One of the ingredients of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis is the existence of large positive feedback in the climate system. An example is polar ice that, once melted, turns into blacker water that will increase radiation absorption and this rein-forces the melting. This causes a run-away scenario with a point of no return. Here it is shown that the polar ice can also have negative feedback aspects, where a melting of polar ice will cause it to reappear.
References
[1]
Curry, J.A., Schramm, J.L. and Ebert, E.E. (1994) Sea Ice-Albedo Climate Feedback Mechanism. Journal of Climate, 8, 240–247. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1995)008<0240:SIACFM>2.0.CO;2
[2]
Flanner, M.G., et al. (2011) Radiative Forcing and Albedo Feedback from the Northern Hemisphere Cryosphere between 1979 and 2008. Nature Geoscience, 4, 151-155. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1062
[3]
Hall, A. (2003) The Role of Surface Albedo Feedback in Climate. Journal of Climate, 17, 1550-1568. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1550:TROSAF>2.0.CO;2
[4]
Lian, M.S. and Cess, R.D. (1977) Energy Balance Climate Models: A Reappraisel of Ice-Albedo Feedback. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 34, 1058-1062. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1977)034<1058:EBCMAR>2.0.CO;2
[5]
Morassutti, M.P. (1991) Climate Model Sensitivity to Sea Ice Albedo Parameterization. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 44, 25-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00865548
[6]
Wang, W.-C. and Stone, P.H. (1979) Effect of Ice-Albedo Feedback on Global Sensitivity in a One-Dimensional Radiative-Convective Climate Model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 37, 546-552.
[7]
Pistone, K., Eisenman, I. and Ramanathan, V. (2013) Observational Determination of Albedo Decrease Caused by Vanishing Arctic Sea Ice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111, 3322-3326. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas
[8]
Riihela, A., Manninen, T. and Laine, V. (2013) Observed Changes in the Albedo of the Arctic Sea-Ice Zone for the Period 1982-2009. Nature Climate Change, 3, 895-898. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1963
[9]
NASA http://neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov/csb/index.php?section=234
[10]
Hecht, E. (1975) Schaum’s Outline Series: Theory and Problems of Optics. McGraw Hill.
[11]
Quan, X. and Fry, E.S. (1995) Empirical Equation for the Index of Refraction of Seawater. Applied Optics, 34, 3477-3480. https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.34.003477
[12]
Payne, R.E. (1972) Albedo of the Sea Surface. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 29, 959-970. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1972)029<0959:AOTSS>2.0.CO;2
[13]
Kantha, L. and Clayson, C.A. (2014) Ocean Mixed Layer. In: North, G.R., Pyle, J.A. and Zhang, F.Q., Eds., Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, Chap. Boundary Layer (Athmospheric) and Air Pollution, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1, 290-298.
[14]
Jupp, T.E. and Cox, P.M. (2014) MEP and Planetary Climates: Insights from a Two-Box Climate Model Containing Atmospheric Dynamics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 365, 1355-1365. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0297
[15]
Veettil, B.K., Maier, é.L.B., Bremer, U.F. and Souza, S.F. (2014) Combined Influence of PDO and ENSO on Northern Andean Glaciers: A Case Study on the Cotopaxi Ice-Covered Volcano, Ecuador. Climate Dynamics, 43, 3439-3448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2114-8
[16]
Bersch, M., Yashayaev, I. and Koltermann, K.P. (2007) Recent Changes of the Thermohaline Circulation in the Subpolar North Atlantic. Ocean Dynamics, 57, 223-235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-007-0104-7
[17]
Lorenzo, M.N., Taboada, J.J. and Iglesias, I. (2009) Sensitivity of Thermohaline Circulation to Decadal and Multidecadal Variability. ICES Journal Marine Science, 66, 1439-1447. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsp061
[18]
Marotzke, J. (2000) Abrupt Climate Change and Thermohaline Circulation: Mechanisms and Predictability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97, 1347-1350. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.4.1347
[19]
Wood, R.A., Vellinga, M. and Thorpe, R. (2003) Global Warming and Thermohaline Circulation Stability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 361, 1961-1975. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2003.1245
