which decreases the temperature of the surface it may cause more ice to
form. The formation of ice will increase the albedo of the surface so more
incoming short wave radiation will be reflected from the surface, this will
cause the surface to cool. This additional cooling could allow more ice
to form increasing the surface albedo even more. This will in turn cools
the surface and the climate will have entered a positive feedback
known as ice-albedo feedback. The net result of such a feedback could be
a catastrophic decrease in temperature of the Earth's surface.
| 1. Climate
cools |
—> |
2. More ice forms
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—> |
3. Surface albedo increases
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—> |
1. Climate cools
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You can investigate the concept of
ice-albedo feedback by trying a simple
model which is set up on in Javascript. This model will allow you to
alter the incoming short wave radiation and investigate the effect on the
temperature of the Earth, both with and without ice-albedo feedback. Comparing
the two situations should help you to understand how ice-albedo feedback
affects the climate.
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