Field measurement of albedo for limited extent test surfaces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sailor, David J. [Portland State University, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, P.O. Box 751-ME, Portland, OR 97207 (United States); Resh, Kyle; Segura, Del [Tulane University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 400 Lindy Boggs Center, New Orleans, LA 70118 (United States)

2006-05-15

A new method is introduced for field measurement of surface albedo. This method consists of the use of a cylindrical shade ring made of opaque fabric with a known (low) albedo placed over a test surface. The albedo measurement is accomplished using two small pyranometers situated so that the downward-facing pyranometer receives radiation only from the test surface and the shade ring. The upward-facing pyranometer simultaneously records the incoming solar radiation. The radiation received by the downward-facing pyramometer is a combination of reflected radiation from shaded and unshaded portions of these two surfaces, requiring detailed accounting of the resulting view factor geometries. The method presented here improves upon past approaches by allowing for smaller sample sizes, minimizing errors associated with reflective properties of the surroundings, and allowing for accurate measurements even under partially cloudy skies. In addition to these methodological improvements we introduce an approach for estimating the uncertainty in the resulting albedo measurements. Results from field measurements are presented to validate the measurement protocol, and to compare its accuracy with the accuracy of a published standard. (author)

Spring–summer albedo variations of Antarctic sea ice from 1982 to 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shao, Zhu-De; Ke, Chang-Qing

2015-01-01

This study examined the spring–summer (November, December, January and February) albedo averages and trends using a dataset consisting of 28 years of homogenized satellite data for the entire Antarctic sea ice region and for five longitudinal sectors around Antarctica: the Weddell Sea (WS), the Indian Ocean sector (IO), the Pacific Ocean sector (PO), the Ross Sea (RS) and the Bellingshausen–Amundsen Sea (BS). Time series data of the sea ice concentrations and sea surface temperatures were used to analyse their relations to the albedo. The results indicated that the sea ice albedo increased slightly during the study period, at a rate of 0.314% per decade, over the Antarctic sea ice region. The sea ice albedos in the PO, the IO and the WS increased at rates of 2.599% per decade (confidence level 99.86%), 0.824% per decade and 0.413% per decade, respectively, and the steepest increase occurred in the PO. However, the sea ice albedo in the BS decreased at a rate of −1.617% per decade (confidence level 95.05%) and was near zero in the RS. The spring–summer average albedo over the Antarctic sea ice region was 50.24%. The highest albedo values were mainly found on the continental coast and in the WS; in contrast, the lowest albedo values were found on the outer edge of the sea ice, the RS and the Amery Ice Shelf. The average albedo in the western Antarctic sea ice region was distinctly higher than that in the east. The albedo was significantly positively correlated with sea ice concentration (SIC) and was significantly negatively correlated with sea surface temperature (SST); these scenarios held true for all five longitudinal sectors. Spatially, the higher surface albedos follow the higher SICs and lower SST patterns. The increasing albedo means that Antarctic sea ice region reflects more solar radiation and absorbs less, leading to a decrease in temperature and much snowfall on sea ice, and further resulted in an increase in albedo. Conversely, the decreasing

Landsat and Sentinel-2A Surface Albedo Estimation and Evaluation Against In Situ Measurements Across the US SURFRAD Network

Science.gov (United States)

Franch, B.; Skakun, S.; Vermote, E.; Roger, J. C.

2017-12-01

Surface albedo is an essential parameter not only for developing climate models, but also for most energy balance studies. While climate models are usually applied at coarse resolution, the energy balance studies, which are mainly focused on agricultural applications, require a high spatial resolution. The albedo, estimated through the angular integration of the BRDF, requires an appropriate angular sampling of the surface. However, Sentinel-2A sampling characteristics, with nearly constant observation geometry and low illumination variation, prevent from deriving a surface albedo product. In this work, we apply an algorithm developed to derive a Landsat surface albedo to Sentinel-2A. It is based on the BRDF parameters estimated from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) CMG surface reflectance product (M{O,Y}D09) using the VJB method (Vermote et al., 2009). Sentinel-2A unsupervised classification images are used to disaggregate the BRDF parameters to the Sentinel-2 spatial resolution. We test the results over five different sites of the US SURFRAD network and plot the results versus albedo field measurements. Additionally, we also test this methodology using Landsat-8 images.

Monitoring land surface albedo and vegetation dynamics using high spatial and temporal resolution synthetic time series from Landsat and the MODIS BRDF/NBAR/albedo product

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhuosen; Schaaf, Crystal B.; Sun, Qingsong; Kim, JiHyun; Erb, Angela M.; Gao, Feng; Román, Miguel O.; Yang, Yun; Petroy, Shelley; Taylor, Jeffrey R.; Masek, Jeffrey G.; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Zhang, Xiaoyang; Papuga, Shirley A.

2017-07-01

bias within the range of ±0.006. These synthetic time series provide much greater spatial detail than the 500 m gridded MODIS data, especially over more heterogeneous surfaces, which improves the efforts to characterize and monitor the spatial variation across species and communities. The mean of the difference between maximum and minimum synthetic time series of albedo within the MODIS pixels over a subset of satellite data of Harvard Forest (16 km by 14 km) was as high as 0.2 during the snow-covered period and reduced to around 0.1 during the snow-free period. Similarly, we have used STARFM to also couple MODIS Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectances (NBAR) values with Landsat 5 reflectances to generate daily synthetic times series of NBAR and thus Enhanced Vegetation Index (NBAR-EVI) at a 30 m resolution. While normally STARFM is used with directional reflectances, the use of the view angle corrected daily MODIS NBAR values will provide more consistent time series. These synthetic times series of EVI are shown to capture seasonal vegetation dynamics with finer spatial and temporal details, especially over heterogeneous land surfaces.

Empirical models of monthly and annual surface albedo in managed boreal forests of Norway

Science.gov (United States)

Bright, Ryan M.; Astrup, Rasmus; Strømman, Anders H.

2013-04-01

As forest management activities play an increasingly important role in climate change mitigation strategies of Nordic regions such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland -- the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the types and magnitude of biogeophysical climate effects and their various tradeoffs with the global carbon cycle becomes essential to avoid implementation of sub-optimal policy. Forest harvest in these regions reduces the albedo "masking effect" and impacts Earth's radiation budget in opposing ways to that of concomitant carbon cycle perturbations; thus, policies based solely on biogeochemical considerations in these regions risk being counterproductive. There is therefore a need to better understand how human disturbances (i.e., forest management activities) affect important biophysical factors like surface albedo. An 11-year remotely sensed surface albedo dataset coupled with stand-level forest management data for a variety of stands in Norway's most productive logging region are used to develop regression models describing temporal changes in monthly and annual forest albedo following clear-cut harvest disturbance events. Datasets are grouped by dominant tree species and site indices (productivity), and two alternate multiple regression models are developed and tested following a potential plus modifier approach. This resulted in an annual albedo model with statistically significant parameters that explains a large proportion of the observed variation, requiring as few as two predictor variables: i) average stand age - a canopy modifier predictor of albedo, and ii) stand elevation - a local climate predictor of a forest's potential albedo. The same model structure is used to derive monthly albedo models, with models for winter months generally found superior to summer models, and conifer models generally outperforming deciduous. We demonstrate how these statistical models can be applied to routine forest inventory data to predict the albedo

Assessing modeled Greenland surface mass balance in the GISS Model E2 and its sensitivity to surface albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, Patrick; LeGrande, Allegra N.; Koenig, Lora S.; Tedesco, Marco; Moustafa, Samiah E.; Ivanoff, Alvaro; Fischer, Robert P.; Fettweis, Xavier

2016-04-01

The surface mass balance (SMB) of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) plays an important role in global sea level change. Regional Climate Models (RCMs) such as the Modèle Atmosphérique Régionale (MAR) have been employed at high spatial resolution with relatively complex physics to simulate ice sheet SMB. Global climate models (GCMs) incorporate less sophisticated physical schemes and provide outputs at a lower spatial resolution, but have the advantage of modeling the interaction between different components of the earth's oceans, climate, and land surface at a global scale. Improving the ability of GCMs to represent ice sheet SMB is important for making predictions of future changes in global sea level. With the ultimate goal of improving SMB simulated by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Model E2 GCM, we compare simulated GrIS SMB against the outputs of the MAR model and radar-derived estimates of snow accumulation. In order to reproduce present-day climate variability in the Model E2 simulation, winds are constrained to match the reanalysis datasets used to force MAR at the lateral boundaries. We conduct a preliminary assessment of the sensitivity of the simulated Model E2 SMB to surface albedo, a parameter that is known to strongly influence SMB. Model E2 albedo is set to a fixed value of 0.8 over the entire ice sheet in the initial configuration of the model (control case). We adjust this fixed value in an ensemble of simulations over a range of 0.4 to 0.8 (roughly the range of observed summer GrIS albedo values) to examine the sensitivity of ice-sheet-wide SMB to albedo. We prescribe albedo from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD43A3 v6 to examine the impact of a more realistic spatial and temporal variations in albedo. An age-dependent snow albedo parameterization is applied, and its impact on SMB relative to observations and the RCM is assessed.

Evaluation of coarse scale land surface remote sensing albedo product over rugged terrain

Science.gov (United States)

Wen, J.; Xinwen, L.; You, D.; Dou, B.

2017-12-01

Satellite derived Land surface albedo is an essential climate variable which controls the earth energy budget and it can be used in applications such as climate change, hydrology, and numerical weather prediction. The accuracy and uncertainty of surface albedo products should be evaluated with a reliable reference truth data prior to applications. And more literatures investigated the validation methods about the albedo validation in a flat or homogenous surface. However, the albedo performance over rugged terrain is still unknow due to the validation method limited. A multi-validation strategy is implemented to give a comprehensive albedo validation, which will involve the high resolution albedo processing, high resolution albedo validation based on in situ albedo, and the method to upscale the high resolution albedo to a coarse scale albedo. Among them, the high resolution albedo generation and the upscale method is the core step for the coarse scale albedo validation. In this paper, the high resolution albedo is generated by Angular Bin algorithm. And a albedo upscale method over rugged terrain is developed to obtain the coarse scale albedo truth. The in situ albedo located 40 sites in mountain area are selected globally to validate the high resolution albedo, and then upscaled to the coarse scale albedo by the upscale method. This paper takes MODIS and GLASS albedo product as a example, and the prelimarily results show the RMSE of MODIS and GLASS albedo product over rugged terrain are 0.047 and 0.057, respectively under the RMSE with 0.036 of high resolution albedo.

Surface Albedo Darkening from wildfires in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Gatebe, C. K.; Ichoku, C. M.; Poudal, R.; Roman, M. O.; Wilcox, E.

2014-01-01

Wildfires are recognized as a key physical disturbance of terrestrial ecosystems and a major source of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols. They are known to produce changes in landscape patterns and lead to changes in surface albedo that can persist for long periods. Here, we estimate the darkening of surface albedo due to wildfires in different land cover ecosystems in the Northern Sub-Saharan Africa using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We determined a decrease in albedo after fires over most land cover types (e.g. woody savannas: (-0.00352 0.00003) and savannas: (- 0.003910.00003), which together accounted for >86% of the total MODIS fire count between 2003 and 2011). Grasslands had a higher value (-0.00454 0.00003) than the savannas, but accounted for only about 5% of the total fire count. A few other land cover types (e.g. Deciduous broad leaf: (0.00062 0.00015), and barren: 0.00027 0.00019), showed an increase in albedo after fires, but accounted for less than 1% of the total fires. Albedo change due to wildfires is more important during the fire season (October-February). The albedo recovery progresses rapidly during the first year after fires, where savannas show the greatest recovery (>77%) within one year, while deciduous broadleaf, permanent wetlands and barren lands show the least one-year recovery (56%). The persistence of surface albedo darkening in most land cover types is limited to about six to seven years, after which at least 98% of the burnt pixels recover to their pre-fire albedo.

Atmospheric effect on the ground-based measurements of broadband surface albedo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Manninen

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Ground-based pyranometer measurements of the (clear-sky broadband surface albedo are affected by the atmospheric conditions (mainly by aerosol particles, water vapour and ozone. A new semi-empirical method for estimating the magnitude of the effect of atmospheric conditions on surface albedo measurements in clear-sky conditions is presented. Global and reflected radiation and/or aerosol optical depth (AOD at two wavelengths are needed to apply the method. Depending on the aerosol optical depth and the solar zenith angle values, the effect can be as large as 20%. For the cases we tested using data from the Cabauw atmospheric test site in the Netherlands, the atmosphere caused typically up to 5% overestimation of surface albedo with respect to corresponding black-sky surface albedo values.

Improvement of Mars surface snow albedo modeling in LMD Mars GCM with SNICAR

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, D.; Flanner, M.; Millour, E.

2017-12-01

The current version of Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) Mars GCM (original-MGCM) uses annually repeating (prescribed) albedo values from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations. We integrate the Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiation (SNICAR) model with MGCM (SNICAR-MGCM) to prognostically determine H2O and CO2 ice cap albedos interactively in the model. Over snow-covered regions mean SNICAR-MGCM albedo is higher by about 0.034 than original-MGCM. Changes in albedo and surface dust content also impact the shortwave energy flux at the surface. SNICAR-MGCM model simulates a change of -1.26 W/m2 shortwave flux on a global scale. Globally, net CO2 ice deposition increases by about 4% over one Martian annual cycle as compared to original-MGCM simulations. SNICAR integration reduces the net mean global surface temperature, and the global surface pressure of Mars by about 0.87% and 2.5% respectively. Changes in albedo also show a similar distribution as dust deposition over the globe. The SNICAR-MGCM model generates albedos with higher sensitivity to surface dust content as compared to original-MGCM. For snow-covered regions, we improve the correlation between albedo and optical depth of dust from -0.91 to -0.97 with SNICAR-MGCM as compared to original-MGCM. Using new diagnostic capabilities with this model, we find that cryospheric surfaces (with dust) increase the global surface albedo of Mars by 0.022. The cryospheric effect is severely muted by dust in snow, however, which acts to decrease the planet-mean surface albedo by 0.06.

CLARA-SAL: a global 28 yr timeseries of Earth's black-sky surface albedo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Riihelä

2013-04-01

Full Text Available We present a novel 28 yr dataset of Earth's black-sky surface albedo, derived from AVHRR instruments. The dataset is created using algorithms to separately derive the surface albedo for different land use areas globally. Snow, sea ice, open water and vegetation are all treated independently. The product features corrections for the atmospheric effect in satellite-observed surface radiances, a BRDF correction for the anisotropic reflectance properties of natural surfaces, and a novel topography correction of geolocation and radiometric accuracy of surface reflectance observations over mountainous areas. The dataset is based on a homogenized AVHRR radiance timeseries. The product is validated against quality-controlled in situ observations of clear-sky surface albedo at various BSRN sites around the world. Snow and ice albedo retrieval validation is given particular attention using BSRN sites over Antarctica, Greenland Climate Network stations on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS, as well as sea ice albedo data from the SHEBA and Tara expeditions. The product quality is found to be comparable to other previous long-term surface albedo datasets from AVHRR.

The Effect of Bond Albedo on Venus' Atmospheric and Surface Temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Bullock, M. A.; Limaye, S. S.; Grinspoon, D. H.; Way, M.

2017-12-01

In spite of Venus' high planetary albedo, sufficient solar energy reaches the surface to drive a powerful greenhouse effect. The surface temperature is three times higher than it would be without an atmosphere. However, the details of the energy balance within Venus' atmosphere are poorly understood. Half of the solar energy absorbed within the clouds, where most of the solar energy is absorbed, is due to an unknown agent. One of the challenges of modeling Venus' atmosphere has been to account for all the sources of opacity sufficient to generate a globally averaged surface temperature of 735 K, when only 2% of the incoming solar energy is deposited at the surface. The wavelength and spherically integrated albedo, or Bond albedo, has typically been cited as between 0.7 and 0.82 (Colin 1983). Yet, recent photometry of Venus at extended phase angles between 2 and 179° indicate a Bond albedo of 0.90 (Mallama et al., 2006). The authors note an increase in cloud top brightness at phase angles fixed. Figure 1b (right). Venus surface temperature as Bond Albedo changes. Radiative-convective equilibrium models predict the correct globally averaged surface temperature at a=0.81. Calculations here show that a Bond albedo of a=0.9 would yield a surface temperature of 666.4 K, about 70 K too low, unless there is additional thermal absorption within the atmosphere that is not understood. Colin, L.,, Venus, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1983, pp 10-26. Mallama, A., et al., 2006. Icarus. 182, 10-22.

Simulation and Analysis of Topographic Effect on Land Surface Albedo over Mountainous Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, D.; Wen, J.; Xiao, Q.

2017-12-01

Land surface albedo is one of the significant geophysical variables affecting the Earth's climate and controlling the surface radiation budget. Topography leads to the formation of shadows and the redistribution of incident radiation, which complicates the modeling and estimation of the land surface albedo. Some studies show that neglecting the topography effect may lead to significant bias in estimating the land surface albedo for the sloping terrain. However, for the composite sloping terrain, the topographic effects on the albedo remain unclear. Accurately estimating the sub-topographic effect on the land surface albedo over the composite sloping terrain presents a challenge for remote sensing modeling and applications. In our study, we focus on the development of a simplified estimation method for land surface albedo including black-sky albedo (BSA) and white-sky albedo (WSA) of the composite sloping terrain at a kilometer scale based on the fine scale DEM (30m) and quantitatively investigate and understand the topographic effects on the albedo. The albedo is affected by various factors such as solar zenith angle (SZA), solar azimuth angle (SAA), shadows, terrain occlusion, and slope and aspect distribution of the micro-slopes. When SZA is 30°, the absolute and relative deviations between the BSA of flat terrain and that of rugged terrain reaches 0.12 and 50%, respectively. When the mean slope of the terrain is 30.63° and SZA=30°, the absolute deviation of BSA caused by SAA can reach 0.04. The maximal relative and relative deviation between the WSA of flat terrain and that of rugged terrain reaches 0.08 and 50%. These results demonstrate that the topographic effect has to be taken into account in the albedo estimation.

Mapping Global Ocean Surface Albedo from Satellite Observations: Models, Algorithms, and Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Li, X.; Fan, X.; Yan, H.; Li, A.; Wang, M.; Qu, Y.

2018-04-01

Ocean surface albedo (OSA) is one of the important parameters in surface radiation budget (SRB). It is usually considered as a controlling factor of the heat exchange among the atmosphere and ocean. The temporal and spatial dynamics of OSA determine the energy absorption of upper level ocean water, and have influences on the oceanic currents, atmospheric circulations, and transportation of material and energy of hydrosphere. Therefore, various parameterizations and models have been developed for describing the dynamics of OSA. However, it has been demonstrated that the currently available OSA datasets cannot full fill the requirement of global climate change studies. In this study, we present a literature review on mapping global OSA from satellite observations. The models (parameterizations, the coupled ocean-atmosphere radiative transfer (COART), and the three component ocean water albedo (TCOWA)), algorithms (the estimation method based on reanalysis data, and the direct-estimation algorithm), and datasets (the cloud, albedo and radiation (CLARA) surface albedo product, dataset derived by the TCOWA model, and the global land surface satellite (GLASS) phase-2 surface broadband albedo product) of OSA have been discussed, separately.

Simulations of tropical rainforest albedo: is canopy wetness important?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia N.M. Yanagi

Full Text Available Accurate information on surface albedo is essential for climate modelling, especially for regions such as Amazonia, where the response of the regional atmospheric circulation to the changes on surface albedo is strong. Previous studies have indicated that models are still unable to correctly reproduce details of the seasonal variation of surface albedo. Therefore, it was investigated the role of canopy wetness on the simulated albedo of a tropical rainforest by modifying the IBIS canopy radiation transfer code to incorporate the effects of canopy wetness on the vegetation reflectance. In this study, simulations were run using three versions of the land surface/ecosystem model IBIS: the standard version, the same version recalibrated to fit the data of albedo on tropical rainforests and a modified version that incorporates the effects of canopy wetness on surface albedo, for three sites in the Amazon forest at hourly and monthly scales. The results demonstrated that, at the hourly time scale, the incorporation of canopy wetness on the calculations of radiative transfer substantially improves the simulations results, whereas at the monthly scale these changes do not substantially modify the simulated albedo.

Seasonal variation of the single scattering albedo of the Jungfraujoch aerosol

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Collaud Coen, M.; Weingartner, E.; Corrigan, C.; Baltensperger, U.

2003-03-01

The single scattering albedo ({omega}{sub 0}) represents the fraction of the light extinction due to scattering. It is there-fore a key parameter to estimate the aerosol direct radiative forcing. The seasonal and diurnal variation of the single scattering albedo was calculated for the Jungfraujoch dry aerosol, which is representative for clean remote continental conditions. The values of {omega}{sub 0} vary between 0.7 and 0.9 depending on the season and on the wavelength. (author)

ARM Climate Research Facility Spectral Surface Albedo Value-Added Product (VAP) Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McFarlane, S; Gaustad, K; Long, C; Mlawer, E

2011-07-15

This document describes the input requirements, output data products, and methodology for the Spectral Surface Albedo (SURFSPECALB) value-added product (VAP). The SURFSPECALB VAP produces a best-estimate near-continuous high spectral resolution albedo data product using measurements from multifilter radiometers (MFRs). The VAP first identifies best estimates for the MFR downwelling and upwelling shortwave irradiance values, and then calculates narrowband spectral albedo from these best-estimate irradiance values. The methodology for finding the best-estimate values is based on a simple process of screening suspect data and backfilling screened and missing data with estimated values when possible. The resulting best-estimate MFR narrowband spectral albedos are used to determine a daily surface type (snow, 100% vegetation, partial vegetation, or 0% vegetation). For non-snow surfaces, a piecewise continuous function is used to estimate a high spectral resolution albedo at 1 min temporal and 10 cm-1 spectral resolution.

The effects of additional black carbon on Arctic sea ice surface albedo: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

OpenAIRE

A. A. Marks; M. D. King

2013-01-01

Black carbon in sea ice will decrease sea ice surface albedo through increased absorption of incident solar radiation, exacerbating sea ice melting. Previous literature has reported different albedo responses to additions of black carbon in sea ice and has not considered how a snow cover may mitigate the effect of black carbon in sea ice. Sea ice is predominately snow covered. Visible light absorption and light scattering coefficients are calculated for a typical first year and multi-y...

A Method for Retrieving Daily Land Surface Albedo from Space at 30-m Resolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Gao

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Land surface albedo data with high spatio-temporal resolution are increasingly important for scientific studies addressing spatially and/or temporally small-scale phenomena, such as urban heat islands and urban land surface energy balance. Our previous study derived albedo data with 2–4-day and 30-m temporal and spatial resolution that have better spatio-temporal resolution than existing albedo data, but do not completely satisfy the requirements for monitoring high-frequency land surface changes at the small scale. Downscaling technology provides a chance to further improve the albedo data spatio-temporal resolution and accuracy. This paper introduces a method that combines downscaling technology for land surface reflectance with an empirical method of deriving land surface albedo. Firstly, downscaling daily MODIS land surface reflectance data (MOD09GA from 500 m to 30 m on the basis of HJ-1A/B BRDF data with 2–4-day and 30-m temporal and spatial resolution is performed: this is the key step in the improved method. Subsequently, the daily 30-m land surface albedo data are derived by an empirical method combining prior knowledge of the MODIS BRDF product and the downscaled daily 30-m reflectance. Validation of albedo data obtained using the proposed method shows that the new method has both improved spatio-temporal resolution and good accuracy (a total absolute accuracy of 0.022 and a total root mean squared error at six sites of 0.028.

Spatiotemporal variability of Canadian High Arctic glacier surface albedo from MODIS data, 2001-2016

Science.gov (United States)

Mortimer, Colleen A.; Sharp, Martin

2018-02-01

Inter-annual variations and longer-term trends in the annual mass balance of glaciers in Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands (QEI) are largely attributable to changes in summer melt. The largest source of melt energy in the QEI in summer is net shortwave radiation, which is modulated by changes in glacier surface albedo. We used measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors to investigate large-scale spatial patterns, temporal trends, and variability in the summer surface albedo of QEI glaciers from 2001 to 2016. Mean summer black-sky shortwave broadband albedo (BSA) decreased at a rate of 0.029±0.025 decade-1 over that period. Larger reductions in BSA occurred in July (-0.050±0.031 decade-1). No change in BSA was observed in either June or August. Most of the decrease in BSA, which was greatest at lower elevations around the margins of the ice masses, occurred between 2007 and 2012, when mean summer BSA was anomalously low. The first principal component of the 16-year record of mean summer BSA was well correlated with the mean summer North Atlantic Oscillation index, except in 2006, 2010, and 2016, when the mean summer BSA appears to have been dominated by the August BSA. During the period 2001-2016, the mean summer land surface temperature (LST) over the QEI glaciers and ice caps increased by 0.049±0.038 °C yr-1, and the BSA record was negatively correlated (r: -0.86) with the LST record, indicative of a positive ice-albedo feedback that would increase rates of mass loss from the QEI glaciers.

Development of a high spectral resolution surface albedo product for the ARM Southern Great Plains Central Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McFarlane, Sally A.; Gaustad, Krista L.; Mlawer, Eli J.; Long, Charles N.; Delamere, Jennifer

2011-09-01

We present a method for identifying dominant surface type and estimating high spectral resolution surface albedo at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facility at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in Oklahoma for use in radiative transfer calculations. Given a set of 6-channel narrowband visible and near-infrared irradiance measurements from upward and downward looking multi-filter radiometers (MFRs), four different surface types (snow-covered, green vegetation, partial vegetation, non-vegetated) can be identified. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to distinguish between vegetated and non-vegetated surfaces, and a scaled NDVI index is used to estimate the percentage of green vegetation in partially vegetated surfaces. Based on libraries of spectral albedo measurements, a piecewise continuous function is developed to estimate the high spectral resolution surface albedo for each surface type given the MFR albedo values as input. For partially vegetated surfaces, the albedo is estimated as a linear combination of the green vegetation and non-vegetated surface albedo values. The estimated albedo values are evaluated through comparison to high spectral resolution albedo measurements taken during several Intensive Observational Periods (IOPs) and through comparison of the integrated spectral albedo values to observed broadband albedo measurements. The estimated spectral albedo values agree well with observations for the visible wavelengths constrained by the MFR measurements, but have larger biases and variability at longer wavelengths. Additional MFR channels at 1100 nm and/or 1600 nm would help constrain the high resolution spectral albedo in the near infrared region.

Development of a high spectral resolution surface albedo product for the ARM Southern Great Plains central facility

Science.gov (United States)

McFarlane, S. A.; Gaustad, K. L.; Mlawer, E. J.; Long, C. N.; Delamere, J.

2011-09-01

We present a method for identifying dominant surface type and estimating high spectral resolution surface albedo at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facility at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in Oklahoma for use in radiative transfer calculations. Given a set of 6-channel narrowband visible and near-infrared irradiance measurements from upward and downward looking multi-filter radiometers (MFRs), four different surface types (snow-covered, green vegetation, partial vegetation, non-vegetated) can be identified. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to distinguish between vegetated and non-vegetated surfaces, and a scaled NDVI index is used to estimate the percentage of green vegetation in partially vegetated surfaces. Based on libraries of spectral albedo measurements, a piecewise continuous function is developed to estimate the high spectral resolution surface albedo for each surface type given the MFR albedo values as input. For partially vegetated surfaces, the albedo is estimated as a linear combination of the green vegetation and non-vegetated surface albedo values. The estimated albedo values are evaluated through comparison to high spectral resolution albedo measurements taken during several Intensive Observational Periods (IOPs) and through comparison of the integrated spectral albedo values to observed broadband albedo measurements. The estimated spectral albedo values agree well with observations for the visible wavelengths constrained by the MFR measurements, but have larger biases and variability at longer wavelengths. Additional MFR channels at 1100 nm and/or 1600 nm would help constrain the high resolution spectral albedo in the near infrared region.

Development of a high spectral resolution surface albedo product for the ARM Southern Great Plains central facility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Delamere

2011-09-01

Full Text Available We present a method for identifying dominant surface type and estimating high spectral resolution surface albedo at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM facility at the Southern Great Plains (SGP site in Oklahoma for use in radiative transfer calculations. Given a set of 6-channel narrowband visible and near-infrared irradiance measurements from upward and downward looking multi-filter radiometers (MFRs, four different surface types (snow-covered, green vegetation, partial vegetation, non-vegetated can be identified. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI is used to distinguish between vegetated and non-vegetated surfaces, and a scaled NDVI index is used to estimate the percentage of green vegetation in partially vegetated surfaces. Based on libraries of spectral albedo measurements, a piecewise continuous function is developed to estimate the high spectral resolution surface albedo for each surface type given the MFR albedo values as input. For partially vegetated surfaces, the albedo is estimated as a linear combination of the green vegetation and non-vegetated surface albedo values. The estimated albedo values are evaluated through comparison to high spectral resolution albedo measurements taken during several Intensive Observational Periods (IOPs and through comparison of the integrated spectral albedo values to observed broadband albedo measurements. The estimated spectral albedo values agree well with observations for the visible wavelengths constrained by the MFR measurements, but have larger biases and variability at longer wavelengths. Additional MFR channels at 1100 nm and/or 1600 nm would help constrain the high resolution spectral albedo in the near infrared region.

Variation in Surficial Hydrated Minerals on Large Low-Albedo Asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Rivkin, Andrew S.; Emery, Joshua P.; Howell, Ellen S.

2017-10-01

Observations of asteroids in the 3-µm spectral region, where absorptions diagnostic for hydrated minerals are found, show low-albedo asteroid spectra can be classified into at least 3 groups (Takir et al. 2013, Rivkin et al. 2015). While definitions of these groups vary between authors, they hold in common a group with spectra like what we see for CM/CI meteorites, one group with spectra like that of Ceres, and a group with spectra that have been interpreted as ice frost. The relationship between these groups is not yet clear. One possibility is that the spectrum reflects (no pun intended) the formation location for the asteroids and that a given object is undifferentiated and homogeneous in the composition of its hydrated minerals. However, models of the thermal and chemical evolution of large, low-albedo asteroids suggests that differentiation may be more common than we had thought, and impacts could exhume once-deep layers or expose complicated mixes of salts and silicates (for instance, Castillo-Rogez et al. LPSC 2017 model of Ceres). In this case, we might expect variation in the 3-µm spectral region to be seen on the surfaces of some objects as they rotate. We will present evidence for such variation in the spectrum of two large asteroids, 704 Interamnia (306 km diameter) and 324 Bamberga (220 km diameter). In the first case, Interamnia’s spectrum seems to have a combination of Ceres- and CM/CI-like features and has aspects where one or another component is dominant, while Bamberga’s spectrum is not easily placed in previously-defined groups.

PROVE Surface albedo of Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, 1997

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The objective of this study was to determine the spatial variations in field measurements of broadband albedo as related to the ground cover and under a range of...

The effects of additional black carbon on the albedo of Arctic sea ice: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. A. Marks

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The response of the albedo of bare sea ice and snow-covered sea ice to the addition of black carbon is calculated. Visible light absorption and light-scattering cross-sections are derived for a typical first-year and multi-year sea ice with both "dry" and "wet" snow types. The cross-sections are derived using data from a 1970s field study that recorded both reflectivity and light penetration in Arctic sea ice and snow overlying sea ice. The variation of absorption cross-section over the visible wavelengths suggests black carbon is the dominating light-absorbing impurity. The response of first-year and multi-year sea ice albedo to increasing black carbon, from 1 to 1024 ng g−1, in a top 5 cm layer of a 155 cm-thick sea ice was calculated using a radiative-transfer model. The albedo of the first-year sea ice is more sensitive to additional loadings of black carbon than the multi-year sea ice. An addition of 8 ng g−1 of black carbon causes a decrease to 98.7% of the original albedo for first-year sea ice compared to a decrease to 99.7% for the albedo of multi-year sea ice, at a wavelength of 500 nm. The albedo of sea ice is surprisingly unresponsive to additional black carbon up to 100 ng g−1 . Snow layers on sea ice may mitigate the effects of black carbon in sea ice. Wet and dry snow layers of 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 cm depth were added onto the sea ice surface. The albedo of the snow surface was calculated whilst the black carbon in the underlying sea ice was increased. A layer of snow 0.5 cm thick greatly diminishes the effect of black carbon in sea ice on the surface albedo. The albedo of a 2–5 cm snow layer (less than the e-folding depth of snow is still influenced by the underlying sea ice, but the effect of additional black carbon in the sea ice is masked.

Potential Long-Term Records of Surface Albedo at Fine Spatiotemporal Resolution from Landsat/Sentinle-2A Surface Reflectance and MODIS/VIIRS BRDF

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Z.; Schaaf, C.; Shuai, Y.; Liu, Y.; Sun, Q.; Erb, A.; Wang, Z.

2016-12-01

The land surface albedo products at fine spatial resolutions are generated by coupling surface reflectance (SR) from Landsat (30 m) or Sentinel-2A (20 m) with concurrent surface anisotropy information (the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function - BRDF) at coarser spatial resolutions from sequential multi-angular observations by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) or its successor, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). We assess the comparability of four types of fine-resolution albedo products (black-sky and white-sky albedos over the shortwave broad band) generated by coupling, (1) Landsat-8 Optical Land Imager (OLI) SR with MODIS BRDF; (2) OLI SR with VIIRS BRDF; (3) Sentinel-2A MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) SR with MODIS BRDF; and (4) MSI SR with VIIRS BRDF. We evaluate the accuracy of these four types of fine-resolution albedo products using ground tower measurements of surface albedo over six SURFace RADiation Network (SURFRAD) sites in the United States. For comparison with the ground measurements, we estimate the actual (blue-sky) albedo values at the six sites by using the satellite-based retrievals of black-sky and white-sky albedos and taking into account the proportion of direct and diffuse solar radiation from the ground measurements at the sites. The coupling of the OLI and MSI SR with MODIS BRDF has already been shown to provide accurate fine-resolution albedo values. With demonstration of a high agreement in BRDF products from MODIS and VIIRS, we expect to see consistency between all four types of fine-resolution albedo products. This assurance of consistency between the couplings of both OLI and MSI with both MODIS and VIIRS guarantees the production of long-term records of surface albedo at fine spatial resolutions and an increased temporal resolution. Such products will be critical in studying land surface changes and associated surface energy balance over the dynamic and heterogeneous landscapes

Global Climate Forcing from Albedo Change Caused by Large-scale Deforestation and Reforestation: Quantification and Attribution of Geographic Variation

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, Tong; Williams, Christopher A.; Ghimire, Bardan; Masek, Jeffrey; Gao, Feng; Schaaf, Crystal

2017-01-01

Large-scale deforestation and reforestation have contributed substantially to historical and contemporary global climate change in part through albedo-induced radiative forcing, with meaningful implications for forest management aiming to mitigate climate change. Associated warming or cooling varies widely across the globe due to a range of factors including forest type, snow cover, and insolation, but resulting geographic variation remain spoorly described and has been largely based on model assessments. This study provides an observation-based approach to quantify local and global radiative forcings from large-scale deforestation and reforestation and further examines mechanisms that result in the spatial heterogeneity of radiative forcing. We incorporate a new spatially and temporally explicit land cover-specific albedo product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer with a historical land use data set (Land Use Harmonization product). Spatial variation in radiative forcing was attributed to four mechanisms, including the change in snow-covered albedo, change in snow-free albedo, snow cover fraction, and incoming solar radiation. We find an albedo-only radiative forcing (RF) of -0.819 W m(exp -2) if year 2000 forests were completely deforested and converted to croplands. Albedo RF from global reforestation of present-day croplands to recover year 1700 forests is estimated to be 0.161 W m)exp -2). Snow-cover fraction is identified as the primary factor in determining the spatial variation of radiative forcing in winter, while the magnitude of the change in snow-free albedo is the primary factor determining variations in summertime RF. Findings reinforce the notion that, for conifers at the snowier high latitudes, albedo RF diminishes the warming from forest loss and the cooling from forest gain more so than for other forest types, latitudes, and climate settings.

Assessment of interannual variations in the surface mass balance of 18 Svalbard glaciers from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/Terra albedo product

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greuell, W.; Kohler, J.; Obleitner, F.; Glowacki, P.; Melvold, K.; Bernsen, E.; Oerlemans, J.

2007-01-01

We estimate annual anomalies of the surface mass balance of glaciers on Svalbard for the period 2000–2005 (six years), by calculating the so-called ‘‘satellite-derived mass balance’’ (Bsat) from time series of satellite-derived surface albedos. The method needs no other input variables. Surface

Global warming and climate forcing by recent albedo changes on Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Fenton, L.K.; Geissler, P.E.; Haberle, R.M.

2007-01-01

For hundreds of years, scientists have tracked the changing appearance of Mars, first by hand drawings and later by photographs. Because of this historical record, many classical albedo patterns have long been known to shift in appearance over time. Decadal variations of the martian surface albedo are generally attributed to removal and deposition of small amounts of relatively bright dust on the surface. Large swaths of the surface (up to 56 million km2) have been observed to darken or brighten by 10 per cent or more. It is unknown, however, how these albedo changes affect wind circulation, dust transport and the feedback between these processes and the martian climate. Here we present predictions from a Mars general circulation model, indicating that the observed interannual albedo alterations strongly influence the martian environment. Results indicate enhanced wind stress in recently darkened areas and decreased wind stress in brightened areas, producing a positive feedback system in which the albedo changes strengthen the winds that generate the changes. The simulations also predict a net annual global warming of surface air temperatures by ???0.65 K, enhancing dust lifting by increasing the likelihood of dust devil generation. The increase in global dust lifting by both wind stress and dust devils may affect the mechanisms that trigger large dust storm initiation, a poorly understood phenomenon, unique to Mars. In addition, predicted increases in summertime air temperatures at high southern latitudes would contribute to the rapid and steady scarp retreat that has been observed in the south polar residual ice for the past four Mars years. Our results suggest that documented albedo changes affect recent climate change and large-scale weather patterns on Mars, and thus albedo variations are a necessary component of future atmospheric and climate studies. ??2007 Nature Publishing Group.

Multidecadal Variability in Surface Albedo Feedback Across CMIP5 Models

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Adam; Flanner, Mark; Perket, Justin

2018-02-01

Previous studies quantify surface albedo feedback (SAF) in climate change, but few assess its variability on decadal time scales. Using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Version 5 (CMIP5) multimodel ensemble data set, we calculate time evolving SAF in multiple decades from surface albedo and temperature linear regressions. Results are meaningful when temperature change exceeds 0.5 K. Decadal-scale SAF is strongly correlated with century-scale SAF during the 21st century. Throughout the 21st century, multimodel ensemble mean SAF increases from 0.37 to 0.42 W m-2 K-1. These results suggest that models' mean decadal-scale SAFs are good estimates of their century-scale SAFs if there is at least 0.5 K temperature change. Persistent SAF into the late 21st century indicates ongoing capacity for Arctic albedo decline despite there being less sea ice. If the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble results are representative of the Earth, we cannot expect decreasing Arctic sea ice extent to suppress SAF in the 21st century.

Spatial and temporal variations of albedo and absorbed solar radiation during 2009 - 2016 from IKOR-M satellite program

Science.gov (United States)

Cherviakov, Maksim; Bogdanov, Mikhail; Spiryakhina, Anastasia; Shishkina, Elena; Surkova, Yana; Kulkova, Eugenia

2017-04-01

-M. This radiometer worked on board of the "Meteor-M" No 1 satellite for five years. Parameters of linear trends are estimated for the Earth's surface area albedo with approximately constant values of this characteristic and the estimate of sensitivity change over time for the radiometer is obtained. The seasonal and interannual variations of OSR, albedo and ASR were discussed. The variations between SW radiation budget components seem to be within observational uncertainty and natural variability governed by cloudiness, water vapor and aerosol variations. It should be noted that cloudiness makes a significant contribution to the planetary albedo of the Earth, largely determines its spatial-temporal distribution. In particular, it is important to know what contribution cloudiness makes to albedo and what the relationship between them. Therefore, comparisons between albedo and cloudiness were conducted separately for land and oceans. The comparison of the distributions of cloudiness and albedo had identified the existence of significant correlation to the World Ocean, lower values for the World Ocean and land together and small correlation for land. It was assessed spatial and temporal variations of albedo and the absorbed solar radiation over different regions. Latitudinal distributions of albedo and ASR were estimated in more detail. Meridional cross sections over oceans and land were used separately for this estimation. It was shown that the albedo and ASR data received from the radiometer IKOR-M can be used to detect El Nino in the Pacific Ocean and monitoring of the East Asian Summer Monsoon. The report will be presented more detailed results. The reported study was funded by Russian Geographical Society according financial support in the framework of a research project No 40/2016-R. Latitudinal distributions of albedo and ASR study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No.16-35-00284 mol_a. References 1. Sklyarov Yu.A., Vorob'ev V.A., Kotuma A

Landcover Change, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo and Topography in the Plateau Region of North-Central Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shakirudeen Odunuga

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study assessed the change in some environmental parameters in the Plateau region of North-Central Nigeria (Barakinladi, Jos, and Kafachan environs using the nexus of landcover change, land surface temperature, surface albedo, and topography. The study employed both remote sensing and statistical techniques for the period between 1986 and 2014 to analyze the dynamics between and within these environmental variables. In Barakinladi, the built up landcover change is highest (increasing from 39.53% to 47.59% between 1986 and 2014; LST ranges from 19.09 °C to 38.59 °C in 1986 and from 22.68 °C and 41.68 °C in 2014; and the albedo ranges between 0.014 and 0.154 in 1986 and 0.017 and 0.248 in 2014. In Jos, the built-up landcover occupied 34.26% in 1986 and 36.67% in 2014; LST values range between 20.83 °C and 41.33 °C in 1986 and between 21.61 °C and 42.64 °C in 2014; and the albedo ranges between 0.003 and 0.211 in 1986 and 0.15 and 0.237 in 2014. In Kafachan area, the built up landcover occupied 32.95% in 1986 and 39.01% in 2014. Urbanization and agricultural activities, including animal grazing, were responsible for the gradual loss in vegetation and increasing average LST and albedo. The results also revealed that changing landcover and topography have a relationship with surface albedo and land surface temperature, thereby impacting significantly on ecosystem services delivered by the natural system.

The retrieval of land surface albedo in rugged terrain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gao, B.; Jia, L.; Menenti, M.

2012-01-01

Land surface albedo may be derived from the satellite data through the estimation of a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model and angular integration. However many BRDF models do not consider explicitly the topography. In rugged terrain, the topography influences the observed

Derivation of Land Surface Albedo at High Resolution by Combining HJ-1A/B Reflectance Observations with MODIS BRDF Products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gao, B.; Jia, L.; Wang, T.X.

2014-01-01

Land surface albedo is an essential parameter for monitoring global/regional climate and land surface energy balance. Although many studies have been conducted on global or regional land surface albedo using various remote sensing data over the past few decades, land surface albedo product with a

Derivation of Land Surface Albedo at High Resolution by Combining HJ-1A/B Reflectance Observations with MODIS BRDF Products

OpenAIRE

Gao, Bo; Jia, Li; Wang, Tianxing

2014-01-01

Land surface albedo is an essential parameter for monitoring global/regional climate and land surface energy balance. Although many studies have been conducted on global or regional land surface albedo using various remote sensing data over the past few decades, land surface albedo product with a high spatio-temporal resolution is currently very scarce. This paper proposes a method for deriving land surface albedo with a high spatio-temporal resolution (space: 30 m and time: 2-4 days). The pr...

Monitoring glacier albedo as a proxy to derive summer and annual surface mass balances from optical remote-sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Davaze, Lucas; Rabatel, Antoine; Arnaud, Yves; Sirguey, Pascal; Six, Delphine; Letreguilly, Anne; Dumont, Marie

2018-01-01

Less than 0.25 % of the 250 000 glaciers inventoried in the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI V.5) are currently monitored with in situ measurements of surface mass balance. Increasing this archive is very challenging, especially using time-consuming methods based on in situ measurements, and complementary methods are required to quantify the surface mass balance of unmonitored glaciers. The current study relies on the so-called albedo method, based on the analysis of albedo maps retrieved from optical satellite imagery acquired since 2000 by the MODIS sensor, on board the TERRA satellite. Recent studies revealed substantial relationships between summer minimum glacier-wide surface albedo and annual surface mass balance, because this minimum surface albedo is directly related to the accumulation-area ratio and the equilibrium-line altitude. On the basis of 30 glaciers located in the French Alps where annual surface mass balance data are available, our study conducted on the period 2000-2015 confirms the robustness and reliability of the relationship between the summer minimum surface albedo and the annual surface mass balance. For the ablation season, the integrated summer surface albedo is significantly correlated with the summer surface mass balance of the six glaciers seasonally monitored. These results are promising to monitor both annual and summer glacier-wide surface mass balances of individual glaciers at a regional scale using optical satellite images. A sensitivity study on the computed cloud masks revealed a high confidence in the retrieved albedo maps, restricting the number of omission errors. Albedo retrieval artifacts have been detected for topographically incised glaciers, highlighting limitations in the shadow correction algorithm, although inter-annual comparisons are not affected by systematic errors.

Surface albedo in relation to disturbance and early stand dynamics in the boreal forest: Implications for climate models

Science.gov (United States)

Halim, M. A.; Thomas, S. C.

2017-12-01

Surface albedo is the most important biophysical radiative forcing in the boreal forest. General Circulation Model studies have suggested that harvesting of boreal forest has a net cooling effect, in contrast to other terrestrial biomes, by increasing surface albedo. However, albedo estimation in these models has been achieved by simplifying processes governing albedo at a coarse scale (both spatial and temporal). Biophysical processes that determine albedo likely operate on small spatial and temporal scales, requiring more direct estimates of effects of landcover change on net radiation. We established a chronosequence study in post-fire and post-clearcut sites (2013, 2006, 1998), logging data from July 2013 to July 2017 in boreal forest sites in northwestern Ontario, Canada. Each age-class X disturbance had 3 three replicates, matched to 18 permanent circular plots (10-m radius) each with an instrumented tower measuring surface albedo, air and soil temperature, and soil moisture. We also measured leaf area index, species composition and soil organic matter content at each site. BRDF-corrected surface albedo was calculated from daily 30m x 30m reflectance data fused from the MODIS MOD09GA product and Landsat 7 reflectance data. Calculated albedo was verified using ground-based measurements. Results show that fire sites generally had lower (15-25%) albedo than clearcut sites in all seasons. Because of rapid forest regrowth, large perturbations of clearcut harvests on forest albedo started to fade out within a year. Albedo differences between fire and clearcut sites also declined sharply with stand age. Younger stands generally had higher albedo than older stands mainly due to the presence of broadleaf species (for example, Populus tremuloides). In spring, snow melted 10-12 days earlier in recent (2013) clearcut sites compared to closed-canopy sites, causing a sharp reduction in surface albedo in comparison to old clearcut/fire sites (2006 and 1998). Snow melted

Surface photometric properties and albedo changes in the central equatorial region of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Strickland, Edwin L., III

1992-12-01

Comparison of the Viking Orbiter 2 Approach mosaic taken 11 Mars months later provides qualitative information on the photometric properties of the martian albedo features, and the distribution of dust and sand deposits responsible for the atmosphere near the northern summer solstice. The approach mosaic was taken at L s 106 degrees (early N. summer), phase angle 106 degrees; and airmasses varying from 4.6 at 30 degrees N to 3.3 near 10 degrees S. The apoapsis mosaic was taken in four sequences between L s 72 degrees and 76 degrees (late N. spring), near phase angles of 47 degrees, and at airmasses near 2.5. Systematic differences in the photometric decalibrations used to generate these mosaics may induce multiplicative errors of 5-10 percent of the observed albedos in comparisons of the mosaics, but they are probably nearer 3 percent of the albedos. In the study area (30 degrees N to 20 degrees S, 57 degrees E to 75 degrees W), scene-average approach Minnaert albedos were about 10 percent greater than apoapsis albedos and slightly less 'red'. The preferred explanation for the observed approach-apoapsis albedo difference is that both Arabia and Meridiani materials are smoother on millimeter and larger scales than other units in the study area. This is in good agreement with preliminary conclusions of Thorpe and (for dark intracrater Meridiani splotches) Regner et al. This is also consistent with reasonable models of these surfaces. 'Dark Blue' Meridiani surfaces are interpreted as consisting of sand dunes and sand sheets, which would be expected to have macroscopically smooth, nonshadowing surfaces. Viking Lander images of the surfaces at both landing sites show that smooth drift area's brightnesses are close to those of adjacent rough soil areas at low phase angles, but drifts become much brighter than rough soils when looking up-sun at high phase angles. Smooth patches of duricrust at both landing sites, interpreted by Strickland as eolian deposits (regardless of

Surface photometric properties and albedo changes in the central equatorial region of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Strickland, Edwin L., III

1992-01-01

Comparison of the Viking Orbiter 2 Approach mosaic taken 11 Mars months later provides qualitative information on the photometric properties of the martian albedo features, and the distribution of dust and sand deposits responsible for the atmosphere near the northern summer solstice. The approach mosaic was taken at L (sub s) 106 degrees (early N. summer), phase angle 106 degrees; and airmasses varying from 4.6 at 30 degrees N to 3.3 near 10 degrees S. The apoapsis mosaic was taken in four sequences between L (sub s) 72 degrees and 76 degrees (late N. spring), near phase angles of 47 degrees, and at airmasses near 2.5. Systematic differences in the photometric decalibrations used to generate these mosaics may induce multiplicative errors of 5-10 percent of the observed albedos in comparisons of the mosaics, but they are probably nearer 3 percent of the albedos. In the study area (30 degrees N to 20 degrees S, 57 degrees E to 75 degrees W), scene-average approach Minnaert albedos were about 10 percent greater than apoapsis albedos and slightly less 'red'. The preferred explanation for the observed approach-apoapsis albedo difference is that both Arabia and Meridiani materials are smoother on millimeter and larger scales than other units in the study area. This is in good agreement with preliminary conclusions of Thorpe and (for dark intracrater Meridiani splotches) Regner et al. This is also consistent with reasonable models of these surfaces. 'Dark Blue' Meridiani surfaces are interpreted as consisting of sand dunes and sand sheets, which would be expected to have macroscopically smooth, nonshadowing surfaces. Viking Lander images of the surfaces at both landing sites show that smooth drift area's brightnesses are close to those of adjacent rough soil areas at low phase angles, but drifts become much brighter than rough soils when looking up-sun at high phase angles. Smooth patches of duricrust at both landing sites, interpreted by Strickland as eolian deposits

Derivation of Land Surface Albedo at High Resolution by Combining HJ-1A/B Reflectance Observations with MODIS BRDF Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Gao

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Land surface albedo is an essential parameter for monitoring global/regional climate and land surface energy balance. Although many studies have been conducted on global or regional land surface albedo using various remote sensing data over the past few decades, land surface albedo product with a high spatio–temporal resolution is currently very scarce. This paper proposes a method for deriving land surface albedo with a high spatio–temporal resolution (space: 30 m and time: 2–4 days. The proposed method works by combining the land surface reflectance data at 30 m spatial resolution obtained from the charge-coupled devices in the Huanjing-1A and -1B (HJ-1A/B satellites with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS land surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF parameters product (MCD43A1, which is at a spatial resolution of 500 m. First, the land surface BRDF parameters for HJ-1A/B land surface reflectance with a spatial–temporal resolutions of 30 m and 2–4 day are calculated on the basis of the prior knowledge from the MODIS BRDF product; then, the calculated high resolution BRDF parameters are integrated over the illuminating/viewing hemisphere to produce the white- and black-sky albedos at 30 m resolution. These results form the basis for the final land surface albedo derivation by accounting for the proportion of direct and diffuse solar radiation arriving at the ground. The albedo retrieved by this novel method is compared with MODIS land surface albedo products, as well as with ground measurements. The results show that the derived land surface albedo during the growing season of 2012 generally achieved a mean absolute accuracy of ±0.044, and a root mean square error of 0.039, confirming the effectiveness of the newly proposed method.

The Influence of a Sandy Substrate, Seagrass, or Highly Turbid Water on Albedo and Surface Heat Flux

Science.gov (United States)

Fogarty, M. C.; Fewings, M. R.; Paget, A. C.; Dierssen, H. M.

2018-01-01

Sea-surface albedo is a combination of surface-reflected and water-leaving irradiance, but water-leaving irradiance typically contributes less than 15% of the total albedo in open-ocean conditions. In coastal systems, however, the bottom substrate or suspended particulate matter can increase the amount of backscattered light, thereby increasing albedo and decreasing net shortwave surface heat flux. Here a sensitivity analysis using observations and models predicts the effect of light scattering on albedo and the net shortwave heat flux for three test cases: a bright sand bottom, a seagrass canopy, and turbid water. After scaling to the full solar shortwave spectrum, daytime average albedo for the test cases is up to 0.20 and exceeds the value of 0.05 predicted using a commonly applied parameterization. Daytime net shortwave heat flux into the water is significantly reduced, particularly for waters with bright sediments, dense horizontal seagrass canopies waters with suspended particulate matter concentration ≥ 50 g m-3. Observations of a more vertical seagrass canopy within 0.2 and 1 m of the surface indicate the increase in albedo compared to the common parameterization is negligible. Therefore, we suggest that the commonly applied albedo lookup table can be used in coastal heat flux estimates in water as shallow as 1 m unless the bottom substrate is highly reflective or the water is highly turbid. Our model results provide guidance to researchers who need to determine albedo in highly reflective or highly turbid conditions but have no direct observations.

Early Spring Post-Fire Snow Albedo Dynamics in High Latitude Boreal Forests Using Landsat-8 OLI Data

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhuosen; Erb, Angela M.; Schaaf, Crystal B.; Sun, Qingsong; Liu, Yan; Yang, Yun; Shuai, Yanmin; Casey, Kimberly A.; Roman, Miguel O.

2016-01-01

Taking advantage of the improved radiometric resolution of Landsat-8 OLI which, unlike previous Landsat sensors, does not saturate over snow, the progress of fire recovery progress at the landscape scale (less than 100 m) is examined. High quality Landsat-8 albedo retrievals can now capture the true reflective and layered character of snow cover over a full range of land surface conditions and vegetation densities. This new capability particularly improves the assessment of post-fire vegetation dynamics across low- to high-burn severity gradients in Arctic and boreal regions in the early spring, when the albedos during recovery show the greatest variation. We use 30 m resolution Landsat-8 surface reflectances with concurrent coarser resolution (500 m) MODIS high quality full inversion surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDF) products to produce higher resolution values of surface albedo. The high resolution full expression shortwave blue sky albedo product performs well with an overall RMSE of 0.0267 between tower and satellite measures under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions. While the importance of post-fire albedo recovery can be discerned from the MODIS albedo product at regional and global scales, our study addresses the particular importance of early spring post-fire albedo recovery at the landscape scale by considering the significant spatial heterogeneity of burn severity, and the impact of snow on the early spring albedo of various vegetation recovery types. We found that variations in early spring albedo within a single MODIS gridded pixel can be larger than 0.6. Since the frequency and severity of wildfires in Arctic and boreal systems is expected to increase in the coming decades, the dynamics of albedo in response to these rapid surface changes will increasingly impact the energy balance and contribute to other climate processes and physical feedback mechanisms. Surface radiation products derived from Landsat-8 data will

Long-Term Variability of Surface Albedo and Its Correlation with Climatic Variables over Antarctica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minji Seo

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The cryosphere is an essential part of the earth system for understanding climate change. Components of the cryosphere, such as ice sheets and sea ice, are generally decreasing over time. However, previous studies have indicated differing trends between the Antarctic and the Arctic. The South Pole also shows internal differences in trends. These phenomena indicate the importance of continuous observation of the Polar Regions. Albedo is a main indicator for analyzing Antarctic climate change and is an important variable with regard to the radiation budget because it can provide positive feedback on polar warming and is related to net radiation and atmospheric heating in the mainly snow- and ice-covered Antarctic. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed long-term temporal and spatial variability of albedo and investigated the interrelationships between albedo and climatic variables over Antarctica. We used broadband surface albedo data from the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring and data for several climatic variables such as temperature and Antarctic oscillation index (AAO during the period of 1983 to 2009. Time series analysis and correlation analysis were performed through linear regression using albedo and climatic variables. The results of this research indicated that albedo shows two trends, west trend and an east trend, over Antarctica. Most of the western side of Antarctica showed a negative trend of albedo (about −0.0007 to −0.0015 year−1, but the other side showed a positive trend (about 0.0006 year−1. In addition, albedo and surface temperature had a negative correlation, but this relationship was weaker in west Antarctica than in east Antarctica. The correlation between albedo and AAO revealed different relationships in the two regions; west Antarctica had a negative correlation and east Antarctica showed a positive correlation. In addition, the correlation between albedo and AAO was weaker in the west. This

Evaluation of the global MODIS 30 arc-second spatially and temporally complete snow-free land surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy dataset

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Qingsong; Wang, Zhuosen; Li, Zhan; Erb, Angela; Schaaf, Crystal B.

2017-06-01

Land surface albedo is an essential variable for surface energy and climate modeling as it describes the proportion of incident solar radiant flux that is reflected from the Earth's surface. To capture the temporal variability and spatial heterogeneity of the land surface, satellite remote sensing must be used to monitor albedo accurately at a global scale. However, large data gaps caused by cloud or ephemeral snow have slowed the adoption of satellite albedo products by the climate modeling community. To address the needs of this community, we used a number of temporal and spatial gap-filling strategies to improve the spatial and temporal coverage of the global land surface MODIS BRDF, albedo and NBAR products. A rigorous evaluation of the gap-filled values shows good agreement with original high quality data (RMSE = 0.027 for the NIR band albedo, 0.020 for the red band albedo). This global snow-free and cloud-free MODIS BRDF and albedo dataset (established from 2001 to 2015) offers unique opportunities to monitor and assess the impact of the changes on the Earth's land surface.

Seasonal albedo of an urban/rural landscape from satellite observations

Science.gov (United States)

Brest, Christopher L.

1987-01-01

Using data from 27 calibrated Landsat observations of the Hartford, Connecticut area, the spatial distribution and seasonal variation of surface reflectance and albedo were examined. Mean values of visible reflectance, near-IR reflectance, and albedo are presented (for both snow-free and snow-cover observations) according to 14 land use/land cover categories. A diversity of albedo values was found to exist in this type of environment, associated with land cover. Many land-cover categories display a seasonal dependence, with intracategory seasonal differences being of comparable magnitude to intercategory differences. Key factors in determining albedo (and its seasonal dynamics) are the presence or absence of vegetation and the canopy structure. Snow-cover/snow-free differences range from a few percent (for urban land covers) to over 40 percent (for low-canopy vegetation).

The response of Arctic vegetation to the summer climate: relation between shrub cover, NDVI, surface albedo and temperature

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blok, Daan; Heijmans, Monique M P D; Berendse, Frank [Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen (Netherlands); Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela [Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zuerich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zuerich (Switzerland); Bartholomeus, Harm [Centre for Geo-Information, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen (Netherlands); Maximov, Trofim C, E-mail: daan.blok@wur.nl [Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Division, 41, Lenin Prospekt, Yakutsk, The Republic of Sakha, Yakutia 677980 (Russian Federation)

2011-07-15

Recently observed Arctic greening trends from normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data suggest that shrub growth is increasing in response to increasing summer temperature. An increase in shrub cover is expected to decrease summer albedo and thus positively feed back to climate warming. However, it is unknown how albedo and NDVI are affected by shrub cover and inter-annual variations in the summer climate. Here, we examine the relationship between deciduous shrub fractional cover, NDVI and albedo using field data collected at a tundra site in NE Siberia. Field data showed that NDVI increased and albedo decreased with increasing deciduous shrub cover. We then selected four Arctic tundra study areas and compiled annual growing season maximum NDVI and minimum albedo maps from MODIS satellite data (2000-10) and related these satellite products to tundra vegetation types (shrub, graminoid, barren and wetland tundra) and regional summer temperature. We observed that maximum NDVI was greatest in shrub tundra and that inter-annual variation was negatively related to summer minimum albedo but showed no consistent relationship with summer temperature. Shrub tundra showed higher albedo than wetland and barren tundra in all four study areas. These results suggest that a northwards shift of shrub tundra might not lead to a decrease in summer minimum albedo during the snow-free season when replacing wetland tundra. A fully integrative study is however needed to link results from satellite data with in situ observations across the Arctic to test the effect of increasing shrub cover on summer albedo in different tundra vegetation types.

The response of Arctic vegetation to the summer climate: relation between shrub cover, NDVI, surface albedo and temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blok, Daan; Heijmans, Monique M P D; Berendse, Frank; Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela; Bartholomeus, Harm; Maximov, Trofim C

2011-01-01

Recently observed Arctic greening trends from normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data suggest that shrub growth is increasing in response to increasing summer temperature. An increase in shrub cover is expected to decrease summer albedo and thus positively feed back to climate warming. However, it is unknown how albedo and NDVI are affected by shrub cover and inter-annual variations in the summer climate. Here, we examine the relationship between deciduous shrub fractional cover, NDVI and albedo using field data collected at a tundra site in NE Siberia. Field data showed that NDVI increased and albedo decreased with increasing deciduous shrub cover. We then selected four Arctic tundra study areas and compiled annual growing season maximum NDVI and minimum albedo maps from MODIS satellite data (2000-10) and related these satellite products to tundra vegetation types (shrub, graminoid, barren and wetland tundra) and regional summer temperature. We observed that maximum NDVI was greatest in shrub tundra and that inter-annual variation was negatively related to summer minimum albedo but showed no consistent relationship with summer temperature. Shrub tundra showed higher albedo than wetland and barren tundra in all four study areas. These results suggest that a northwards shift of shrub tundra might not lead to a decrease in summer minimum albedo during the snow-free season when replacing wetland tundra. A fully integrative study is however needed to link results from satellite data with in situ observations across the Arctic to test the effect of increasing shrub cover on summer albedo in different tundra vegetation types.

Validation of AVHRR- and MODIS-derived albedos of snow and ice surfaces by means of helicopter measurements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greuell, W.; Oerlemans, J.

2005-01-01

We describe the validation of surface albedos of snow and glacier ice as derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and MOderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) satellite data. For this purpose we measured surface albedos from a helicopter over Vatnajökull, Iceland, and

Impacts of Satellite-Based Snow Albedo Assimilation on Offline and Coupled Land Surface Model Simulations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tao Wang

Full Text Available Seasonal snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is the largest component of the terrestrial cryosphere and plays a major role in the climate system through strong positive feedbacks related to albedo. The snow-albedo feedback is invoked as an important cause for the polar amplification of ongoing and projected climate change, and its parameterization across models is an important source of uncertainty in climate simulations. Here, instead of developing a physical snow albedo scheme, we use a direct insertion approach to assimilate satellite-based surface albedo during the snow season (hereafter as snow albedo assimilation into the land surface model ORCHIDEE (ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms and assess the influences of such assimilation on offline and coupled simulations. Our results have shown that snow albedo assimilation in both ORCHIDEE and ORCHIDEE-LMDZ (a general circulation model of Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique improve the simulation accuracy of mean seasonal (October throughout May snow water equivalent over the region north of 40 degrees. The sensitivity of snow water equivalent to snow albedo assimilation is more pronounced in the coupled simulation than the offline simulation since the feedback of albedo on air temperature is allowed in ORCHIDEE-LMDZ. We have also shown that simulations of air temperature at 2 meters in ORCHIDEE-LMDZ due to snow albedo assimilation are significantly improved during the spring in particular over the eastern Siberia region. This is a result of the fact that high amounts of shortwave radiation during the spring can maximize its snow albedo feedback, which is also supported by the finding that the spatial sensitivity of temperature change to albedo change is much larger during the spring than during the autumn and winter. In addition, the radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere induced by snow albedo assimilation during the spring is estimated to be -2.50 W m-2, the

Fire-induced albedo change and surface radiative forcing in sub-Saharan Africa savanna ecosystems: Implications for the energy balance

Science.gov (United States)

Dintwe, Kebonye; Okin, Gregory S.; Xue, Yongkang

2017-06-01

Surface albedo is a critical parameter that controls surface energy balance. In dryland ecosystems, fires play a significant role in decreasing surface albedo, resulting in positive radiative forcing. Here we investigate the long-term effect of fire on surface albedo. We devised a method to calculate short-, medium-, and long-term effect of fire-induced radiative forcing and their relative effects on energy balance. We used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data in our analysis, covering different vegetation classes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Our analysis indicated that mean short-term fire-induced albedo change in SSA was -0.022, -0.035, and -0.041 for savannas, shrubland, and grasslands, respectively. At regional scale, mean fire-induced albedo change in savannas was -0.018 and -0.024 for northern sub-Saharan of Africa and the southern hemisphere Africa, respectively. The short-term mean fire-induced radiative forcing in burned areas in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was 5.41 W m-2, which contributed continental and global radiative forcings of 0.25 and 0.058 W m-2, respectively. The impact of fire in surface albedo has long-lasting effects that varies with vegetation type. The long-term energetic effects of fire-induced albedo change and associated radiative forcing were, on average, more than 19 times greater across SSA than the short-term effects, suggesting that fires exerted far more radiative forcing than previously thought. Taking into account the actual duration of fire's effect on surface albedo, we conclude that the contribution of SSA fires, globally and throughout the year, is 0.12 W m-2. These findings provide crucial information on possible impact of fire on regional climate variability.

A framework for consistent estimation of leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, and surface albedo from MODIS time-series data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xiao, Zhiqiang; Liang, Shunlin; Wang, Jindi

2015-01-01

-series MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data. If the reflectance data showed snow-free areas, an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) technique was used to estimate leaf area index (LAI) for a two-layer canopy reflectance model (ACRM) by combining predictions from a phenology...... model and the MODIS surface reflectance data. The estimated LAI values were then input into the ACRM to calculate the surface albedo and the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR). For snow-covered areas, the surface albedo was calculated as the underlying vegetation canopy...... albedo plus the weighted distance between the underlying vegetation canopy albedo and the albedo over deep snow. The LAI/FAPAR and surface albedo values estimated using this framework were compared with MODIS collection 5 eight-day 1-km LAI/FAPAR products (MOD15A2) and 500-m surface albedo product (MCD43...

Development of a MODIS-Derived Surface Albedo Data Set: An Improved Model Input for Processing the NSRDB

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maclaurin, Galen [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sengupta, Manajit [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Xie, Yu [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Gilroy, Nicholas [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-12-01

A significant source of bias in the transposition of global horizontal irradiance to plane-of-array (POA) irradiance arises from inaccurate estimations of surface albedo. The current physics-based model used to produce the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) relies on model estimations of surface albedo from a reanalysis climatalogy produced at relatively coarse spatial resolution compared to that of the NSRDB. As an input to spectral decomposition and transposition models, more accurate surface albedo data from remotely sensed imagery at finer spatial resolutions would improve accuracy in the final product. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed an improved white-sky (bi-hemispherical reflectance) broadband (0.3-5.0 ..mu..m) surface albedo data set for processing the NSRDB from two existing data sets: a gap-filled albedo product and a daily snow cover product. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites have provided high-quality measurements of surface albedo at 30 arc-second spatial resolution and 8-day temporal resolution since 2001. The high spatial and temporal resolutions and the temporal coverage of the MODIS sensor will allow for improved modeling of POA irradiance in the NSRDB. However, cloud and snow cover interfere with MODIS observations of ground surface albedo, and thus they require post-processing. The MODIS production team applied a gap-filling methodology to interpolate observations obscured by clouds or ephemeral snow. This approach filled pixels with ephemeral snow cover because the 8-day temporal resolution is too coarse to accurately capture the variability of snow cover and its impact on albedo estimates. However, for this project, accurate representation of daily snow cover change is important in producing the NSRDB. Therefore, NREL also used the Integrated Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System data set, which provides daily snow cover observations of the

Factors affecting projected Arctic surface shortwave heating and albedo change in coupled climate models.

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Marika M; Landrum, Laura

2015-07-13

We use a large ensemble of simulations from the Community Earth System Model to quantify simulated changes in the twentieth and twenty-first century Arctic surface shortwave heating associated with changing incoming solar radiation and changing ice conditions. For increases in shortwave absorption associated with albedo reductions, the relative influence of changing sea ice surface properties and changing sea ice areal coverage is assessed. Changes in the surface sea ice properties are associated with an earlier melt season onset, a longer snow-free season and enhanced surface ponding. Because many of these changes occur during peak solar insolation, they have a considerable influence on Arctic surface shortwave heating that is comparable to the influence of ice area loss in the early twenty-first century. As ice area loss continues through the twenty-first century, it overwhelms the influence of changes in the sea ice surface state, and is responsible for a majority of the net shortwave increases by the mid-twenty-first century. A comparison with the Arctic surface albedo and shortwave heating in CMIP5 models indicates a large spread in projected twenty-first century change. This is in part related to different ice loss rates among the models and different representations of the late twentieth century ice albedo and associated sea ice surface state. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

An Algorithm for the Retrieval of 30-m Snow-Free Albedo from Landsat Surface Reflectance and MODIS BRDF

Science.gov (United States)

Shuai, Yanmin; Masek, Jeffrey G.; Gao, Feng; Schaaf, Crystal B.

2011-01-01

We present a new methodology to generate 30-m resolution land surface albedo using Landsat surface reflectance and anisotropy information from concurrent MODIS 500-m observations. Albedo information at fine spatial resolution is particularly useful for quantifying climate impacts associated with land use change and ecosystem disturbance. The derived white-sky and black-sky spectral albedos maybe used to estimate actual spectral albedos by taking into account the proportion of direct and diffuse solar radiation arriving at the ground. A further spectral-to-broadband conversion based on extensive radiative transfer simulations is applied to produce the broadband albedos at visible, near infrared, and shortwave regimes. The accuracy of this approach has been evaluated using 270 Landsat scenes covering six field stations supported by the SURFace RADiation Budget Network (SURFRAD) and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains (ARM/SGP) network. Comparison with field measurements shows that Landsat 30-m snow-free shortwave albedos from all seasons generally achieve an absolute accuracy of +/-0.02 - 0.05 for these validation sites during available clear days in 2003-2005,with a root mean square error less than 0.03 and a bias less than 0.02. This level of accuracy has been regarded as sufficient for driving global and regional climate models. The Landsat-based retrievals have also been compared to the operational 16-day MODIS albedo produced every 8-days from MODIS on Terra and Aqua (MCD43A). The Landsat albedo provides more detailed landscape texture, and achieves better agreement (correlation and dynamic range) with in-situ data at the validation stations, particularly when the stations include a heterogeneous mix of surface covers.

UV/visible albedos from airborne measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, A.; Kylling, A.; Stromberg, I.

2003-04-01

During the INSPECTRO campaign effective surface albedo was measured at UV and visible wavelengths from two airborne platforms, a Cessna light aircraft and a hot air balloon. On board the Cessna was a scanning spectroradiometer measuring from 300 - 500nm at 10nm intervals. The NILU cube, with 6 faces and two UV channels at 312 and 340nm, was suspended beneath the hot air balloon. Flights took place over East Anglia during September, 2002. Balloon flights were made below cloud layers, while the Cessna flew both above and below cloud. The Cessna also flew over Barton Bendish, where surface albedos have been measured for ground truthing of satellite data, and measured the effective albedo at four visible wave- lengths in the centres of the satellite bandpass functions. Results of measurements from the different platforms are compared, and model simulations used to deduce the surface albedo from the effective albedo at altitude, giving, for example, an albedo of 0.02 ± 0.01 at 340nm.

An Improved Method For Retrieving Land Surface Albedo Over Rugged Terrain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gao, B.; Jia, L.; Menenti, M.

2014-01-01

Land surface albedo is a very important parameter, which can be derived from a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model with angular integration of BRDF in a particular distribution of downward solar irradiance. The Algorithm for MODIS Bidirectional Reflectance Anisotropic of

The effect of surface albedo and grain size distribution on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sand dams are very useful in arid and semi arid lands (ASALs) as facilities for water storage and conservation. Soils in ASALs are mainly sandy and major water loss is by evaporation and infiltration. This study investigated the effect of sand media characteristics, specifically surface albedo, grain size and stratification on ...

Estimation of snow albedo reduction by light absorbing impurities using Monte Carlo radiative transfer model

Science.gov (United States)

Sengupta, D.; Gao, L.; Wilcox, E. M.; Beres, N. D.; Moosmüller, H.; Khlystov, A.

2017-12-01

Radiative forcing and climate change greatly depends on earth's surface albedo and its temporal and spatial variation. The surface albedo varies greatly depending on the surface characteristics ranging from 5-10% for calm ocean waters to 80% for some snow-covered areas. Clean and fresh snow surfaces have the highest albedo and are most sensitive to contamination with light absorbing impurities that can greatly reduce surface albedo and change overall radiative forcing estimates. Accurate estimation of snow albedo as well as understanding of feedbacks on climate from changes in snow-covered areas is important for radiative forcing, snow energy balance, predicting seasonal snowmelt, and run off rates. Such information is essential to inform timely decision making of stakeholders and policy makers. Light absorbing particles deposited onto the snow surface can greatly alter snow albedo and have been identified as a major contributor to regional climate forcing if seasonal snow cover is involved. However, uncertainty associated with quantification of albedo reduction by these light absorbing particles is high. Here, we use Mie theory (under the assumption of spherical snow grains) to reconstruct the single scattering parameters of snow (i.e., single scattering albedo ῶ and asymmetry parameter g) from observation-based size distribution information and retrieved refractive index values. The single scattering parameters of impurities are extracted with the same approach from datasets obtained during laboratory combustion of biomass samples. Instead of using plane-parallel approximation methods to account for multiple scattering, we have used the simple "Monte Carlo ray/photon tracing approach" to calculate the snow albedo. This simple approach considers multiple scattering to be the "collection" of single scattering events. Using this approach, we vary the effective snow grain size and impurity concentrations to explore the evolution of snow albedo over a wide

Correction of sub-pixel topographical effects on land surface albedo retrieved from geostationary satellite (FengYun-2D) observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roupioz, L; Nerry, F; Jia, L; Menenti, M

2014-01-01

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is characterised by a very strong relief which affects albedo retrieval from satellite data. The objective of this study is to highlight the effects of sub-pixel topography and to account for those effects when retrieving land surface albedo from geostationary satellite FengYun-2D (FY-2D) data with 1.25km spatial resolution using the high spatial resolution (30 m) data of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from ASTER. The methodology integrates the effects of sub-pixel topography on the estimation of the total irradiance received at the surface, allowing the computation of the topographically corrected surface reflectance. Furthermore, surface albedo is estimated by applying the parametric BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) model called RPV (Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete) to the terrain corrected surface reflectance. The results, evaluated against ground measurements collected over several experimental sites on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, document the advantage of integrating the sub-pixel topography effects in the land surface reflectance at 1km resolution to estimate the land surface albedo. The results obtained after using sub-pixel topographic correction are compared with the ones obtained after using pixel level topographic correction. The preliminary results imply that, in highly rugged terrain, the sub-pixel topography correction method gives more accurate results. The pixel level correction tends to overestimate surface albedo

A Continental United States High Resolution NLCD Land Cover – MODIS Albedo Database to Examine Albedo and Land Cover Change Relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Surface albedo influences climate by affecting the amount of solar radiation that is reflected at the Earth’s surface, and surface albedo is, in turn, affected by land cover. General Circulation Models typically use modeled or prescribed albedo to assess the influence of land co...

Generating multi-scale albedo look-up maps using MODIS BRDF/Albedo products and landsat imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Surface albedo determines radiative forcing and is a key parameter for driving Earth’s climate. Better characterization of surface albedo for individual land cover types can reduce the uncertainty in estimating changes to Earth’s radiation balance due to land cover change. This paper presents a mult...

Quality assurance of in-situ measurements of land surface albedo: A model-based approach

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Jennifer; Gobron, Nadine; Widlowski, Jean-Luc; Mio, Corrado

2016-04-01

This paper presents the development of a model-based framework for assessing the quality of in-situ measurements of albedo used to validate land surface albedo products. Using a 3D Monte Carlo Ray Tracing (MCRT) radiative transfer model, a quality assurance framework is built based on simulated field measurements of albedo within complex 3D canopies and under various illumination scenarios. This method provides an unbiased approach in assessing the quality of field measurements, and is also able to trace the contributions of two main sources of uncertainty in field-measurements of albedo; those resulting from 1) the field measurement protocol, such as height or placement of field measurement within the canopy, and 2) intrinsic factors of the 3D canopy under specific illumination characteristics considered, such as the canopy structure and landscape heterogeneity, tree heights, ecosystem type and season.

A FALSE POSITIVE FOR OCEAN GLINT ON EXOPLANETS: THE LATITUDE-ALBEDO EFFECT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cowan, Nicolas B.; Abbot, Dorian S.; Voigt, Aiko

2012-01-01

Identifying liquid water on the surface of planets is a high priority, as this traditionally defines habitability. One proposed signature of oceans is specular reflection ('glint'), which increases the apparent albedo of a planet at crescent phases. We post-process a global climate model of an Earth-like planet to simulate reflected light curves. Significantly, we obtain glint-like phase variations even though we do not include specular reflection in our model. This false positive is the product of two generic properties: (1) for modest obliquities, a planet's poles receive less orbit-averaged stellar flux than its equator, so the poles are more likely to be covered in highly reflective snow and ice; and (2) we show that reflected light from a modest-obliquity planet at crescent phases probes higher latitudes than at gibbous phases, therefore a planet's apparent albedo will naturally increase at crescent phase. We suggest that this 'latitude-albedo effect' will operate even for large obliquities: in that case the equator receives less orbit-averaged flux than the poles, and the equator is preferentially sampled at crescent phase. Using rotational and orbital color variations to map the surfaces of directly imaged planets and estimate their obliquity will therefore be a necessary pre-condition for properly interpreting their reflected phase variations. The latitude-albedo effect is a particularly convincing glint false positive for zero-obliquity planets, and such worlds are not amenable to latitudinal mapping. This effect severely limits the utility of specular reflection for detecting oceans on exoplanets.

Albedo distribution in Lutzow-Holm Bay and its neighborhood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiyotaka Nakagawa

1997-03-01

Full Text Available A method has been developed for estimating the filtered narrow band surface albedo with NOAA/AVHRR data, and has been applied to analysis of the surface albedo distribution in Lutzow-Holm Bay and its neighborhood, Antarctica, in 1990. As a result, 16 maps of the surface albedo distribution have been drawn. From a comparison of the albedos inferred from satellite data with those actually observed in Ongul Strait, it is clear that the satellite-inferred, filtered narrow band albedos agree well with the daily means of ground-observed, unfiltered broad band albedo, despite systematic errors of about -4%. It is also clear that there is a characteristic pattern of surface albedo distribution in this area; the open sea has very low albedo of less than 5%, whereas most of the compact pack ice and fast ice has a high albedo of more than 60%. The albedo is lower in the eastern part of Lutzow-Holm Bay than in the western part; especially off the Soya Coast it is less than 40%. The ice sheet of Antarctica has a remarkably high albedo of more than 80%.

Reductions in soil surface albedo as a function of biochar application rate: implications for global radiative forcing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verheijen, Frank G A; Bastos, Ana Catarina; Keizer, Jan Jacob; Jeffery, Simon; Van der Velde, Marijn; Penížek, Vít; Beland, Martin

2013-01-01

Biochar can be defined as pyrolysed (charred) biomass produced for application to soils with the aim of mitigating global climate change while improving soil functions. Sustainable biochar application to soils has been estimated to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 71–130 Pg CO 2 -C e over 100 years, indicating an important potential to mitigate climate change. However, these estimates ignored changes in soil surface reflection by the application of dark-coloured biochar. Through a laboratory experiment we show a strong tendency for soil surface albedo to decrease as a power decay function with increasing biochar application rate, depending on soil moisture content, biochar application method and land use. Surface application of biochar resulted in strong reductions in soil surface albedo even at relatively low application rates. As a first assessment of the implications for climate change mitigation of these biochar–albedo relationships, we applied a first order global energy balance model to compare negative radiative forcings (from avoided CO 2 emissions) with positive radiative forcings (from reduced soil surface albedos). For a global-scale biochar application equivalent to 120 t ha −1 , we obtained reductions in negative radiative forcings of 5 and 11% for croplands and 11 and 23% for grasslands, when incorporating biochar into the topsoil or applying it to the soil surface, respectively. For a lower global biochar application rate (equivalent to 10 t ha −1 ), these reductions amounted to 13 and 44% for croplands and 28 and 94% for grasslands. Thus, our findings revealed the importance of including changes in soil surface albedo in studies assessing the net climate change mitigation potential of biochar, and we discuss the urgent need for field studies and more detailed spatiotemporal modelling. (letter)

Albedo and land surface temperature shift in hydrocarbon seepage potential area, case study in Miri Sarawak Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suherman, A; Rahman, M Z A; Busu, I

2014-01-01

The presence of hydrocarbon seepage is generally associated with rock or mineral alteration product exposures, and changes of soil properties which manifest with bare development and stress vegetation. This alters the surface thermodynamic properties, changes the energy balance related to the surface reflection, absorption and emission, and leads to shift in albedo and LST. Those phenomena may provide a guide for seepage detection which can be recognized inexpensively by remote sensing method. District of Miri is used for study area. Available topographic maps of Miri and LANDSAT ETM+ were used for boundary construction and determination albedo and LST. Three land use classification methods, namely fixed, supervised and NDVI base classifications were employed for this study. By the intensive land use classification and corresponding statistical comparison was found a clearly shift on albedo and land surface temperature between internal and external seepage potential area. The shift shows a regular pattern related to vegetation density or NDVI value. In the low vegetation density or low NDVI value, albedo of internal area turned to lower value than external area. Conversely in the high vegetation density or high NDVI value, albedo of internal area turned to higher value than external area. Land surface temperature of internal seepage potential was generally shifted to higher value than external area in all of land use classes. In dense vegetation area tend to shift the temperature more than poor vegetation area

Albedo and land surface temperature shift in hydrocarbon seepage potential area, case study in Miri Sarawak Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Suherman, A.; Rahman, M. Z. A.; Busu, I.

2014-02-01

The presence of hydrocarbon seepage is generally associated with rock or mineral alteration product exposures, and changes of soil properties which manifest with bare development and stress vegetation. This alters the surface thermodynamic properties, changes the energy balance related to the surface reflection, absorption and emission, and leads to shift in albedo and LST. Those phenomena may provide a guide for seepage detection which can be recognized inexpensively by remote sensing method. District of Miri is used for study area. Available topographic maps of Miri and LANDSAT ETM+ were used for boundary construction and determination albedo and LST. Three land use classification methods, namely fixed, supervised and NDVI base classifications were employed for this study. By the intensive land use classification and corresponding statistical comparison was found a clearly shift on albedo and land surface temperature between internal and external seepage potential area. The shift shows a regular pattern related to vegetation density or NDVI value. In the low vegetation density or low NDVI value, albedo of internal area turned to lower value than external area. Conversely in the high vegetation density or high NDVI value, albedo of internal area turned to higher value than external area. Land surface temperature of internal seepage potential was generally shifted to higher value than external area in all of land use classes. In dense vegetation area tend to shift the temperature more than poor vegetation area.

Observations of Surfzone Albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Sinnett, G.; Feddersen, F.

2014-12-01

The surfzone environment (where waves break) contains several unique and previously unconsidered processes that affect the heat budget. Entering short-wave radiation is a dominant term in both shelf and surfzone heat budgets. In contrast to the shelf, however, depth limited wave breaking in the surfzone generates spray, whitewater and suspended sediments, elevating the surface albedo (ratio of reflected to incident short-wave radiation). Elevated albedo reduces the level of solar short-wave radiation entering the water, potentially resulting in less heating. Additionally, surfzone water quality is often impacted by fecal bacteria contamination. As bacteria mortality is related to short-wave solar radiation, elevated surfzone albedo could reduce pathogen mortality, impacting human health. Albedo in the open ocean has been frequently studied and parameterizations often consider solar zenith angle, wind speed and ocean chlorophyll concentration, producing albedo values typically near 0.06. However, surfzone albedo observations have been extremely sparse, yet show depth limited wave breaking may increase the albedo by nearly a factor of 10 up to 0.5. Here, we present findings from a field study at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography pier to observe the affect of waves on surfzone albedo. Concurrent measurements were taken with a four-way radiometer (to measure both downwelling and upwelling short-wave and long wave radiation) mounted above the surfzone. A co-located GoPro camera was used to relate visual aspects of the surfzone to measured reflectance, and wave height and period were observed with a bottom mounted pressure sensor in 5 m water depth just outside the surfzone. Wind speed and direction were observed on the pier 10 m above the water surface. Here, we will examine the surfzone albedo dependence on surfzone parameters, such as wave height.

An energy balance model exploration of the impacts of interactions between surface albedo, cloud cover and water vapor on polar amplification

Science.gov (United States)

Södergren, A. Helena; McDonald, Adrian J.; Bodeker, Gregory E.

2017-11-01

We examine the effects of non-linear interactions between surface albedo, water vapor and cloud cover (referred to as climate variables) on amplified warming of the polar regions, using a new energy balance model. Our simulations show that the sum of the contributions to surface temperature changes due to any variable considered in isolation is smaller than the temperature changes from coupled feedback simulations. This non-linearity is strongest when all three climate variables are allowed to interact. Surface albedo appears to be the strongest driver of this non-linear behavior, followed by water vapor and clouds. This is because increases in longwave radiation absorbed by the surface, related to increases in water vapor and clouds, and increases in surface absorbed shortwave radiation caused by a decrease in surface albedo, amplify each other. Furthermore, our results corroborate previous findings that while increases in cloud cover and water vapor, along with the greenhouse effect itself, warm the polar regions, water vapor also significantly warms equatorial regions, which reduces polar amplification. Changes in surface albedo drive large changes in absorption of incoming shortwave radiation, thereby enhancing surface warming. Unlike high latitudes, surface albedo change at low latitudes are more constrained. Interactions between surface albedo, water vapor and clouds drive larger increases in temperatures in the polar regions compared to low latitudes. This is in spite of the fact that, due to a forcing, cloud cover increases at high latitudes and decreases in low latitudes, and that water vapor significantly enhances warming at low latitudes.

Albedo of the ice covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas

OpenAIRE

A. I. Weiss; J. C. King; T. A. Lachlan-Cope; R. S. Ladkin

2012-01-01

This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo, which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albedo o...

Offset of the potential carbon sink from boreal forestation by decreases in surface albedo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Betts, R.A.

2000-01-01

Carbon uptake by forestation is one method proposed to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and so limit the radiative forcing of climate change. But the overall impact of forestation on climate will also depend on other effects associated with the creation of new forests. In particular the albedo of a forested landscape is generally lower than that of cultivated land, especially when snow is lying, and decreasing albedo exerts a positive radiative forcing on climate. Here I simulate the radiative forcings associated with changes in surface albedo as a result of forestation in temperate and boreal forest areas, and translate these forcings into equivalent changes in local carbon stock for comparison with estimated carbon sequestration potentials. I suggest that in many boreal forest areas, the positive forcing induced by decreases in albedo can offset the negative forcing that is expected from carbon sequestration. Some high-latitude forestation activities may therefore increase climate change, rather that mitigating it as intended

Iapetus Surface Temperatures, and the Influence of Sublimation on the Albedo Dichotomy: Cassini CIRS Constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, J. R.; Pearl, J. C.; Segura, M.; Cassini CIRS Team

2005-08-01

The Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini orbiter obtained extensive observations of Iapetus' thermal emission during the New Year 2005 flyby, with best 8 - 16 μ m spatial resolution of 35 km per pixel. Observed subsolar temperatures on the dark terrain reach nearly 130 K, much warmer than any other satellite surface in the Saturn system, due to the combination of low albedo and slow rotation. These high temperatures mean that, uniquely in the Saturn system, water ice sublimation rates are significant at low latitudes on Iapetus' dark side, and surface water ice is probably not stable there on geological timescales. This result is consistent with the lack of water ice at low latitudes on the dark terrain inferred from Cassini UVIS UV spectra (Hendrix et al., 2005 LPSC). Thermally-controlled migration of water ice may thus contribute to the curious shape of the light/dark boundary on Iapetus, with bright poles and dark terrain extending round the equator onto the trailing side. Impacts of Saturn-centric or prograde heliocentric material cannot alone explain this shape, as their impact flux depends only on distance from the apex of motion (though the impact distribution of Oort cloud comet dust may be consistent with the observed albedo pattern (Cook and Franklin 1970)). We model the ballistic migration of water ice across the surface of Iapetus, determining temperatures and sublimation rates assuming CIRS-constrained thermal inertia and a simple dependence of albedo on distance from the apex of motion. Water ice is lost rapidly from low latitudes on the dark leading side and accumulates near the poles, and is also lost, though more slowly, in equatorial regions near the sub-Saturn and anti-Saturn points. The resulting water ice distribution pattern matches the distribution of Iapetus' bright terrain remarkably well. Albedo modification by thermal migration can thus help to reconcile Iapetus' albedo patterns with albedo control by Saturn-centric or

Radiative forcing over the conterminous United States due to contemporary land cover land use change and sensitivity to snow and interannual albedo variability

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Christopher A.; Roy, David P.

2010-01-01

Satellite-derived land cover land use (LCLU), snow and albedo data, and incoming surface solar radiation reanalysis data were used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 58 ecoregions covering 69% of the conterminous United States. A net positive surface radiative forcing (i.e., warming) of 0.029 Wm−2 due to LCLU albedo change from 1973 to 2000 was estimated. The forcings for individual ecoregions were similar in magnitude to current global forcing estimates, with the most negative forcing (as low as −0.367 Wm−2) due to the transition to forest and the most positive forcing (up to 0.337 Wm−2) due to the conversion to grass/shrub. Snow exacerbated both negative and positive forcing for LCLU transitions between snow-hiding and snow-revealing LCLU classes. The surface radiative forcing estimates were highly sensitive to snow-free interannual albedo variability that had a percent average monthly variation from 1.6% to 4.3% across the ecoregions. The results described in this paper enhance our understanding of contemporary LCLU change on surface radiative forcing and suggest that future forcing estimates should model snow and interannual albedo variation.

Quantifying the ice-albedo feedback through decoupling

Science.gov (United States)

Kravitz, B.; Rasch, P. J.

2017-12-01

The ice-albedo feedback involves numerous individual components, whereby warming induces sea ice melt, inducing reduced surface albedo, inducing increased surface shortwave absorption, causing further warming. Here we attempt to quantify the sea ice albedo feedback using an analogue of the "partial radiative perturbation" method, but where the governing mechanisms are directly decoupled in a climate model. As an example, we can isolate the insulating effects of sea ice on surface energy and moisture fluxes by allowing sea ice thickness to change but fixing Arctic surface albedo, or vice versa. Here we present results from such idealized simulations using the Community Earth System Model in which individual components are successively fixed, effectively decoupling the ice-albedo feedback loop. We isolate the different components of this feedback, including temperature change, sea ice extent/thickness, and air-sea exchange of heat and moisture. We explore the interactions between these different components, as well as the strengths of the total feedback in the decoupled feedback loop, to quantify contributions from individual pieces. We also quantify the non-additivity of the effects of the components as a means of investigating the dominant sources of nonlinearity in the ice-albedo feedback.

Sensitivity of Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance to surface albedo parameterization: a study with a regional climate model

OpenAIRE

Angelen, J. H.; Lenaerts, J. T. M.; Lhermitte, S.; Fettweis, X.; Kuipers Munneke, P.; Broeke, M. R.; Meijgaard, E.; Smeets, C. J. P. P.

2012-01-01

We present a sensitivity study of the surface mass balance (SMB) of the Greenland Ice Sheet, as modeled using a regional atmospheric climate model, to various parameter settings in the albedo scheme. The snow albedo scheme uses grain size as a prognostic variable and further depends on cloud cover, solar zenith angle and black carbon concentration. For the control experiment the overestimation of absorbed shortwave radiation (+6%) at the K-transect (west Greenland) for the period 2004–2009 is...

Change in Urban Albedo in London: A Multi-scale Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Susca, T.; Kotthaus, S.; Grimmond, S.

2013-12-01

Urbanization-induced change in land use has considerable implications for climate, air quality, resources and ecosystems. Urban-induced warming is one of the most well-known impacts. This directly and indirectly can extend beyond the city. One way to reduce the size of this is to modify the surface atmosphere exchanges through changing the urban albedo. As increased rugosity caused by the morphology of a city results in lower albedo with constant material characteristics, the impacts of changing the albedo has impacts across a range of scales. Here a multi-scale assessment of the potential effects of the increase in albedo in London is presented. This includes modeling at the global and meso-scale informed by local and micro-scale measurements. In this study the first order calculations are conducted for the impact of changing the albedo (e.g. a 0.01 increase) on the radiative exchange. For example, when incoming solar radiation and cloud cover are considered, based on data retrieved from NASA (http://power.larc.nasa.gov/) for ~1600 km2 area of London, would produce a mean decrease in the instantaneous solar radiative forcing on the same surface of 0.40 W m-2. The nature of the surface is critical in terms of considering the impact of changes in albedo. For example, in the Central Activity Zone in London pavement and building can vary from 10 to 100% of the plan area. From observations the albedo is seen to change dramatically with changes in building materials. For example, glass surfaces which are being used increasingly in the central business district results in dramatic changes in albedo. Using the documented albedo variations determined across different scales the impacts are considered. For example, the effect of the increase in urban albedo is translated into the corresponding amount of avoided emission of carbon dioxide that produces the same effect on climate. At local scale, the effect that the increase in urban albedo can potentially have on local

Land surface albedo and vegetation feedbacks enhanced the millennium drought in south-east Australia

KAUST Repository

Evans, Jason P.; Meng, Xianhong; McCabe, Matthew

2017-01-01

In this study, we have examined the ability of a regional climate model (RCM) to simulate the extended drought that occurred throughout the period of 2002 through 2007 in south-east Australia. In particular, the ability to reproduce the two drought peaks in 2002 and 2006 was investigated. Overall, the RCM was found to reproduce both the temporal and the spatial structure of the drought-related precipitation anomalies quite well, despite using climatological seasonal surface characteristics such as vegetation fraction and albedo. This result concurs with previous studies that found that about two-thirds of the precipitation decline can be attributed to the El Ninõ–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Simulation experiments that allowed the vegetation fraction and albedo to vary as observed illustrated that the intensity of the drought was underestimated by about 10ĝ% when using climatological surface characteristics. These results suggest that in terms of drought development, capturing the feedbacks related to vegetation and albedo changes may be as important as capturing the soil moisture–precipitation feedback. In order to improve our modelling of multi-year droughts, the challenge is to capture all these related surface changes simultaneously, and provide a comprehensive description of land surface–precipitation feedback during the droughts development.

Land surface albedo and vegetation feedbacks enhanced the millennium drought in south-east Australia

KAUST Repository

Evans, Jason P.

2017-01-24

In this study, we have examined the ability of a regional climate model (RCM) to simulate the extended drought that occurred throughout the period of 2002 through 2007 in south-east Australia. In particular, the ability to reproduce the two drought peaks in 2002 and 2006 was investigated. Overall, the RCM was found to reproduce both the temporal and the spatial structure of the drought-related precipitation anomalies quite well, despite using climatological seasonal surface characteristics such as vegetation fraction and albedo. This result concurs with previous studies that found that about two-thirds of the precipitation decline can be attributed to the El Ninõ–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Simulation experiments that allowed the vegetation fraction and albedo to vary as observed illustrated that the intensity of the drought was underestimated by about 10ĝ% when using climatological surface characteristics. These results suggest that in terms of drought development, capturing the feedbacks related to vegetation and albedo changes may be as important as capturing the soil moisture–precipitation feedback. In order to improve our modelling of multi-year droughts, the challenge is to capture all these related surface changes simultaneously, and provide a comprehensive description of land surface–precipitation feedback during the droughts development.

Urbanization Process and Variation of Energy Budget of Land Surfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ciro Gardi

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Urban areas are increasing at a rate much higher than human population growth in many part of the world; actually more than 73 towns in the world are larger than 1000 km2. The European Environmental Agency indicates an urban area average growth rate, over the last 20 years, of 20%. The urbanization process, and the consequent soil sealing, determines not only the losses of the ecological functions of the soil, but also a variation of the energy budget of land surfaces, that affect the microclimatic conditions (heat islands. The alteration of the energy budget are determined by the variations of albedo and roughness of surfaces, but especially by the net losses of evapotranspirating areas. In the present research we have assessed the variation of Parma territory energy budget, induced by the change in land use over the last 122 years. The urban area increase between 1881 and 2003 was 535%.

Observations of climate, albedo, and surface radiation over cleared and undisturbed Amazonian forest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bastable, H.G.; Shuttleworth, W.J.; Dallarosa, R.L.G.; Fisch, G.; Nobre, C.A.

1993-01-01

Measurements from the first comparative study of climate over Amazonian tropical forest and an embedded deforested clearing are presented. Observations comprise a continuous 60-day run of data from mid-October to mid-December 1990, covering the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet season. Mean hourly observations are calculated for the whole period; and for two 10-day periods, one in the dry season and one at the start of the wet season. Much greater variation in weather variables was observed at the clearing compared with over the forest. While the mean values of temperature and specific humidity deficit differed by less than 1°C and 1 g kg −1 respectively, their daily ranges at the clearing were twice those at the forest. Mean daily albedo of the forest was 13.1 per cent, agreeing well with other tropical forest measurements, and of the clearing was 16.3 per cent, somewhat lower than the values currently being used in GCMs. The surface energy balance was investigated and mean available energy calculated for each site. The significant difference in the daily pattern of net radiation between the sites was found to be at least as much due to differences in the longwave radiation balance as to differences in albedo. The diurnal pattern of net radiation therefore changed between dry and wet periods as the higher plant water stress experienced by clearing vegetation altered the daily temperature cycle

Assimilation of MODIS Ice Surface Temperature and Albedo into the Snow and Ice Model CROCUS Over the Greenland Ice Sheet Along the K-transect Stations

Science.gov (United States)

Navari, M.; Margulis, S. A.; Bateni, S. M.; Alexander, P. M.; Tedesco, M.

2016-12-01

Estimating the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface mass balance (SMB) is an important component of current and future projections of sea level rise. In situ measurement provides direct estimates of the SMB, but are inherently limited by their spatial extent and representativeness. Given this limitation, physically based regional climate models (RCMs) are critical for understanding GrIS physical processes and estimating of the GrIS SMB. However, the uncertainty in estimates of SMB from RCMs is still high. Surface remote sensing (RS) has been used as a complimentary tool to characterize various aspects related to the SMB. The difficulty of using these data streams is that the links between them and the SMB terms are most often indirect and implicit. Given the lack of in situ information, imperfect models, and under-utilized RS data it is critical to merge the available data in a systematic way to better characterize the spatial and temporal variation of the GrIS SMB. This work proposes a data assimilation (DA) framework that yields temporally-continuous and physically consistent SMB estimates that benefit from state-of-the-art models and relevant remote sensing data streams. Ice surface temperature (IST) is the most important factor that regulates partitioning of the net radiation into the subsurface snow/ice, sensible and latent heat fluxes and plays a key role in runoff generation. Therefore it can be expected that a better estimate of surface temperature from a data assimilation system would contribute to a better estimate of surface mass fluxes. Albedo plays an important role in the surface energy balance of the GrIS. However, even advanced albedo modules are not adequate to simulate albedo over the GrIS. Therefore, merging remotely sensed albedo product into a physically based model has a potential to improve the estimates of the GrIS SMB. In this work a MODIS-derived IST and a 16-day albedo product are independently assimilated into the snow and ice model CROCUS

Arctic sea ice albedo from AVHRR

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, R. W.; Rothrock, D. A.

1994-01-01

The seasonal cycle of surface albedo of sea ice in the Arctic is estimated from measurements made with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the polar-orbiting satellites NOAA-10 and NOAA-11. The albedos of 145 200-km-square cells are analyzed. The cells are from March through September 1989 and include only those for which the sun is more than 10 deg above the horizon. Cloud masking is performed manually. Corrections are applied for instrument calibration, nonisotropic reflection, atmospheric interference, narrowband to broadband conversion, and normalization to a common solar zenith angle. The estimated albedos are relative, with the instrument gain set to give an albedo of 0.80 for ice floes in March and April. The mean values for the cloud-free portions of individual cells range from 0.18 to 0.91. Monthly averages of cells in the central Arctic range from 0.76 in April to 0.47 in August. The monthly averages of the within-cell standard deviations in the central Arctic are 0.04 in April and 0.06 in September. The surface albedo and surface temperature are correlated most strongly in March (R = -0.77) with little correlation in the summer. The monthly average lead fraction is determined from the mean potential open water, a scaled representation of the temperature or albedo between 0.0 (for ice) and 1.0 (for water); in the central Arctic it rises from an average 0.025 in the spring to 0.06 in September. Sparse data on aerosols, ozone, and water vapor in the atmospheric column contribute uncertainties to instantaneous, area-average albedos of 0.13, 0.04, and 0.08. Uncertainties in monthly average albedos are not this large. Contemporaneous estimation of these variables could reduce the uncertainty in the estimated albedo considerably. The poor calibration of AVHRR channels 1 and 2 is another large impediment to making accurate albedo estimates.

PHOTOMETRIC STEREO SHAPE-AND-ALBEDO-FROM-SHADING FOR PIXEL-LEVEL RESOLUTION LUNAR SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. C. Liu

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Shape and Albedo from Shading (SAfS techniques recover pixel-wise surface details based on the relationship between terrain slopes, illumination and imaging geometry, and the energy response (i.e., image intensity captured by the sensing system. Multiple images with different illumination geometries (i.e., photometric stereo can provide better SAfS surface reconstruction due to the increase in observations. Photometric stereo SAfS is suitable for detailed surface reconstruction of the Moon and other extra-terrestrial bodies due to the availability of photometric stereo and the less complex surface reflecting properties (i.e., albedo of the target bodies as compared to the Earth. Considering only one photometric stereo pair (i.e., two images, pixel-variant albedo is still a major obstacle to satisfactory reconstruction and it needs to be regulated by the SAfS algorithm. The illumination directional difference between the two images also becomes an important factor affecting the reconstruction quality. This paper presents a photometric stereo SAfS algorithm for pixel-level resolution lunar surface reconstruction. The algorithm includes a hierarchical optimization architecture for handling pixel-variant albedo and improving performance. With the use of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera - Narrow Angle Camera (LROC NAC photometric stereo images, the reconstructed topography (i.e., the DEM is compared with the DEM produced independently by photogrammetric methods. This paper also addresses the effect of illumination directional difference in between one photometric stereo pair on the reconstruction quality of the proposed algorithm by both mathematical and experimental analysis. In this case, LROC NAC images under multiple illumination directions are utilized by the proposed algorithm for experimental comparison. The mathematical derivation suggests an illumination azimuthal difference of 90 degrees between two images is recommended to achieve

Albedo of the ice-covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea

OpenAIRE

A. I. Weiss; J. C. King; T. A. Lachlan-Cope; R. S. Ladkin

2011-01-01

This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albed...

Widespread albedo decreasing and induced melting of Himalayan snow and ice in the early 21st century.

Science.gov (United States)

Ming, Jing; Wang, Yaqiang; Du, Zhencai; Zhang, Tong; Guo, Wanqin; Xiao, Cunde; Xu, Xiaobin; Ding, Minghu; Zhang, Dongqi; Yang, Wen

2015-01-01

The widely distributed glaciers in the greater Himalayan region have generally experienced rapid shrinkage since the 1850s. As invaluable sources of water and because of their scarcity, these glaciers are extremely important. Beginning in the twenty-first century, new methods have been applied to measure the mass budget of these glaciers. Investigations have shown that the albedo is an important parameter that affects the melting of Himalayan glaciers. The surface albedo based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data over the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya (HKH) glaciers is surveyed in this study for the period 2000-2011. The general albedo trend shows that the glaciers have been darkening since 2000. The most rapid decrease in the surface albedo has occurred in the glacial area above 6000 m, which implies that melting will likely extend to snow accumulation areas. The mass-loss equivalent (MLE) of the HKH glacial area caused by surface shortwave radiation absorption is estimated to be 10.4 Gt yr-1, which may contribute to 1.2% of the global sea level rise on annual average (2003-2009). This work probably presents a first scene depicting the albedo variations over the whole HKH glacial area during the period 2000-2011. Most rapidly decreasing in albedo has been detected in the highest area, which deserves to be especially concerned.

Widespread albedo decreasing and induced melting of Himalayan snow and ice in the early 21st century.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Ming

Full Text Available The widely distributed glaciers in the greater Himalayan region have generally experienced rapid shrinkage since the 1850s. As invaluable sources of water and because of their scarcity, these glaciers are extremely important. Beginning in the twenty-first century, new methods have been applied to measure the mass budget of these glaciers. Investigations have shown that the albedo is an important parameter that affects the melting of Himalayan glaciers.The surface albedo based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS data over the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya (HKH glaciers is surveyed in this study for the period 2000-2011. The general albedo trend shows that the glaciers have been darkening since 2000. The most rapid decrease in the surface albedo has occurred in the glacial area above 6000 m, which implies that melting will likely extend to snow accumulation areas. The mass-loss equivalent (MLE of the HKH glacial area caused by surface shortwave radiation absorption is estimated to be 10.4 Gt yr-1, which may contribute to 1.2% of the global sea level rise on annual average (2003-2009.This work probably presents a first scene depicting the albedo variations over the whole HKH glacial area during the period 2000-2011. Most rapidly decreasing in albedo has been detected in the highest area, which deserves to be especially concerned.

Exploiting Surface Albedos Products to Bridge the Gap Between Remote Sensing Information and Climate Models

Science.gov (United States)

Pinty, Bernard; Andredakis, Ioannis; Clerici, Marco; Kaminski, Thomas; Taberner, Malcolm; Stephen, Plummer

2011-01-01

We present results from the application of an inversion method conducted using MODIS derived broadband visible and near-infrared surface albedo products. This contribution is an extension of earlier efforts to optimally retrieve land surface fluxes and associated two- stream model parameters based on the Joint Research Centre Two-stream Inversion Package (JRC-TIP). The discussion focuses on products (based on the mean and one-sigma values of the Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs)) obtained during the summer and winter and highlight specific issues related to snowy conditions. This paper discusses the retrieved model parameters including the effective Leaf Area Index (LAI), the background brightness and the scattering efficiency of the vegetation elements. The spatial and seasonal changes exhibited by these parameters agree with common knowledge and underscore the richness of the high quality surface albedo data sets. At the same time, the opportunity to generate global maps of new products, such as the background albedo, underscores the advantages of using state of the art algorithmic approaches capable of fully exploiting accurate satellite remote sensing datasets. The detailed analyses of the retrieval uncertainties highlight the central role and contribution of the LAI, the main process parameter to interpret radiation transfer observations over vegetated surfaces. The posterior covariance matrix of the uncertainties is further exploited to quantify the knowledge gain from the ingestion of MODIS surface albedo products. The estimation of the radiation fluxes that are absorbed, transmitted and scattered by the vegetation layer and its background is achieved on the basis of the retrieved PDFs of the model parameters. The propagation of uncertainties from the observations to the model parameters is achieved via the Hessian of the cost function and yields a covariance matrix of posterior parameter uncertainties. This matrix is propagated to the radiation

Quantification of seasonal to annual mass balances from glacier surface albedo derived from optical satellite images, application on 30 glaciers in the French Alps for the period 2000-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Davaze, Lucas; Rabatel, Antoine; Arnaud, Yves; Sirguey, Pascal; Six, Delphine; Letreguilly, Anne; Dumont, Marie

2017-04-01

Increasing the number of glaciers monitored for surface mass balance is very challenging, especially using laborious methods based on in situ data. Complementary methods are therefore required to quantify the surface mass balance of unmonitored glaciers. The current study relies on the so-called albedo method, based on the analysis of albedo maps retrieved from optical satellite imagery acquired since 2000 by the MODIS sensor, onboard of TERRA satellite. Recent studies performed on single glaciers in the French Alps, the Himalayas or the Southern Alps of New Zealand revealed substantial relationships between summer minimum glacier-wide surface albedo and annual mass balance, because this minimum surface albedo is directly related to accumulation-area ratio and the equilibrium-line altitude. On the basis of 30 glaciers located in the French Alps where annual surface mass balance are available, our study conducted on the period 2000-2015 confirms the robustness and reliability of the relationship between the summer minimum surface albedo and the annual surface mass balance. At the seasonal scale, the integrated summer surface albedo is significantly correlated with the summer mass balance of the six glaciers seasonally surveyed. For the winter season, four of the six glaciers showed a significant correlation when linking the winter surface mass balance and the integrated winter surface albedo, using glacier-dependent thresholds to filter the albedo signal. Sensitivity study on the computed cloud detection algorithm revealed high confidence in retrieved albedo maps. These results are promising to monitor both annual and seasonal glacier-wide surface mass balances of individual glaciers at a regional scale using optical satellite images.

Changes in summer sea ice, albedo, and portioning of surface solar radiation in the Pacific sector of Arctic Ocean during 1982-2009

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Ruibo; Tian-Kunze, Xiangshan; Leppäranta, Matti; Wang, Jia; Kaleschke, Lars; Zhang, Zhanhai

2016-08-01

SSM/I sea ice concentration and CLARA black-sky composite albedo were used to estimate sea ice albedo in the region 70°N-82°N, 130°W-180°W. The long-term trends and seasonal evolutions of ice concentration, composite albedo, and ice albedo were then obtained. In July-August 1982-2009, the linear trend of the composite albedo and the ice albedo was -0.069 and -0.046 units per decade, respectively. During 1 June to 19 August, melting of sea ice resulted in an increase of solar heat input to the ice-ocean system by 282 MJ·m-2 from 1982 to 2009. However, because of the counter-balancing effects of the loss of sea ice area and the enhanced ice surface melting, the trend of solar heat input to the ice was insignificant. The summer evolution of ice albedo matched the ice surface melting and ponding well at basin scale. The ice albedo showed a large difference between the multiyear and first-year ice because the latter melted completely by the end of a melt season. At the SHEBA geolocations, a distinct change in the ice albedo has occurred since 2007, because most of the multiyear ice has been replaced by first-year ice. A positive polarity in the Arctic Dipole Anomaly could be partly responsible for the rapid loss of summer ice within the study region in the recent years by bringing warmer air masses from the south and advecting more ice toward the north. Both these effects would enhance ice-albedo feedback.

Retrieval of Surface Lambert Albedos and Aerosols Optical Depths Using OMEGA Near-IR EPF Observations of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Vincendon, M.; Langevin, Y.; Poulet, F.; Bibring, J.-P.; Gondet, B.

2007-03-01

We have analyzed five EPF sequences acquired by OMEGA/Mars Express in the near-IR over ice-free and ice-covered surfaces to retrieve simultaneously the Lambert albedo of the surface and the optical depth of aerosols.

Unexpected and Unexplained Surface Temperature Variations on Mimas

Science.gov (United States)

Howett, C.; Spencer, J. R.; Pearl, J. C.; Hurford, T. A.; Segura, M.; Cassini Cirs Team

2010-12-01

Until recently it was thought one of the most interesting things about Mimas, Saturn’s innermost classical icy moon, was its resemblance to Star Wars’ Death Star. However, a bizarre pattern of daytime surface temperatures was observed on Mimas using data obtained by Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) in February 2010. The observations were taken during Cassini’s closest ever encounter with Mimas (<10,000 km) and cover the daytime anti-Saturn hemisphere centered on longitude ~145° W. Instead of surface temperatures smoothly increasing throughout the morning and early afternoon, then cooling in the evening, as expected, a sharp V-shaped boundary is observed separating cooler midday and afternoon temperatures (~77 K) on the leading side from warmer morning temperatures (~92 K) on the trailing side. The boundary’s apex is centered at equatorial latitudes near the anti-Saturn point and extends to low north and south latitudes on the trailing side. Subtle differences in the surface colors have been observed that are roughly spatially correlated with the observed extent of the temperature anomaly, with the cooler regions tending to be bluer (Schenk et al., Submitted). However, visible-wavelength albedo is similar in the two regions, so albedo variations are probably not directly responsible for the thermal anomaly. It is more likely that thermal inertia variations produce the anomaly, with thermal inertia being unusually high in the region with anomalously low daytime temperatures. Comparison of the February 2010 CIRS data to previous lower spatial resolution data taken at different local times tentatively confirm that the cooler regions do indeed display higher thermal inertias. Bombardment of the surface by high energy electrons from Saturn’s radiation belts has been proposed to explain the observed color variations (Schenk et al., Submitted). Electrons above ~1 MeV preferentially impact Mimas’ leading hemisphere at low latitudes where they

Influence of stratospheric aerosol on albedo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gormatyuk, Yu K; Kaufman, Yu G; Kolomeev, M P

1985-06-01

The influence of stratospheric aerosol (SA) on the transfer of solar radiation in the atmosphere is the principal factor determining the effect of SA on climate. The change in the radiation balance under the influence of SA is computed most precisely in radiative-convective models. However, the complex method used in these models cannot be used for other types of climate models. The objective of the study was to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the influence of SA on albedo without the use of simplifying assumptions. In the approximation of single scattering an expression is derived for change in albedo under the influence of stratospheric aerosol taking into account the dependence of albedo of the atmosphere-earth's surface system on solar zenith distance. The authors give the results of computations of the response of mean annual albedo to sulfuric acid aerosol for 10/sup 0/ latitude zones in the Northern Hemisphere. Specifically, computations of the optical characteristics of aerosol were made using the Mie theory for 10 spectral intervals taking in the range of wavelengths of solar radiation from 0.29 to 4.0 ..mu.. m. The refractive index of aerosol was stipulated in accordance with Palmer and Williams. The angular dependence of albedo for cloudless and cloudy atmospheres given by Harshvardhan was used. The values of undisturbed albedo were assumed to be identical for all wavelengths due to lack of climatological data on the spectral dependence of albedo of the atmosphere-earth's surface system. The angular distribution of the intensity of solar radiation for each of the latitude zones was computed by the method described by I.M. Alekseyev, et al.

Sea ice-albedo climate feedback mechanism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schramm, J.L.; Curry, J.A. [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Ebert, E.E. [Bureau of Meterology Research Center, Melbourne (Australia)

1995-02-01

The sea ice-albedo feedback mechanism over the Arctic Ocean multiyear sea ice is investigated by conducting a series of experiments using several one-dimensional models of the coupled sea ice-atmosphere system. In its simplest form, ice-albedo feedback is thought to be associated with a decrease in the areal cover of snow and ice and a corresponding increase in the surface temperature, further decreasing the area cover of snow and ice. It is shown that the sea ice-albedo feedback can operate even in multiyear pack ice, without the disappearance of this ice, associated with internal processes occurring within the multiyear ice pack (e.g., duration of the snow cover, ice thickness, ice distribution, lead fraction, and melt pond characteristics). The strength of the ice-albedo feedback mechanism is compared for several different thermodynamic sea ice models: a new model that includes ice thickness distribution., the Ebert and Curry model, the Mayjut and Untersteiner model, and the Semtner level-3 and level-0 models. The climate forcing is chosen to be a perturbation of the surface heat flux, and cloud and water vapor feedbacks are inoperative so that the effects of the sea ice-albedo feedback mechanism can be isolated. The inclusion of melt ponds significantly strengthens the ice-albedo feedback, while the ice thickness distribution decreases the strength of the modeled sea ice-albedo feedback. It is emphasized that accurately modeling present-day sea ice thickness is not adequate for a sea ice parameterization; the correct physical processes must be included so that the sea ice parameterization yields correct sensitivities to external forcing. 22 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

Clear-sky narrowband albedos derived from VIRS and MODIS

Science.gov (United States)

Sun-Mack, Sunny; Minnis, Patrick; Chen, Yan; Arduini, Robert F.

2004-02-01

The Clouds and Earth"s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project is using multispectral imagers, the Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on the tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra, operating since spring 2000, and Aqua, operating since summer 2002, to provide cloud and clear-sky properties at various wavelengths. This paper presents the preliminary results of an analysis of the CERES clear-sky reflectances to derive a set top-of-atmosphere clear sky albedo for 0.65, 0.86, 1.6, 2.13 μm, for all major surface types using the combined MODIS and VIRS datasets. The variability of snow albedo with surface type is examined using MODIS data. Snow albedo was found to depend on the vertical structure of the vegetation. At visible wavelengths, it is least for forested areas and greatest for smooth desert and tundra surfaces. At 1.6 and 2.1-μm, the snow albedos are relatively insensitive to the underlying surface because snow decreases the reflectance. Additional analyses using all of the MODIS results will provide albedo models that should be valuable for many remote sensing, simulation and radiation budget studies.

Increasing surface albedo in the dry subtropical forests of South America: the role of agriculture expansion and management

Science.gov (United States)

Houspanossian, J.; Kuppel, S.; Gimenez, R.; Jobbagy, E. G.; Nosetto, M. D.

2014-12-01

The increase in surface albedo inherent to land clearing and cultivation (land-cover change, LCC) in the subtropical dry forests of the South American Chaco offsets part of the radiative forcing (RF) of the related carbon emissions. The magnitude of these albedo changes, however, is also dependent on shifts in agricultural practices (land-management change, LMC) and will influence the net effect on Earth's radiation balance as well as other potential feedbacks on climate. We quantified the surface albedo changes between 2001 and 2013 and the consequent shifts in the radiation balance resulting from LCC and LMC, using MODIS imagery a columnar radiation model parameterized with satellite data. Agricultural systems replacing dry forests presented a large variety of managements, ranging from pasture systems with remnant trees to different grain crops, displaying a wide range of phenologies. Cultivated lands showed higher and more variable albedo values (mean = 0.162, Standard Deviation = 0.013, n = 10,000 pixels) than the dry forests they replace (mean = 0.113, SD = 0.010, n = 10,000). These albedo contrasts resulted in a cooling RF of deforestation of -10.1 W m-2 on average, but both livestock and grain crop production systems showed large differences among the different land management options. For instance, livestock systems based on open pasture lands showed higher albedo change and RF (0.06 and -16.3 W m-2, respectively) than silvopastoral systems (0.02 and -4.4 W m-2). Similarly in cropping systems, the replacement of double-cropping by single summer crops, a widespread process in the region lately, resulted in higher albedo change (0.06 vs. 0.08) and RF (-16.3 vs. -22.3 W m-2). Although the effects of LCC on climate are widely acknowledged, those of LMC are still scarcely understood. In the Chaco region, the latter could play an important role and offer a yet-overlooked pathway to influence the radiative balance of our planet.

A transitioning Arctic surface energy budget: the impacts of solar zenith angle, surface albedo and cloud radiative forcing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sedlar, Joseph; Tjernstroem, Michael; Leck, Caroline [Stockholm University, Department of Meteorology, Stockholm (Sweden); Mauritsen, Thorsten [Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg (Germany); Shupe, Matthew D.; Persson, P.O.G. [University of Colorado, NOAA-ESRL-PSD, Boulder, CO (United States); Brooks, Ian M.; Birch, Cathryn E. [University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds (United Kingdom); Sirevaag, Anders [University of Bergen, Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Bergen (Norway); Nicolaus, Marcel [Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsoe (Norway); Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (Germany)

2011-10-15

Snow surface and sea-ice energy budgets were measured near 87.5 N during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), from August to early September 2008. Surface temperature indicated four distinct temperature regimes, characterized by varying cloud, thermodynamic and solar properties. An initial warm, melt-season regime was interrupted by a 3-day cold regime where temperatures dropped from near zero to -7 C. Subsequently mean energy budget residuals remained small and near zero for 1 week until once again temperatures dropped rapidly and the energy budget residuals became negative. Energy budget transitions were dominated by the net radiative fluxes, largely controlled by the cloudiness. Variable heat, moisture and cloud distributions were associated with changing air-masses. Surface cloud radiative forcing, the net radiative effect of clouds on the surface relative to clear skies, is estimated. Shortwave cloud forcing ranged between -50 W m{sup -2} and zero and varied significantly with surface albedo, solar zenith angle and cloud liquid water. Longwave cloud forcing was larger and generally ranged between 65 and 85 W m{sup -2}, except when the cloud fraction was tenuous or contained little liquid water; thus the net effect of the clouds was to warm the surface. Both cold periods occurred under tenuous, or altogether absent, low-level clouds containing little liquid water, effectively reducing the cloud greenhouse effect. Freeze-up progression was enhanced by a combination of increasing solar zenith angles and surface albedo, while inhibited by a large, positive surface cloud forcing until a new air-mass with considerably less cloudiness advected over the experiment area. (orig.)

Sea Ice, Clouds, Sunlight, and Albedo: The Umbrella Versus the Blanket

Science.gov (United States)

Perovich, D. K.

2017-12-01

The Arctic sea ice cover has undergone a major decline in recent years, with reductions in ice extent, ice thickness, and ice age. Understanding the feedbacks and forcing driving these changes is critical in improving predictions. The surface radiation budget plays a central role in summer ice melt and is governed by clouds and surface albedo. Clouds act as an umbrella reducing the downwelling shortwave, but also serve as a blanket increasing the downwelling longwave, with the surface albedo also determining the net balance. Using field observations from the SHEBA program, pairs of clear and cloudy days were selected for each month from May through September and the net radiation flux was calculated for different surface conditions and albedos. To explore the impact of albedo we calculated a break even albedo, where the net radiation for cloudy skies is the same as clear skies. For albedos larger than the break-even value the net radiation flux is smaller under clear skies compared to cloudy skies. Break-even albedos ranged from 0.30 in September to 0.58 in July. For snow covered or bare ice, clear skies always resulted in less radiative heat input. In contrast, leads always had, and ponds usually had, more radiative heat input under clear skies than cloudy skies. Snow covered ice had a net radiation flux that was negative or near zero under clear skies resulting in radiative cooling. We combined the albedo of individual ice types with the area of those ice types to calculate albedos averaged over a 50 km x 50 km area. The July case had the smallest areally averaged albedo of 0.50. This was less than the breakeven albedo, so cloudy skies had a smaller net radiation flux than clear skies. For the cases from the other four months, the areally averaged albedo was greater than the break-even albedo. The areally averaged net radiation flux was negative under clear skies for the May and September cases.

Summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CMIP5 models

OpenAIRE

Koenigk, T.; Devasthale, A.; Karlsson, K.-G.

2014-01-01

Spatial and temporal variations of summer sea ice albedo over the Arctic are analyzed using an ensemble of historical CMIP5 model simulations. The results are compared to the CLARA-SAL product that is based on long-term satellite observations. The summer sea ice albedo varies substantially among CMIP5 models, and many models show large biases compared to the CLARA-SAL product. Single summer months show an extreme spread of ice albedo among models; July values vary between 0....

Migration of Frosts from High-Albedo Regions of Pluto: what New Horizons Reveals

Science.gov (United States)

Buratti, Bonnie J.; Stern, S. A.; Weaver, Hal A.; Young, Leslie A.; Olkin, Cathy B.; Ennico, Kimberly; Binzel, Richard P.; Zangari, Amanda; Earle, Alissa M.

2015-11-01

With its high eccentricity and obliquity, Pluto should exhibit seasonal volatile transport on its surface. Several lines of evidence support this transport: doubling of Pluto’s atmospheric pressure over the past two decades (Young et al., 2013, Ap. J. 766, L22; Olkin et al., 2015, Icarus 246, 230); changes in its historical rotational light curve, once all variations due to viewing geometry have been modelled (Buratti et al., 2015; Ap. J. 804, L6); and changes in HST albedo maps (Buie et al., 2010, Astron. J. 139, 1128). New Horizons LORRI images reveal that the region of greatest albedo change is not the polar cap(s) of Pluto, but the feature informally named Tombaugh Regio (TR). This feature has a normal reflectance as high as ~0.8 in some places, and it is superposed on older, lower-albedo pre-existing terrain with an albedo of only ~0.10. This contrast is larger than any other body in the Solar System, except for Iapetus. This albedo dichotomy leads to a complicated system of cold-trapping and thermal segregation, beyond the simple picture of seasonal volatile transport. Whatever the origin of TR, it initially acted as a cold trap, as the temperature differential between the high and low albedo regions could be enormous, possibly approaching 20K, based on their albedo differences and assuming their normalized phase curves are similar. This latter assumption will be refined as the full New Horizons data set is returned.Over six decades of ground-based photometry suggest that TR has been decreasing in albedo over the last 25 years. Possible causes include changing insolation angles, or sublimation from the edges where the high-albedo material impinges on a much warmer substrate.Funding by the NASA New Horizons Project acknowledged.

Albedo à superfície a partir de imagens Landsat 5 em áreas de cana-de-açúcar e cerrado Surface albedo from Landsat 5 images in areas of sugar cane and cerrado

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro R. Giongo

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Propôs-se, neste trabalho, estimar dados de albedo à superfície terrestre usando-se o sensor Thematic Mapper (TM do satélite LANDSAT 5 e compará-lo com dados de duas estações agrometeorológicas localizadas em região de Cerrado e a outra em cultivo da cana-de-açúcar. A região de estudo está localizada no município de Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, SP, Brasil. Para a realização do estudo obtiveram-se seis imagens orbitais do satélite Landsat 5 sensores TM, na órbita 220 e ponto 75, nas datas de 22/02, 11/04, 29/05, 01/08, 17/08 e 21/11, todas do ano de 2005, a que correspondem os dias juliano de 53, 101, 149, 213, 229 e 325, respectivamente. As correções geométricas para as imagens foram realizadas e geradas as cartas de albedo. O algoritmo SEBAL estimou satisfatoriamente os valores de albedo de superfícies sobre áreas de cerrado e de cana-de-açúcar, na região de Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, SP, consistentes com observações realizadas do albedo à superfície.This study aimed to estimate albedo data from the land surface sensor using the images of Thematic Mapper (TM satellite LANDSAT 5 and to compare it with data from two agrometeorological stations located in the region of Cerrado, and another in sugar cane cultivation. The study area is located in the municipality of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro - SP, Brazil. To carry out the study six orbital images were obtained from the satellite Landsat 5 TM sensors in the orbit 220 and in the section 75, for the dates of 22/02, 11/04, 29/05, 01/08, 17/08 and 21/11 (all in the year of 2005 which correspond to the days 53, 101, 149, 213, 229 and 325, respectively. The geometric correction for images was performed and the letters of albedo were generated. The algorithm SEBAL estimated, satisfactorily, the values of albedo on the surface areas of Cerrado and sugar cane in the region of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro - SP, consistent with observations made of the surface albedo.

Observed diurnal variations in Mars Science Laboratory Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons passive mode data

Science.gov (United States)

Tate, C. G.; Moersch, J.; Jun, I.; Mitrofanov, I.; Litvak, M.; Boynton, W. V.; Drake, D.; Fedosov, F.; Golovin, D.; Hardgrove, C.; Harshman, K.; Kozyrev, A. S.; Kuzmin, R.; Lisov, D.; Maclennan, E.; Malakhov, A.; Mischna, M.; Mokrousov, M.; Nikiforov, S.; Sanin, A. B.; Starr, R.; Vostrukhin, A.

2018-06-01

The Mars Science Laboratory Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment measures the martian neutron leakage flux in order to estimate the amount of water equivalent hydrogen present in the shallow regolith. When DAN is operating in passive mode, it is sensitive to neutrons produced through the interactions of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) with the regolith and atmosphere and neutrons produced by the rover's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). During the mission, DAN passive mode data were collected over the full diurnal cycle at the locations known as Rocknest (sols 60-100) and John Klein (sols 166-272). A weak, but unexpected, diurnal variation was observed in the neutron count rates reported at these locations. We investigate different hypotheses that could be causing these observed variations. These hypotheses are variations in subsurface temperature, atmospheric pressure, the exchange of water vapor between the atmosphere and regolith, and instrumental effects on the neutron count rates. Our investigation suggests the most likely factors contributing to the observed diurnal variations in DAN passive data are instrumental effects and time-variable preferential shielding of alpha particles, with other environmental effects only having small contributions.

Albedo decline on Greenland's Mittivakkat Gletscher in a warming climate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mernild, Sebastian H; Malmros, Jeppe K.; Yde, Jacob Clement

2015-01-01

Albedo is one of the parameters that govern energy availability for snow and ice surface ablation, and subsequently the surface mass balance conditions of temperate glaciers and ice caps (GIC). Here, we document snow and ice albedo changes for Mittivakkat Gletscher (MG) in Southeast Greenland (20...

Time-Dependent Variations in the Arctic’s Surface Albedo Feedback and the Link to Seasonality in Sea Ice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Andry, Olivier; Bintanja, Richard; Hazeleger, Wilco

2017-01-01

The Arctic is warming 2 to 3 times faster than the global average. Arctic sea ice cover is very sensitive to this warming and has reached historic minima in late summer in recent years (e.g., 2007 and 2012). Considering that the Arctic Ocean is mainly ice covered and that the albedo of sea ice is

Suppression of the water ice and snow albedo feedback on planets orbiting red dwarf stars and the subsequent widening of the habitable zone.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Manoj M; Haberle, Robert M

2012-01-01

M stars comprise 80% of main sequence stars, so their planetary systems provide the best chance for finding habitable planets, that is, those with surface liquid water. We have modeled the broadband albedo or reflectivity of water ice and snow for simulated planetary surfaces orbiting two observed red dwarf stars (or M stars), using spectrally resolved data of Earth's cryosphere. The gradual reduction of the albedos of snow and ice at wavelengths greater than 1 μm, combined with M stars emitting a significant fraction of their radiation at these same longer wavelengths, means that the albedos of ice and snow on planets orbiting M stars are much lower than their values on Earth. Our results imply that the ice/snow albedo climate feedback is significantly weaker for planets orbiting M stars than for planets orbiting G-type stars such as the Sun. In addition, planets with significant ice and snow cover will have significantly higher surface temperatures for a given stellar flux if the spectral variation of cryospheric albedo is considered, which in turn implies that the outer edge of the habitable zone around M stars may be 10-30% farther away from the parent star than previously thought.

Inversion of the Earth spherical albedo from radiation-pressure

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkman, Olli; Herranen, Joonas; Näränen, Jyri; Virtanen, Jenni; Koivula, Hannu; Poutanen, Markku; Penttilä, Antti; Gritsevich, Maria; Muinonen, Karri

2017-04-01

We are studying the retrieval of the spherical albedo and net radiation of the Earth from the perturbations caused by the planet's radiation on the dynamics of its satellites. The spherical or Bond albedo gives the ratio of the fluxes incident on and scattered by the planet. The net radiation represents the net heat input into the planet's climate system and drives changes in its atmospheric, surface, and ocean temperatures. The ultimate aim of the study is inverting the problem and estimating the Earth albedo based on observations of satellites, simultaneously improving the space-geodetic positioning accuracy. Here we investigate the effect of the spherical albedo on satellite orbits with the help of a simplified model. We simulate the propagation of satellite orbits using a new simulation software. The simulation contains the main perturbing forces on medium and high Earth orbits, used by, e.g., navigation satellites, including the radiation pressure of reflected sunlight from the Earth. An arbitrary satellite shape model can be used, and the rotation of the satellite is modeled. In this first study, we use a box-wing satellite model with a simple surface BRDF. We also assume a diffusely reflecting Earth with a single global albedo value. We vary the Earth albedo and search for systematic effects on different orbits. Thereafter, we estimate the dependence of the albedo accuracy on the satellite positioning and timing data available. We show that the inversion of the spherical albedo with reasonable accuracy is feasible from the current space-geodetic measurements.

The influence of rolled erosion control systems on soil temperature and surface albedo: part I. A greenhouse experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutherland, R.A.; Menard, T.; Perry, J.L.; Penn, D.C.

1998-01-01

A greenhouse study examined the influences of various surface covers (a bare control soil and seven rolled erosion control systems—RECS) on surface radiative properties, and soil temperature. In our companion paper we examine relationships with soil moisture, biomass production, and nutrient assimilation. Randomization and replication were key components to our study of microclimate under tropical radiation conditions. The bare Oxisol control soil exhibited the most extreme microclimatic conditions with the lowest albedo (not significantly different from that of P300© North American Green, a dark green polypropylene system), and the highest mean and maximum hourly temperatures recorded at depths of 5 and 8 cm. This hostile climatic environment was not conducive to biomass production or moisture storage and it is likely that the observed soil surface crusts impeded plant emergence. Rolled erosion control systems, on the other hand, generally moderated soil temperatures by reflecting more shortwave radiation, implying less heat energy at the surface for conduction to the soil. The result was that RECS exhibited lower mean soil temperatures, higher minimum temperatures and lower maximum soil temperatures. An aspen excelsior system (Curlex I© Excelsior) had the highest albedo and the soil beneath this system exhibited the greatest temperature modulation. Open-weave systems composed of jute (Geojute© Price & Pictures) and coconut fibers (BioD-Mat 70© RoLanka) were the RECS most similar in temperature response to the bare control soil. Other systems examined were intermediate in their temperature response and surface albedo (i.e., SC150BN© North American Green, C125© North American Green and Futerra© Conwed Fibers). (author)

The importance of accurate glacier albedo for estimates of surface mass balance on Vatnajökull: evaluating the surface energy budget in a regional climate model with automatic weather station observations

Science.gov (United States)

Steffensen Schmidt, Louise; Aðalgeirsdóttir, Guðfinna; Guðmundsson, Sverrir; Langen, Peter L.; Pálsson, Finnur; Mottram, Ruth; Gascoin, Simon; Björnsson, Helgi

2017-07-01

A simulation of the surface climate of Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland, carried out with the regional climate model HIRHAM5 for the period 1980-2014, is used to estimate the evolution of the glacier surface mass balance (SMB). This simulation uses a new snow albedo parameterization that allows albedo to exponentially decay with time and is surface temperature dependent. The albedo scheme utilizes a new background map of the ice albedo created from observed MODIS data. The simulation is evaluated against observed daily values of weather parameters from five automatic weather stations (AWSs) from the period 2001-2014, as well as in situ SMB measurements from the period 1995-2014. The model agrees well with observations at the AWS sites, albeit with a general underestimation of the net radiation. This is due to an underestimation of the incoming radiation and a general overestimation of the albedo. The average modelled albedo is overestimated in the ablation zone, which we attribute to an overestimation of the thickness of the snow layer and not taking the surface darkening from dirt and volcanic ash deposition during dust storms and volcanic eruptions into account. A comparison with the specific summer, winter, and net mass balance for the whole of Vatnajökull (1995-2014) shows a good overall fit during the summer, with a small mass balance underestimation of 0.04 m w.e. on average, whereas the winter mass balance is overestimated by on average 0.5 m w.e. due to too large precipitation at the highest areas of the ice cap. A simple correction of the accumulation at the highest points of the glacier reduces this to 0.15 m w.e. Here, we use HIRHAM5 to simulate the evolution of the SMB of Vatnajökull for the period 1981-2014 and show that the model provides a reasonable representation of the SMB for this period. However, a major source of uncertainty in the representation of the SMB is the representation of the albedo, and processes currently not accounted for in RCMs

The importance of accurate glacier albedo for estimates of surface mass balance on Vatnajökull: evaluating the surface energy budget in a regional climate model with automatic weather station observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. S. Schmidt

2017-07-01

Full Text Available A simulation of the surface climate of Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland, carried out with the regional climate model HIRHAM5 for the period 1980–2014, is used to estimate the evolution of the glacier surface mass balance (SMB. This simulation uses a new snow albedo parameterization that allows albedo to exponentially decay with time and is surface temperature dependent. The albedo scheme utilizes a new background map of the ice albedo created from observed MODIS data. The simulation is evaluated against observed daily values of weather parameters from five automatic weather stations (AWSs from the period 2001–2014, as well as in situ SMB measurements from the period 1995–2014. The model agrees well with observations at the AWS sites, albeit with a general underestimation of the net radiation. This is due to an underestimation of the incoming radiation and a general overestimation of the albedo. The average modelled albedo is overestimated in the ablation zone, which we attribute to an overestimation of the thickness of the snow layer and not taking the surface darkening from dirt and volcanic ash deposition during dust storms and volcanic eruptions into account. A comparison with the specific summer, winter, and net mass balance for the whole of Vatnajökull (1995–2014 shows a good overall fit during the summer, with a small mass balance underestimation of 0.04 m w.e. on average, whereas the winter mass balance is overestimated by on average 0.5 m w.e. due to too large precipitation at the highest areas of the ice cap. A simple correction of the accumulation at the highest points of the glacier reduces this to 0.15 m w.e. Here, we use HIRHAM5 to simulate the evolution of the SMB of Vatnajökull for the period 1981–2014 and show that the model provides a reasonable representation of the SMB for this period. However, a major source of uncertainty in the representation of the SMB is the representation of the albedo, and processes

Global Cooling: Effect of Urban Albedo on Global Temperature

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akbari, Hashem; Menon, Surabi; Rosenfeld, Arthur

2007-05-22

In many urban areas, pavements and roofs constitute over 60% of urban surfaces (roof 20-25%, pavements about 40%). The roof and the pavement albedo can be increased by about 0.25 and 0.10, respectively, resulting in a net albedo increase for urban areas of about 0.1. Many studies have demonstrated building cooling-energy savings in excess of 20% upon raising roof reflectivity from an existing 10-20% to about 60%. We estimate U.S. potential savings in excess of $1 billion (B) per year in net annual energy bills. Increasing albedo of urban surfaces can reduce the summertime urban temperature and improve the urban air quality. Increasing the urban albedo has the added benefit of reflecting more of the incoming global solar radiation and countering the effect of global warming. We estimate that increasing albedo of urban areas by 0.1 results in an increase of 3 x 10{sup -4} in Earth albedo. Using a simple global model, the change in air temperature in lowest 1.8 km of the atmosphere is estimated at 0.01K. Modelers predict a warming of about 3K in the next 60 years (0.05K/year). Change of 0.1 in urban albedo will result in 0.01K global cooling, a delay of {approx}0.2 years in global warming. This 0.2 years delay in global warming is equivalent to 10 Gt reduction in CO2 emissions.

Ceres Photometry and Albedo from Dawn Framing Camera Images

Science.gov (United States)

Schröder, S. E.; Mottola, S.; Keller, H. U.; Li, J.-Y.; Matz, K.-D.; Otto, K.; Roatsch, T.; Stephan, K.; Raymond, C. A.; Russell, C. T.

2015-10-01

The Dawn spacecraft is in orbit around dwarf planet Ceres. The onboard Framing Camera (FC) [1] is mapping the surface through a clear filter and 7 narrow-band filters at various observational geometries. Generally, Ceres' appearance in these images is affected by shadows and shading, effects which become stronger for larger solar phase angles, obscuring the intrinsic reflective properties of the surface. By means of photometric modeling we attempt to remove these effects and reconstruct the surface albedo over the full visible wavelength range. Knowledge of the albedo distribution will contribute to our understanding of the physical nature and composition of the surface.

Calculation of double energy angle differential neutron albedos for radiation shielding applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Litaize, O.; Diop, C.M.; Nimal, J.C.

2000-01-01

Void radiation shielding problems can be dealt with albedo concept which is an alternative to the complex bringing into operation of the 'exact' transport method calculations (SN, Monte Carlo). Up to here, differential albedos are used for single reflections from walls in the NARCISSE-3 propagation albedo code developed at CEA and used for project calculations. For taking into account the neutron multiple reflections on lacunar medium walls, double energy-angle differential albedos are needed. TRIPOLI-4 neutral particle transport Monte Carlo code in three dimensional geometries, has been chosen to implement a double differential albedo calculus routine and therefore to generate albedo data for different kinds of medium. The surfacic estimator, which could be used, is not enough efficient because all neutrons do not contribute to the result. A new estimator is carried out. At each collision site, during the neutron history simulation, it allows to compute the probability of the neutron to go through the medium and to come through the reflection surface in the direction and at the energy considered. This estimator is about hundred times more efficient than the surfacic estimator. (author)

Sea ice roughness: the key for predicting Arctic summer ice albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Landy, J.; Ehn, J. K.; Tsamados, M.; Stroeve, J.; Barber, D. G.

2017-12-01

Although melt ponds on Arctic sea ice evolve in stages, ice with smoother surface topography typically allows the pond water to spread over a wider area, reducing the ice-albedo and accelerating further melt. Building on this theory, we simulated the distribution of meltwater on a range of statistically-derived topographies to develop a quantitative relationship between premelt sea ice surface roughness and summer ice albedo. Our method, previously applied to ICESat observations of the end-of-winter sea ice roughness, could account for 85% of the variance in AVHRR observations of the summer ice-albedo [Landy et al., 2015]. Consequently, an Arctic-wide reduction in sea ice roughness over the ICESat operational period (from 2003 to 2008) explained a drop in ice-albedo that resulted in a 16% increase in solar heat input to the sea ice cover. Here we will review this work and present new research linking pre-melt sea ice surface roughness observations from Cryosat-2 to summer sea ice albedo over the past six years, examining the potential of winter roughness as a significant new source of sea ice predictability. We will further evaluate the possibility for high-resolution (kilometre-scale) forecasts of summer sea ice albedo from waveform-level Cryosat-2 roughness data in the landfast sea ice zone of the Canadian Arctic. Landy, J. C., J. K. Ehn, and D. G. Barber (2015), Albedo feedback enhanced by smoother Arctic sea ice, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 10,714-10,720, doi:10.1002/2015GL066712.

Mimicking biochar-albedo feedback in complex Mediterranean agricultural landscapes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bozzi, E; Genesio, L; Miglietta, F; Toscano, P; Pieri, M

2015-01-01

Incorporation of charcoal produced by biomass pyrolysis (biochar) in agricultural soils is a potentially sustainable strategy for climate change mitigation. However, some side effects of large-scale biochar application need to be investigated. In particular a massive use of a low-reflecting material on large cropland areas may impact the climate via changes in surface albedo. Twelve years of MODIS-derived albedo data were analysed for three pairs of selected agricultural sites in central Italy. In each pair bright and dark coloured soil were identified, mimicking the effect of biochar application on the land surface albedo of complex agricultural landscapes. Over this period vegetation canopies never completely masked differences in background soil colour. This soil signal, expressed as an albedo difference, induced a local instantaneous radiative forcing of up to 4.7 W m −2 during periods of high solar irradiance. Biochar mitigation potential might therefore be reduced up to ∼30%. This study proves the importance of accounting for crop phenology and crop management when assessing biochar mitigation potential and provides more insights into the analysis of its environmental feedback. (letter)

The global albedo of the Moon at 1064 nm from LOLA

Science.gov (United States)

Lucey, P. G.; Neumann, G. A.; Riner, M. A.; Mazarico, E.; Smith, D. E.; Zuber, M. T.; Paige, D. A.; Bussey, D. B.; Cahill, J. T.; McGovern, A.; Isaacson, P.; Corley, L. M.; Torrence, M. H.; Melosh, H. J.; Head, J. W.; Song, E.

2014-07-01

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) measures the backscattered energy of the returning altimetric laser pulse at its wavelength of 1064 nm, and these data are used to map the reflectivity of the Moon at zero-phase angle with a photometrically uniform data set. Global maps have been produced at 4 pixels per degree (about 8 km at the equator) and 2 km resolution within 20° latitude of each pole. The zero-phase geometry is insensitive to lunar topography, so these data enable characterization of subtle variations in lunar albedo, even at high latitudes where such measurements are not possible with the Sun as the illumination source. The geometric albedo of the Moon at 1064 nm was estimated from these data with absolute calibration derived from the Kaguya Multiband Imager and extrapolated to visual wavelengths. The LOLA estimates are within 2σ of historical measurements of geometric albedo. No consistent latitude-dependent variations in reflectance are observed, suggesting that solar wind does not dominate space weathering processes that modify lunar reflectance. The average normal albedo of the Moon is found to be much higher than that of Mercury consistent with prior measurements, but the normal albedo of the lunar maria is similar to that of Mercury suggesting a similar abundance of space weathering products. Regions within permanent shadow in the polar regions are found to be more reflective than polar surfaces that are sometimes illuminated. Limiting analysis to data with slopes less than 10° eliminates variations in reflectance due to mass wasting and shows a similar increased reflectivity within permanent polar shadow. Steep slopes within permanent shadow are also more reflective than similar slopes that experience at least some illumination. Water frost and a reduction in effectiveness of space weathering are offered as possible explanations for the increased reflectivity of permanent shadow; porosity is largely ruled out as the sole explanation. The

The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Willeit

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The surface energy and mass balance of ice sheets strongly depends on the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface, which is mainly controlled by the albedo of snow and ice. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we explore the role played by surface albedo for the simulation of glacial cycles. We show that the evolution of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to the representation of snow albedo in the model. It is well known that the albedo of snow depends strongly on snow grain size and the content of light-absorbing impurities. Excluding either the snow aging effect or the dust darkening effect on snow albedo leads to an excessive ice build-up during glacial times and consequently to a failure in simulating deglaciation. While the effect of snow grain growth on snow albedo is well constrained, the albedo reduction due to the presence of dust in snow is much more uncertain because the light-absorbing properties of dust vary widely as a function of dust mineral composition. We also show that assuming slightly different optical properties of dust leads to very different ice sheet and climate evolutions in the model. Conversely, ice sheet evolution is less sensitive to the choice of ice albedo in the model. We conclude that a proper representation of snow albedo is a fundamental prerequisite for a successful simulation of glacial cycles.

Incorporating changes in albedo in estimating the climate mitigation benefits of land use change projects

Science.gov (United States)

Bird, D. N.; Kunda, M.; Mayer, A.; Schlamadinger, B.; Canella, L.; Johnston, M.

2008-04-01

Some climate scientists are questioning whether the practice of converting of non-forest lands to forest land (afforestation or reforestation) is an effective climate change mitigation option. The discussion focuses particularly on areas where the new forest is primarily coniferous and there is significant amount of snow since the increased climate forcing due to the change in albedo may counteract the decreased climate forcing due to carbon dioxide removal. In this paper, we develop a stand-based model that combines changes in surface albedo, solar radiation, latitude, cloud cover and carbon sequestration. As well, we develop a procedure to convert carbon stock changes to equivalent climatic forcing or climatic forcing to equivalent carbon stock changes. Using the model, we investigate the sensitivity of combined affects of changes in surface albedo and carbon stock changes to model parameters. The model is sensitive to amount of cloud, atmospheric absorption, timing of canopy closure, carbon sequestration rate among other factors. The sensitivity of the model is investigated at one Canadian site, and then the model is tested at numerous sites across Canada. In general, we find that the change in albedo reduces the carbon sequestration benefits by approximately 30% over 100 years, but this is not drastic enough to suggest that one should not use afforestation or reforestation as a climate change mitigation option. This occurs because the forests grow in places where there is significant amount of cloud in winter. As well, variations in sequestration rate seem to be counterbalanced by the amount and timing of canopy closure. We close by speculating that the effects of albedo may also be significant in locations at lower latitudes, where there are less clouds, and where there are extended dry seasons. These conditions make grasses light coloured and when irrigated crops, dark forests or other vegetation such as biofuels replace the grasses, the change in carbon

Arctic sea ice albedo - A comparison of two satellite-derived data sets

Science.gov (United States)

Schweiger, Axel J.; Serreze, Mark C.; Key, Jeffrey R.

1993-01-01

Spatial patterns of mean monthly surface albedo for May, June, and July, derived from DMSP Operational Line Scan (OLS) satellite imagery are compared with surface albedos derived from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program (ISCCP) monthly data set. Spatial patterns obtained by the two techniques are in general agreement, especially for June and July. Nevertheless, systematic differences in albedo of 0.05 - 0.10 are noted which are most likely related to uncertainties in the simple parameterizations used in the DMSP analyses, problems in the ISCCP cloud-clearing algorithm and other modeling simplifications. However, with respect to the eventual goal of developing a reliable automated retrieval algorithm for compiling a long-term albedo data base, these initial comparisons are very encouraging.

Simulation and Analysis of the Topographic Effects on Snow-Free Albedo over Rugged Terrain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalei Hao

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Topography complicates the modeling and retrieval of land surface albedo due to shadow effects and the redistribution of incident radiation. Neglecting topographic effects may lead to a significant bias when estimating land surface albedo over a single slope. However, for rugged terrain, a comprehensive and systematic investigation of topographic effects on land surface albedo is currently ongoing. Accurately estimating topographic effects on land surface albedo over a rugged terrain presents a challenge in remote sensing modeling and applications. In this paper, we focused on the development of a simplified estimation method for snow-free albedo over a rugged terrain at a 1-km scale based on a 30-m fine-scale digital elevation model (DEM. The proposed method was compared with the radiosity approach based on simulated and real DEMs. The results of the comparison showed that the proposed method provided adequate computational efficiency and satisfactory accuracy simultaneously. Then, the topographic effects on snow-free albedo were quantitatively investigated and interpreted by considering the mean slope, subpixel aspect distribution, solar zenith angle, and solar azimuth angle. The results showed that the more rugged the terrain and the larger the solar illumination angle, the more intense the topographic effects were on black-sky albedo (BSA. The maximum absolute deviation (MAD and the maximum relative deviation (MRD of the BSA over a rugged terrain reached 0.28 and 85%, respectively, when the SZA was 60° for different terrains. Topographic effects varied with the mean slope, subpixel aspect distribution, SZA and SAA, which should not be neglected when modeling albedo.

Using Remote Sensing to Quantify Roof Albedo in Seven California Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Ban-Weiss, G. A.; Woods, J.; Millstein, D.; Levinson, R.

2013-12-01

Building Energy Efficiency Standard (Title-24, Part 6) includes the use of high-albedo surfaces on low-sloped roofs on non-residential buildings. Analyzing a subset of large presumably commercial buildings, we find high albedo roofs represent 0.5% and 10% of total roofs and roof surface area, respectively. The potential for high albedo roofs to reduce urban temperatures was investigated for a California city (Bakersfield) with warm summers using a state-of-the-art meteorological model (Weather Research and Forecasting, WRF). Base case and cool roof scenarios were simulated with the only difference being that the surface albedo was increased under the cool roof scenario. Roof albedos derived from the aerial imagery were used as an input to the climate model in the base case scenario. Simulation results indicate that seasonal average afternoon (1500 h) temperatures could be reduced by up to 0.2 °C across Bakersfield during both the summer and winter. While temperature changes are similar during winter and summer, only summer shows statistically significant temperature changes downwind (southeast) from Bakersfield. This indicates that reduced summertime temperatures may be felt over a distance that is 2 or 3 times the length scale of the region with high albedo roofs.

Radiative forcing and temperature response to changes in urban albedos and associated CO2 offsets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menon, Surabi; Akbari, Hashem; Sednev, Igor; Levinson, Ronnen; Mahanama, Sarith

2010-01-01

The two main forcings that can counteract to some extent the positive forcings from greenhouse gases from pre-industrial times to present day are the aerosol and related aerosol-cloud forcings, and the radiative response to changes in surface albedo. Here, we quantify the change in radiative forcing and land surface temperature that may be obtained by increasing the albedos of roofs and pavements in urban areas in temperate and tropical regions of the globe by 0.1. Using the catchment land surface model (the land model coupled to the GEOS-5 Atmospheric General Circulation Model), we quantify the change in the total outgoing (outgoing shortwave+longwave) radiation and land surface temperature to a 0.1 increase in urban albedos for all global land areas. The global average increase in the total outgoing radiation was 0.5 W m -2 , and temperature decreased by ∼0.008 K for an average 0.003 increase in surface albedo. These averages represent all global land areas where data were available from the land surface model used and are for the boreal summer (June-July-August). For the continental US the total outgoing radiation increased by 2.3 W m -2 , and land surface temperature decreased by ∼0.03 K for an average 0.01 increase in surface albedo. Based on these forcings, the expected emitted CO 2 offset for a plausible 0.25 and 0.15 increase in albedos of roofs and pavements, respectively, for all global urban areas, was found to be ∼57 Gt CO 2 . A more meaningful evaluation of the impacts of urban albedo increases on global climate and the expected CO 2 offsets would require simulations which better characterize urban surfaces and represent the full annual cycle.

Changes in the Albedo of the Pegasus and Phoenix Runways, 2000-2017

Science.gov (United States)

2017-07-18

by the net heat transfer into the runway surface during the brief but intense peak of austral summer. The flux of downwelling shortwave solar energy...snow; and as ERDC/CRREL TR-17-10 2 mentioned above, the presence of melt water in the snow further reduces albedo and increases heating of the snow...interpolating over all possible angles, end member albedo cases (“white sky” and “black sky”) can be modeled . The actual albedo or “blue sky” albedo falls

Intercomparison of MODIS Albedo Retrievals and In Situ Measurements Across the Global FLUXNET Network

Science.gov (United States)

Cescatti, Alessandro; Marcolla, Barbara; Vannan, Suresh K. Santhana; Pan, Jerry Yun; Roman, Miguel O.; Yang, Xiaoyuan; Ciais, Philippe; Cook, Robert B.; Law, Beverly E.; Matteucci, Girogio;

Long-term record of top-of-atmosphere albedo generated from AVHRR data

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Z.

2017-12-01

Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) albedo is a fundamental component of Earth's energy budget. Previously, long-term accurate TOA albedo products did not exist due to the lack of stable broadband observations. With a new albedo estimation methodology based on multispectral observations, TOA albedo since 1981 has been retrieved using data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), which provides the longest record of satellite observations across the globe. To develop the long-term TOA albedo record, the instantaneous TOA albedo was calculated by the direct estimation method, which was built on training data pairs from coincident AVHRR TOA reflectance and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) TOA albedo. The instantaneous TOA albedo was then converted to daily mean and monthly mean albedo based on the diurnal curves from geostationary satellites. The TOA albedo results (AVHRR-TAL) were compared with Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) flux products for 2007. The monthly mean AVHRR-TAL agreed well with the CERES products, with a root mean square difference (RMSD) of 0.032 and a bias of 0.013. In addition, AVHRR-TAL showed similar seasonal variations to those seen in the CERES products. Further analysis on long-term time series showed good consistency between the two datasets (R2 > 0.95 and relative RMSD < 4%) from 2000 to 2015. Although some calibration issues remain to be solved, our datasets show the potential ability to observe the global TOA albedo from 1981 to the present.

Global warming related transient albedo feedback in the Arctic and its relation to the seasonality of sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Andry, Olivier; Bintanja, Richard; Hazeleger, Wilco

2015-04-01

The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average. Arctic sea ice cover is very sensitive to this warming and has reached historic minima in late summer in recent years (i.e. 2007, 2012). Considering that the Arctic Ocean is mainly ice-covered and that the albedo of sea ice is very high compared to that of open water, the change in sea ice cover is very likely to have a strong impact on the local surface albedo feedback. Here we quantify the temporal changes in surface albedo feedback in response to global warming. Usually feedbacks are evaluated as being representative and constant for long time periods, but we show here that the strength of climate feedbacks in fact varies strongly with time. For instance, time series of the amplitude of the surface albedo feedback, derived from future climate simulations (CIMP5, RCP8.5 up to year 2300) using a kernel method, peaks around the year 2100. This maximum is likely caused by an increased seasonality in sea-ice cover that is inherently associated with sea ice retreat. We demonstrate that the Arctic average surface albedo has a strong seasonal signature with a maximum in spring and a minimum in late summer/autumn. In winter when incoming solar radiation is minimal the surface albedo doesn't have an important effect on the energy balance of the climate system. The annual mean surface albedo is thus determined by the seasonality of both downwelling shortwave radiation and sea ice cover. As sea ice cover reduces the seasonal signature is modified, the transient part from maximum sea ice cover to its minimum is shortened and sharpened. The sea ice cover is reduced when downwelling shortwave radiation is maximum and thus the annual surface albedo is drastically smaller. Consequently the change in annual surface albedo with time will become larger and so will the surface albedo feedback. We conclude that a stronger seasonality in sea ice leads to a stronger surface albedo feedback, which accelerates

Albedo control as an effective strategy to tackle Global Warming: A case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cotana, Franco; Rossi, Federico; Filipponi, Mirko; Coccia, Valentina; Pisello, Anna Laura; Bonamente, Emanuele; Petrozzi, Alessandro; Cavalaglio, Gianluca

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We modeled the energy exchanges for the system Earth–Atmosphere–Outer space. • We proposed a method quantifying the CO 2eq offset potential of high-albedo surfaces. • We presented the application of the method to a case study in Tunis. • The CO 2eq offsetting potential depends on the geometry-orientation of the surfaces. • An economic value was attributed to the Albedo control compensation mechanism. - Abstract: Recent research developments focused on Climate Change issue aimed at achieving Kyoto targets. In this context, an innovative methodology (officially recognized by WEC in 2009) is proposed to mitigate Global Warming by artificially enhancing earth’s Albedo. Such a methodology allows to quantify the maximum environmental benefit achievable through the installation of Albedo control technologies, as a function of the geographical features of the installation site, local meteorological conditions, radiative properties, tilt angle, and orientation of the surfaces. This benefit is directly quantified in terms of CO 2eq offset. Albedo control can be an effective mitigation strategy by means of three synergistic effects: a direct contribution towards Global Warming mitigation produced by an enhanced reflection to the space of the shortwave incident radiation; the indirect contribution from energy saving in buildings with high Albedo envelopes; the indirect contribution from the mitigation of Urban Heat Island phenomenon. Since the effectiveness of Albedo control is mostly relevant in Mediterranean area, for both climate conditions and historical-architectural heritage, this work presents procedures and findings of the ABCD project (Albedo, Building green, Control of Global Warming and Desertification) concluded in 2012, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. A description of the analytic model is also presented. The paper focuses on the application of the methodology to a Tunisian factory site, showing that approximately

Deriving a global land surface albedo product from Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and OLI data based on the unified direct estimation approach

Science.gov (United States)

Surface albedo is widely used in climate and environment applications as an important parameter for controlling the surface energy budget. There is an increasing need for fine resolution (data for use in small scale applications and for validating coarse-resolution datasets; however,...

Variation in foliar nitrogen and albedo in response to nitrogen fertilization and elevated CO2

Science.gov (United States)

Haley F. Wicklein; Scott V. Ollinger; Mary E. Martin; David Y. Hollinger; Lucie C. Lepine; Michelle C. Day; Megan K. Bartlett; Andrew D. Richardson; Richard J. Norby

2012-01-01

Foliar nitrogen has been shown to be positively correlated with midsummer canopy albedo and canopy near infrared (NIR) reflectance over a broad range of plant functional types (e.g., forests, grasslands, and agricultural lands). To date, the mechanism(s) driving the nitrogen-albedo relationship have not been established, and it is unknown whether factors affecting...

Comparing MODIS-Terra and GOES surface albedo for New York City NY, Baltimore MD and Washington DC for 2005

Science.gov (United States)

Mubenga, K.; Hoff, R.; McCann, K.; Chu, A.; Prados, A.

2006-05-01

The NOAA GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product (GASP) is a product displaying the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) over the United States. The GASP retrieval involves discriminating the upwelling radiance from the atmosphere from that of the variable underlying surface. Unlike other sensors with more visible and near- infrared spectral channels such as MODIS, the sensors on GOES 8 through 12 only have one visible and a several far infrared channels. The GASP algorithm uses the detection of the second-darkest pixel from the visible channel over a 28-day period as the reference from which a radiance look-up table gives the corresponding AOD. GASP is reliable in capturing the AOD during large events. As an example, GASP was able to precisely show the Alaska and British Columbia smoke plume advecting from Alaska to the northeastern U.S. during the summer of 2004. Knapp et al. (2005) has shown that the AOD retrieval for GOES- 8 is within +/-0.13 of AERONET ground data with a coefficient of correlation of 0.72. Prados (this meeting) will update that study. However, GASP may not be as reliable when it comes to observing smaller AOD events in the northeast where the surface brightness is relatively high. The presence of large cities, such as New York, increases the surface albedo and produces a bright background against which it may be difficult to deduce the AOD. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on the Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua platforms provides an independent measurement of the surface albedo at a resolution greater than available on GOES. In this research, the MODIS and GOES surface albedo product for New York, Washington and Baltimore are compared in order to see how we can improve the AOD retrieval in urban areas for air quality applications. Ref: K. Knapp et al. 2005. Toward aerosol optical depth retrievals over land from GOES visible radiances: determining surface reflectance. Int.Journal of Remote Sensing 26, 4097-4116

Attitude estimation from magnetometer and earth-albedo-corrected coarse sun sensor measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Appel, Pontus

2005-01-01

For full 3-axes attitude determination the magnetic field vector and the Sun vector can be used. A Coarse Sun Sensor consisting of six solar cells placed on each of the six outer surfaces of the satellite is used for Sun vector determination. This robust and low cost setup is sensitive to surrounding light sources as it sees the whole sky. To compensate for the largest error source, the Earth, an albedo model is developed. The total albedo light vector has contributions from the Earth surface which is illuminated by the Sun and visible from the satellite. Depending on the reflectivity of the Earth surface, the satellite's position and the Sun's position the albedo light changes. This cannot be calculated analytically and hence a numerical model is developed. For on-board computer use the Earth albedo model consisting of data tables is transferred into polynomial functions in order to save memory space. For an absolute worst case the attitude determination error can be held below 2∘. In a nominal case it is better than 1∘.

The New Global Gapless GLASS Albedo Product from 1981 to 2014

Science.gov (United States)

Dou, B.; Liu, Q.; Qu, Y.; Wang, L.; Feng, Y.; Nie, A.; Li, X.; Zhang, J.; Niu, H.; Cai, E.; Zhao, L.

2016-12-01

Long-time series and various spatial resolution albedo products are needed for climate change and environmental studies at both global and regional scale. To meet these requirements, GLASS (Global LAnd Surface Satellites) gapless albedo product from 1981 to 2010 was firstly released in 2012 and widely used in long-term earth change researches. However, only shortwave albedo product in spatial resolution of 0.05 degree and 1 km were provided, which limits extensive applications for visible and near-infrared bands. Thus, new GLASS albedo product are produced and comprehensively enhanced in time series, algorithm and product content. Five major updates are conducted: 1) Time region is expanded from 1981-2010 to 1981-2014; 2) Physically ART (radiative transfer theory) and TCOWA (Three-Component Ocean Water Albedo) models rather than previous RTLSR (Rose-Thick Li-Sparse Reciprocal kernel combination) model are adopted for snow and inland water albedo estimation, respectively; 3) global shortwave, visible, and near-infrared albedos in spatial resolution of 0.05 degree and 1 km are released; 4) Clear-sky albedo is provided beyond the traditional black-sky albedo and white sky-albedo for amateurish user; 5) 250 m albedo product is provided in part of global for regional application. In this study, we firstly detail the updates of this inspiring product. Then the product is compared with the previous GLASS albedo product and preliminary assessed against field measurements under various land covers. Significant improvements are reported for snow and water albedo. The results demonstrate that the new GLASS albedo product is a gapless, long-term continuous, and self-consistent data-set. Comparing to previous GLASS albedo product, lower black-sky albedo and higher white-sky albedo are proved for permanent snow-cover region. Moreover, higher albedo of inland water and seasonal snow-cover mountain are captured. This product brings new chance and view to understanding long

PENGAMBILAN PEKTIN DARI ALBEDO SEMANGKA DENGAN PROSES EKSTRAKSI ASAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melisa Triandini Maulani

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Watermelon is a plant that is resistant to dry climate so it can be grown in tropical and semi-desert. Watermelon albedo is a potential source of pectin because it contains pectin compounds. To decompose the pectin in the watermelon albedo can be done by acid extraction process because it will lesser the possibility of damage pectin, whereas alcohol is use to precipitate pectin. In this research watermelon albedo as basic ingredients would be extracted to produce pectin to identified the differences in the influence of temperature variation and the type of solvent extraction of the pectin content of the albedo watermelon and determined variations in maximum temperature and type of solvent extraction to produce pectin. The study was conducted with a 90-minute extraction time and extraction temperature 60, 70, and 80 °C and 500 mL the solvent HCl and CH3COOH with 2.6 pH. The results were obtained taking the maximum conditions of pectin using solvent extraction HCl at a temperature of 80 °C and obtained pectin levels of 11.2635%. Solvent which is a strong acid HCl is easier to untie protopektin pectin so pectin levels has generated a high level. The higher the operating temperature, the bigger pectin levels that are obtained until the temperature limit of 80 °C. This caused by the movement of the H+ ions more reactive, the more contact between the substances dissolved in the sample with solvent and obtained more pectin.

Neutron Albedo

CERN Document Server

Ignatovich, V K

2005-01-01

A new, algebraic, method is applied to calculation of neutron albedo from substance to check the claim that use of ultradispersive fuel and moderator of an active core can help to gain in size and mass of the reactor. In a model of isotropic distribution of incident and reflected neutrons it is shown that coherent scattering on separate grains in the case of thermal neutrons increases transport cross section negligibly, however it decreases albedo from a wall of finite thickness because of decrease of substance density. A visible increase of albedo takes place only for neutrons with wave length of the order of the size of a single grain.

CVF spectrophotometry of Pluto - Correlation of composition with albedo. [circularly variable filter

Science.gov (United States)

Marcialis, Robert L.; Lebofsky, Larry A.

1991-01-01

The present time-resolved, 0.96-2.65-micron spectrophotometry for the Pluto-Charon system indicates night-to-night variations in the depths of the methane absorptions such that the bands' equivalent width is near minimum light. The interpretation of these data in terms of a depletion of methane in dark regions of the planet, relative to bright ones, is consistent with the Buie and Fink (1987) observations. The near-IR spectrum of Pluto seems to be dominated by surface frost. It is suggested that the dark equatorial regions of Pluto are redder than those of moderate albedo.

The MODIS (Collection V005) BRDF/albedo product: Assessment of spatial representativeness over forested landscapes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roman, Miguel O. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Schaaf, Crystal [Boston University; Woodcock, Curtis E. [Boston University; Strahler, Alan [Boston University; Yang, Xiaoyuan [Boston University; Braswell, Rob H. [Complex Systems Research Center, Durham, NH; Curtis, Peter [Ohio State University, The, Columbus; Davis, Kenneth J. [Pennsylvania State University; Dragoni, Danilo [Indiana University; Goulden, Michael L. [University of California, Irvine; Gu, Lianhong [ORNL; Hollinger, David Y [ORNL; Meyers, Tilden P. [NOAA, Oak Ridge, TN; Wilson, Tim B. [NOAA; Munger, J. William [Harvard University; Wofsy, Steve [Harvard University; Privette, Jeffrey L. [NOAA; Richardson, Andrew D. [Harvard University

2009-11-01

A new methodology for establishing the spatial representativeness of tower albedo measurements that are routinely used in validation of satellite retrievals from global land surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy products is presented. This method brings together knowledge of the intrinsic biophysical properties of a measurement site, and the surrounding landscape to produce a number of geostatistical attributes that describe the overall variability, spatial extent, strength of the spatial correlation, and spatial structure of surface albedo patterns at separate seasonal periods throughout the year. Variogram functions extracted from Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) retrievals of surface albedo using multiple spatial and temporal thresholds were used to assess the degree to which a given point (tower) measurement is able to capture the intrinsic variability of the immediate landscape extending to a satellite pixel. A validation scheme was implemented over a wide range of forested landscapes, looking at both deciduous and coniferous sites, from tropical to boreal ecosystems. The experiment focused on comparisons between tower measurements of surface albedo acquired at local solar noon and matching retrievals from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Collection V005) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/albedo algorithm. Assessments over a select group of field stations with comparable landscape features and daily retrieval scenarios further demonstrate the ability of this technique to identify measurement sites that contain the intrinsic spatial and seasonal features of surface albedo over sufficiently large enough footprints for use in modeling and remote sensing studies. This approach, therefore, improves our understanding of product uncertainty both in terms of the representativeness of the field data and its relationship to the larger satellite pixel.

Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on dryland biocrusts

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, William A.; Painter, Thomas H.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Belnap, Jayne; Okin, Gregory S.; Flagg, Cody B.; Reed, Sasha C.

2017-01-01

Drylands represent the planet’s largest terrestrial biome and evidence suggests these landscapes have large potential for creating feedbacks to future climate. Recent studies also indicate that dryland ecosystems are responding markedly to climate change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) ‒ soil surface communities of lichens, mosses, and/or cyanobacteria ‒ comprise up to 70% of dryland cover and help govern fundamental ecosystem functions, including soil stabilization and carbon uptake. Drylands are expected to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, and such alterations may impact biocrust communities by promoting rapid mortality of foundational species. In turn, biocrust community shifts affect land surface cover and roughness—changes that can dramatically alter albedo. We tested this hypothesis in a full-factorial warming (+4 °C above ambient) and altered precipitation (increased frequency of 1.2 mm monsoon-type watering events) experiment on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We quantified changes in shortwave albedo via multi-angle, solar-reflectance measurements. Warming and watering treatments each led to large increases in albedo (>30%). This increase was driven by biophysical factors related to treatment effects on cyanobacteria cover and soil surface roughness following treatment-induced moss and lichen mortality. A rise in dryland surface albedo may represent a previously unidentified feedback to future climate.

Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on dryland biocrusts

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, William A.; Painter, Thomas H.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Belnap, Jayne; Okin, Gregory S.; Flagg, Cody; Reed, Sasha C.

2017-03-01

Drylands represent the planet’s largest terrestrial biome and evidence suggests these landscapes have large potential for creating feedbacks to future climate. Recent studies also indicate that dryland ecosystems are responding markedly to climate change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) ‒ soil surface communities of lichens, mosses, and/or cyanobacteria ‒ comprise up to 70% of dryland cover and help govern fundamental ecosystem functions, including soil stabilization and carbon uptake. Drylands are expected to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, and such alterations may impact biocrust communities by promoting rapid mortality of foundational species. In turn, biocrust community shifts affect land surface cover and roughness—changes that can dramatically alter albedo. We tested this hypothesis in a full-factorial warming (+4 °C above ambient) and altered precipitation (increased frequency of 1.2 mm monsoon-type watering events) experiment on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We quantified changes in shortwave albedo via multi-angle, solar-reflectance measurements. Warming and watering treatments each led to large increases in albedo (>30%). This increase was driven by biophysical factors related to treatment effects on cyanobacteria cover and soil surface roughness following treatment-induced moss and lichen mortality. A rise in dryland surface albedo may represent a previously unidentified feedback to future climate.

Using BRDFs for accurate albedo calculations and adjacency effect corrections

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Borel, C.C.; Gerstl, S.A.W.

1996-09-01

In this paper the authors discuss two uses of BRDFs in remote sensing: (1) in determining the clear sky top of the atmosphere (TOA) albedo, (2) in quantifying the effect of the BRDF on the adjacency point-spread function and on atmospheric corrections. The TOA spectral albedo is an important parameter retrieved by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR). Its accuracy depends mainly on how well one can model the surface BRDF for many different situations. The authors present results from an algorithm which matches several semi-empirical functions to the nine MISR measured BRFs that are then numerically integrated to yield the clear sky TOA spectral albedo in four spectral channels. They show that absolute accuracies in the albedo of better than 1% are possible for the visible and better than 2% in the near infrared channels. Using a simplified extensive radiosity model, the authors show that the shape of the adjacency point-spread function (PSF) depends on the underlying surface BRDFs. The adjacency point-spread function at a given offset (x,y) from the center pixel is given by the integral of transmission-weighted products of BRDF and scattering phase function along the line of sight.

Evaluation of Operational Albedo Algorithms For AVHRR, MODIS and VIIRS: Case Studies in Southern Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Privette, J. L.; Schaaf, C. B.; Saleous, N.; Liang, S.

2004-12-01

Shortwave broadband albedo is the fundamental surface variable that partitions solar irradiance into energy available to the land biophysical system and energy reflected back into the atmosphere. Albedo varies with land cover, vegetation phenological stage, surface wetness, solar angle, and atmospheric condition, among other variables. For these reasons, a consistent and normalized albedo time series is needed to accurately model weather, climate and ecological trends. Although an empirically-derived coarse-scale albedo from the 20-year NOAA AVHRR record (Sellers et al., 1996) is available, an operational moderate resolution global product first became available from NASA's MODIS sensor. The validated MODIS product now provides the benchmark upon which to compare albedo generated through 1) reprocessing of the historic AVHRR record and 2) operational processing of data from the future National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System's (NPOESS) Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). Unfortunately, different instrument characteristics (e.g., spectral bands, spatial resolution), processing approaches (e.g., latency requirements, ancillary data availability) and even product definitions (black sky albedo, white sky albedo, actual or blue sky albedo) complicate the development of the desired multi-mission (AVHRR to MODIS to VIIRS) albedo time series -- a so-called Climate Data Record. This presentation will describe the different albedo algorithms used with AVHRR, MODIS and VIIRS, and compare their results against field measurements collected over two semi-arid sites in southern Africa. We also describe the MODIS-derived VIIRS proxy data we developed to predict NPOESS albedo characteristics. We conclude with a strategy to develop a seamless Climate Data Record from 1982- to 2020.

Modelling Mean Albedo of Individual Roofs in Complex Urban Areas Using Satellite Images and Airborne Laser Scanning Point Clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Kalantar, B.; Mansor, S.; Khuzaimah, Z.; Sameen, M. Ibrahim; Pradhan, B.

2017-09-01

Knowledge of surface albedo at individual roof scale is important for mitigating urban heat islands and understanding urban climate change. This study presents a method for quantifying surface albedo of individual roofs in a complex urban area using the integration of Landsat 8 and airborne LiDAR data. First, individual roofs were extracted from airborne LiDAR data and orthophotos using optimized segmentation and supervised object based image analysis (OBIA). Support vector machine (SVM) was used as a classifier in OBIA process for extracting individual roofs. The user-defined parameters required in SVM classifier were selected using v-fold cross validation method. After that, surface albedo was calculated for each individual roof from Landsat images. Finally, thematic maps of mean surface albedo of individual roofs were generated in GIS and the results were discussed. Results showed that the study area is covered by 35% of buildings varying in roofing material types and conditions. The calculated surface albedo of buildings ranged from 0.16 to 0.65 in the study area. More importantly, the results indicated that the types and conditions of roofing materials significantly effect on the mean value of surface albedo. Mean albedo of new concrete, old concrete, new steel, and old steel were found to be equal to 0.38, 0.26, 0.51, and 0.44 respectively. Replacing old roofing materials with new ones should highly prioritized.

Tundra vegetation effects on pan-Arctic albedo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loranty, Michael M; Goetz, Scott J; Beck, Pieter S A

2011-01-01

Recent field experiments in tundra ecosystems describe how increased shrub cover reduces winter albedo, and how subsequent changes in surface net radiation lead to altered rates of snowmelt. These findings imply that tundra vegetation change will alter regional energy budgets, but to date the effects have not been documented at regional or greater scales. Using satellite observations and a pan-Arctic vegetation map, we examined the effects of shrub vegetation on albedo across the terrestrial Arctic. We included vegetation classes dominated by low shrubs, dwarf shrubs, tussock-dominated graminoid tundra, and non-tussock graminoid tundra. Each class was further stratified by bioclimate subzones. Low-shrub tundra had higher normalized difference vegetation index values and earlier albedo decline in spring than dwarf-shrub tundra, but for tussock tundra, spring albedo declined earlier than for low-shrub tundra. Our results illustrate how relatively small changes in vegetation properties result in differences in albedo dynamics, regardless of shrub growth, that may lead to differences in net radiation upwards of 50 W m -2 at weekly time scales. Further, our findings imply that changes to the terrestrial Arctic energy budget during this important seasonal transition are under way regardless of whether recent satellite observed productivity trends are the result of shrub expansion. We conclude that a better understanding of changes in vegetation productivity and distribution in Arctic tundra is essential for accurately quantifying and predicting carbon and energy fluxes and associated climate feedbacks.

A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH TO ECONOMY OF EXPERIMENT IN DETERMINATIONS OF THE DIFFERENTIAL DOSE ALBEDO OF GAMMA RAYS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shoemaker, N. F.; Huddleston, C. M.

1962-12-10

Treatments of the differential dose albedo of gamma rays on concrete have supposed that the albedo value is a function of: the energy of the incident gamma radiation, the polar angle of incidence, the polar angle of reflection (or scatter), and the azimuthal angle of reflection. It is demonstrated that, if certain reasonable assumptions are made regarding the mechanism of reflection, it is not necessary to investigate variations in albedo with azimuthal angle of refiection. Once differential dose albedo has been determined for a complete set of incident and reflected polar angles with zero azimuth, albedo at any azimuth can be derived by a suitable transformation. (auth)

Variation of Arctic's Sea-ice Albedo between 2000 and 2016 by fusion of MISR and MODIS data

Science.gov (United States)

Muller, Jan-Peter; Kharbouche, Said

2017-04-01

Many research studies have demonstrated that sea-ice plays a key role in climate change and global warming. Most of these studies are based either on ground in-situ data or on remotely sensed data. The latter data are provided mainly by active (SAR and LiDAR) sensors such as Cryosat2, ERS1/2, ENVISAT, Radarsat1/2, ICESat as well as passive sensors such as SSM/I. Nevertheless, the contribution of such active optical sensors data is limited to parameters such as thickness and sea-ice concentration from which albedo may be inferred. The creation of high quality albedo for sea-ice using optical satellites is confronted with two main obstacles: 1) the Arctic is a very cloudy region and, high quality albedo requires multi-angle observations over a relatively short period; 2) cloud masking over sea-ice is a very difficult task, especially for sensor with low spectral resolution. To overcome the above two obstacles, we discuss in a separate report the generation of this fused daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly product at 1km and 5km resolution on a polar stereographic grid [1]. The limited swath (380km) of MISR means that not all of the Arctic is covered on a daily basis so composites on different time-steps were produced. The results show that sea-ice albedo has been in continuous decline since 2000 with thinner sea-ice and greater leads and open water as well as more ponding at earlier times in the year. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the sea-ice climate feedback. Animated visualisations of the albedo patterns each year, the decline in average and the increase in standard deviation in albedo for every single day for all 17 years will be shown to demonstrate the effects of climate change over sea-ice albedo. References [1] Kharbouche & Muller, Production of Arctic sea-ice albedo by fusion of MISR and MODIS data. This conference. Acknowledgements This work was supported by www.QA4ECV.eu, a project of European Union's Seventh Framework

Clear-Sky Narrowband Albedo Datasets Derived from Modis Data

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Y.; Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Arduini, R. F.; Hong, G.

2013-12-01

Satellite remote sensing of clouds requires an accurate estimate of the clear-sky radiances for a given scene to detect clouds and aerosols and to retrieve their microphysical properties. Knowing the spatial and angular variability of clear-sky albedo is essential for predicting the clear-sky radiance at solar wavelengths. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Project uses the near-infrared (NIR; 1.24, 1.6 or 2.13 μm) and visible (VIS; 0.63 μm) channels available on the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) to help identify clouds and retrieve their properties. Generally, clear-sky albedo for a given surface type is determined for conditions when the vegetation is either thriving or dormant and free of snow. The clear-sky albedos are derived using a radiative transfer parameterization of the impact of the atmosphere, including aerosols, on the observed reflectances. This paper presents the method of generating monthly clear-sky overhead albedo maps for both snow-free and snow-covered surfaces of these channels using one year of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) CERES products. Maps of 1.24 and 1.6 μm are being used as the background to help retrieve cloud properties (e.g., effective particle size, optical depth) in CERES cloud retrievals in both snow-free and snow-covered conditions.

ALBEDO PATTERN RECOGNITION AND TIME-SERIES ANALYSES IN MALAYSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Salleh

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Pattern recognition and time-series analyses will enable one to evaluate and generate predictions of specific phenomena. The albedo pattern and time-series analyses are very much useful especially in relation to climate condition monitoring. This study is conducted to seek for Malaysia albedo pattern changes. The pattern recognition and changes will be useful for variety of environmental and climate monitoring researches such as carbon budgeting and aerosol mapping. The 10 years (2000–2009 MODIS satellite images were used for the analyses and interpretation. These images were being processed using ERDAS Imagine remote sensing software, ArcGIS 9.3, the 6S code for atmospherical calibration and several MODIS tools (MRT, HDF2GIS, Albedo tools. There are several methods for time-series analyses were explored, this paper demonstrates trends and seasonal time-series analyses using converted HDF format MODIS MCD43A3 albedo land product. The results revealed significance changes of albedo percentages over the past 10 years and the pattern with regards to Malaysia's nebulosity index (NI and aerosol optical depth (AOD. There is noticeable trend can be identified with regards to its maximum and minimum value of the albedo. The rise and fall of the line graph show a similar trend with regards to its daily observation. The different can be identified in term of the value or percentage of rises and falls of albedo. Thus, it can be concludes that the temporal behavior of land surface albedo in Malaysia have a uniform behaviours and effects with regards to the local monsoons. However, although the average albedo shows linear trend with nebulosity index, the pattern changes of albedo with respects to the nebulosity index indicates that there are external factors that implicates the albedo values, as the sky conditions and its diffusion plotted does not have uniform trend over the years, especially when the trend of 5 years interval is examined, 2000 shows high

Photometric Modeling and VIS-IR Albedo Maps of Dione From Cassini-VIMS

Science.gov (United States)

Filacchione, G.; Ciarniello, M.; D'Aversa, E.; Capaccioni, F.; Cerroni, P.; Buratti, B. J.; Clark, R. N.; Stephan, K.; Plainaki, C.

2018-03-01

We report about visible and infrared albedo maps and spectral indicators of Dione's surface derived from the complete Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) data set acquired between 2004 and 2017 during the Cassini tour in Saturn's system. Maps are derived by applying a photometric correction necessary to disentangle the intrinsic albedo of the surface from illumination and viewing geometry occurring at the time of the observation. The photometric correction is based on the Shkuratov et al. (2011, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2011.06.011) method which yields values of the surface equigonal albedo. Dione's surface albedo maps are rendered at five visible (VIS: 0.35, 0.44, 0.55, 0.7, and 0.95 μm) and five infrared (IR: 1.046, 1.540, 1.822, 2.050, and 2.200 μm) wavelengths in cylindrical projection with a 0.5° × 0.5° angular resolution in latitude and longitude, corresponding to a spatial resolution of 4.5 km/bin. Apart from visible and infrared albedo maps, we report about the distribution of the two visible spectral slopes (0.35-0.55 and 0.55-0.95 μm) and water ice 2.050 μm band depth computed after having applied the photometric correction. The derived spectral indicators are employed to trace Dione's composition variability on both global and local scales allowing to study the dichotomy between the bright‐leading and dark‐trailing hemispheres, the distribution of fresh material on the impact craters and surrounding ejecta, and the resurfacing of the bright material within the chasmata caused by tectonism.

MODELLING MEAN ALBEDO OF INDIVIDUAL ROOFS IN COMPLEX URBAN AREAS USING SATELLITE IMAGES AND AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING POINT CLOUDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Kalantar

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Knowledge of surface albedo at individual roof scale is important for mitigating urban heat islands and understanding urban climate change. This study presents a method for quantifying surface albedo of individual roofs in a complex urban area using the integration of Landsat 8 and airborne LiDAR data. First, individual roofs were extracted from airborne LiDAR data and orthophotos using optimized segmentation and supervised object based image analysis (OBIA. Support vector machine (SVM was used as a classifier in OBIA process for extracting individual roofs. The user-defined parameters required in SVM classifier were selected using v-fold cross validation method. After that, surface albedo was calculated for each individual roof from Landsat images. Finally, thematic maps of mean surface albedo of individual roofs were generated in GIS and the results were discussed. Results showed that the study area is covered by 35% of buildings varying in roofing material types and conditions. The calculated surface albedo of buildings ranged from 0.16 to 0.65 in the study area. More importantly, the results indicated that the types and conditions of roofing materials significantly effect on the mean value of surface albedo. Mean albedo of new concrete, old concrete, new steel, and old steel were found to be equal to 0.38, 0.26, 0.51, and 0.44 respectively. Replacing old roofing materials with new ones should highly prioritized.

Cloud albedo changes in response to anthropogenic sulfate and non-sulfate aerosol forcings in CMIP5 models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Frey

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The effects of different aerosol types on cloud albedo are analysed using the linear relation between total albedo and cloud fraction found on a monthly mean scale in regions of subtropical marine stratocumulus clouds and the influence of simulated aerosol variations on this relation. Model experiments from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5 are used to separately study the responses to increases in sulfate, non-sulfate and all anthropogenic aerosols. A cloud brightening on the month-to-month scale due to variability in the background aerosol is found to dominate even in the cases where anthropogenic aerosols are added. The aerosol composition is of importance for this cloud brightening, that is thereby region dependent. There is indication that absorbing aerosols to some extent counteract the cloud brightening but scene darkening with increasing aerosol burden is generally not supported, even in regions where absorbing aerosols dominate. Month-to-month cloud albedo variability also confirms the importance of liquid water content for cloud albedo. Regional, monthly mean cloud albedo is found to increase with the addition of anthropogenic aerosols and more so with sulfate than non-sulfate. Changes in cloud albedo between experiments are related to changes in cloud water content as well as droplet size distribution changes, so that models with large increases in liquid water path and/or cloud droplet number show large cloud albedo increases with increasing aerosol. However, no clear relation between model sensitivities to aerosol variations on the month-to-month scale and changes in cloud albedo due to changed aerosol burden is found.

Using albedo to reform wind erosion modelling, mapping and monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Chappell, Adrian; Webb, Nicholas P.

2016-12-01

Wind erosion and dust emission models are used to assess the impacts of dust on radiative forcing in the atmosphere, cloud formation, nutrient fertilisation and human health. The models are underpinned by a two-dimensional geometric property (lateral cover; L) used to characterise the three-dimensional aerodynamic roughness (sheltered area or wakes) of the Earth's surface and calibrate the momentum it extracts from the wind. We reveal a fundamental weakness in L and demonstrate that values are an order of magnitude too small and significant aerodynamic interactions between roughness elements and their sheltered areas have been omitted, particularly under sparse surface roughness. We describe a solution which develops published work to establish a relation between sheltered area and the proportion of shadow over a given area; the inverse of direct beam directional hemispherical reflectance (black sky albedo; BSA). We show direct relations between shadow and wind tunnel measurements and thereby provide direct calibrations of key aerodynamic properties. Estimation of the aerodynamic parameters from albedo enables wind erosion assessments over areas, across platforms from the field to airborne and readily available satellite data. Our new approach demonstrated redundancy in existing wind erosion models and thereby reduced model complexity and improved fidelity. We found that the use of albedo enabled an adequate description of aerodynamic sheltering to characterise fluid dynamics and predict sediment transport without the use of a drag partition scheme (Rt) or threshold friction velocity (u∗t). We applied the calibrations to produce global maps of aerodynamic properties which showed very similar spatial patterns to each other and confirmed the redundancy in the traditional parameters of wind erosion modelling. We evaluated temporal patterns of predicted horizontal mass flux at locations across Australia which revealed variation between land cover types that would not

Albedos of Jovian Trojans, Hildas and Centaurs

Science.gov (United States)

Romanishin, William; Tegler, Stephen C.

2017-10-01

We present distributions of optical V band albedos for samples of outer solar system minor bodies including Centaurs, Jovian Trojans and Hildas. Diameters come almost entirely from the NEOWISE catalog (Mainzer etal 2016- Planetary Data System). Optical photometry (H values) for about 2/3 of the approximately 2700 objects studied are from PanStarrrs (Veres et al 2015 Icarus 261, 34). The PanStarrs optical photometry is supplemented by H values from JPL Horizons (corrected to be on the same photometric system as the PanStarrs data) for the objects in the NEOWISE catalog that are not in the PanStarrs catalog. We compare the albedo distributions of various pairs of subsamples using the nonparametric Wilcoxon rank sum test. Examples of potentially interesting comparisons include: (1) The Hildas are 15-25% darker than the Trojans at a very high level of statistical significance. If the Hildas and Trojans started out with similar surfaces, the Hildas may have darkened due to the effects of gardening as they pass through zone III of the asteroid belt. (2) The median albedo of the gray Centaurs lies between that of the L4 and L5 Trojan groups (3) The median L5 Trojan cloud albedo is about 10% darker than that of the L4 cloud at a high level of significance. However, the modes of the L4 and L5 albedo distributions are very similar, perhaps indicating the presence of a distinct brighter component in the L4 cloud that is not found in the L5 cloud.

The Effects of Surface Properties and Albedo on Methane Retrievals with the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG)

Science.gov (United States)

Ayasse, A.; Thorpe, A. K.; Roberts, D. A.

2017-12-01

Atmospheric methane has increased by a factor of 2.5 since the beginning of the industrial era in response to anthropogenic emissions (Ciais et al., 2013). Although it is less abundant than carbon dioxide it is 86 time more potent on a 20 year time scale (Myhre et al., 2013) and is therefore responsible for about 20% of the total global warming induced by anthropogenic greenhouse gasses (Kirschke et al., 2013). Given the importance of methane to global climate change, monitoring and measuring methane emissions using techniques such as remote sensing is of increasing interest. Recently the Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer - Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) has proven to be a valuable instrument for quantitative mapping of methane plumes (Frankenberg et al., 2016; Thorpe et al., 2016; Thompson et al., 2015). In this study, we applied the Iterative Maximum a Posterior Differential Optical Spectroscopy (IMAP-DOAS) methane retrieval algorithm to a synthetic image with variable methane concentrations, albedo, and land cover. This allowed for characterizing retrieval performance, including potential sensitivity to variable land cover, low albedo surfaces, and surfaces known to cause spurious signals. We conclude that albedo had little influence on the IMAP-DOAS results except at very low radiance levels. Water (without sun glint) was found to be the most challenging surface for methane retrievals while hydrocarbons and some green vegetation also caused error. Understanding the effect of surface properties on methane retrievals is important given the increased use of AVIRIS-NG to map gas plumes over diverse locations and methane sources. This analysis could be expanded to include additional gas species like carbon dioxide and to further investigate gas sensitivity of proposed instruments for dedicated gas mapping from airborne and spaceborne platforms.

The effects of additional black carbon on the albedo of Arctic sea ice: variation with sea ice type and snow cover

OpenAIRE

A. A. Marks; M. D. King

2013-01-01

The response of the albedo of bare sea ice and snow-covered sea ice to the addition of black carbon is calculated. Visible light absorption and light-scattering cross-sections are derived for a typical first-year and multi-year sea ice with both "dry" and "wet" snow types. The cross-sections are derived using data from a 1970s field study that recorded both reflectivity and light penetration in Arctic sea ice and snow overlying sea ice. The variation of absorption cross-section ov...

Kinetic and isotherm studies of bisphenol A adsorption onto orange albedo(Citrus sinensis): Sorption mechanisms based on the main albedo components vitamin C, flavones glycosides and carotenoids.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamgaing, Theophile; Doungmo, Giscard; Melataguia Tchieno, Francis Merlin; Gouoko Kouonang, Jimmy Julio; Mbadcam, Ketcha Joseph

2017-07-03

Orange albedo and its adsorption capacity towards bisphenol A (BPA) were studied. Adsorption experiments were conducted in batch mode at 25-55°C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterise the biosorbent. The effects of various parameters including adsorption time, equilibrium pH, adsorbent dosage and initial adsorbate concentration were investigated. The optimum contact time and pH for the removal of BPA were 60 min and 2, respectively. It was found that the adsorption isotherms best matched the Freundlich model, the adsorption of BPA being multilayer and that of the albedo surface heterogeneous. From the kinetic studies, it was found that the removal of BPA best matched the pseudo-second order kinetic model. An adsorption mechanism based on the albedo surface molecules is proposed and gives a good account of π-π interactions and hydrogen bonding. Orange albedo, with a maximum BPA loading capacity of 82.36 mg g -1 (significantly higher than that of most agricultural residues), is a good candidate for BPA adsorption in aqueous media.

Influence of cloud fraction and snow cover to the variation of surface UV radiation at King Sejong station, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yun Gon; Koo, Ja-Ho; Kim, Jhoon

2015-10-01

This study investigated how cloud fraction and snow cover affect the variation of surface ultraviolet (UV) radiation by using surface Erythemal UV (EUV) and Near UV (NUV) observed at the King Sejong Station, Antarctica. First the Radiative Amplification Factor (RAF), the relative change of surface EUV according to the total-column ozone amount, is compared for different cloud fractions and solar zenith angles (SZAs). Generally, all cloudy conditions show that the increase of RAF as SZA becomes larger, showing the larger effects of vertical columnar ozone. For given SZA cases, the EUV transmission through mean cloud layer gradually decreases as cloud fraction increases, but sometimes the maximum of surface EUV appears under partly cloudy conditions. The high surface EUV transmittance under broken cloud conditions seems due to the re-radiation of scattered EUV by cloud particles. NUV transmission through mean cloud layer also decreases as cloud amount increases but the sensitivity to the cloud fraction is larger than EUV. Both EUV and NUV radiations at the surface are also enhanced by the snow cover, and their enhancement becomes higher as SZA increases implying the diurnal variation of surface albedo. This effect of snow cover seems large under the overcast sky because of the stronger interaction between snow surface and cloudy sky.

Development of a Novel Multispectral Instrument for Handheld and UAS Measurements of Surface Albedo; First Applications for Glaciers in the Peruvian Andes and for Nevada's Black Rock Desert

Science.gov (United States)

Boehmler, J. M.; Stevens, C.; Arnott, W. P.; Watts, A.; All, J.; Schmitt, C. G.

2017-12-01

Accurate atmospheric aerosol characteristics derived from satellite measurements are needed over a variety of land surfaces. Nonhomogeneous and bright surface reflectance across California and Nevada may be a contributing factor in the discrepancies observed between ground based and satellite-retrieved atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD). We developed and deployed a compact and portable instrument to measure albedo to evaluate a major factor that influences the accuracy of AOD retrievals. The instrument will be operated on an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to control areal averaging for comparison with satellite derived albedo from the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). A handheld version of the instrument was mounted on a trekking pole and used for obtaining in situ glacier albedo measurements in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru during the summer of 2017. The instrument weighs approximately 433 g and consists of two parts, a mountable, payload portion (300 g) which houses the sensors, and a handheld screen (133 g) to display real-time data from the payload portion. Both parts are powered by a 9V battery and run on a Teensy 3.6/3.2 microcontroller. To retrieve albedo, two micro-spectrometers manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics, each with a spectral range of 340 -780 nm, are utilized; one for obtaining the downwelling solar radiation and the other for measuring the solar radiation reflected from the surface. Additional components on the instrument include temperature, pressure and humidity sensors with a one second time response; a GPS for position and altitude; an infrared sensor to measure ground temperature; a digital level and compass for orienting the instrument; a camera for taking photos of the sky and surface; a radio for two-way communication between the screen display and sensor payload; and a micro SD card for recording data. We will present the instrument design along with surface albedo measurements for glaciers of the Peruvian

The extreme ultraviolet albedos of the planet Mercury and of the moon

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, H. H.; Broadfoot, A. L.

1977-01-01

The albedo of the moon in the far UV was measured by Mariner 10 at a solar phase angle of 74 deg, and the geometric albedo of Mercury was measured in same wavelength range (584-1657 A) at solar phase angles ranging from 50 to 120 deg. For both the moon and Mercury there is a general increase in albedo for wavelengths decreasing from 1657 to 584 A. The ratio of the albedos of Mercury and the moon increases from about 0.6 to 0.8 in the range 600-1600 A. This merely points to a difference in the surfaces of the moon and Mercury, there being insufficient data to make any conclusions regarding the nature of the difference.

Improving snow albedo processes in WRF/SSiB regional climate model to assess impact of dust and black carbon in snow on surface energy balance and hydrology over western U.S.

OpenAIRE

Oaida, CM; Xue, Y; Flanner, MG; Skiles, SMK; De Sales, F; Painter, TH

2015-01-01

© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Two important factors that control snow albedo are snow grain growth and presence of light-absorbing impurities (aerosols) in snow. However, current regional climate models do not include such processes in a physically based manner in their land surface models. We improve snow albedo calculations in the Simplified Simple Biosphere (SSiB) land surface model coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model (R...

Microgeometry capture and RGB albedo estimation by photometric stereo without demosaicing

Science.gov (United States)

Quéau, Yvain; Pizenberg, Mathieu; Durou, Jean-Denis; Cremers, Daniel

2017-03-01

We present a photometric stereo-based system for retrieving the RGB albedo and the fine-scale details of an opaque surface. In order to limit specularities, the system uses a controllable diffuse illumination, which is calibrated using a dedicated procedure. In addition, we rather handle RAW, non-demosaiced RGB images, which both avoids uncontrolled operations on the sensor data and simplifies the estimation of the albedo in each color channel and of the normals. We finally show on real-world examples the potential of photometric stereo for the 3D-reconstruction of very thin structures from a wide variety of surfaces.

Developing a Validated Long-Term Satellite-Based Albedo Record in the Central Alaska Range to Improve Regional Hydroclimate Reconstructions

Science.gov (United States)

Kreutz, K. J.; Godaire, T. P.; Burakowski, E. A.; Winski, D.; Campbell, S. W.; Wang, Z.; Sun, Q.; Hamilton, G. S.; Birkel, S. D.; Wake, C. P.; Osterberg, E. C.; Schaaf, C.

2015-12-01

Mountain glaciers around the world, particularly in Alaska, are experiencing significant surface mass loss from rapid climatic shifts and constitute a large proportion of the cryosphere's contribution to sea level rise. Surface albedo acts as a primary control on a glacier's mass balance, yet it is difficult to measure and quantify spatially and temporally in steep, mountainous settings. During our 2013 field campaign in Denali National Park to recover two surface to bedrock ice cores, we used an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) FieldSpec4 Standard Resolution spectroradiometer to measure incoming solar radiation, outgoing surface reflectance and optical grain size on the Kahiltna Glacier and at the Kahiltna Base Camp. A Campbell Scientific automatic weather station was installed on Mount Hunter (3900m) in June 2013, complementing a longer-term (2008-present) station installed at Kahiltna Base Camp (2100m). Use of our in situ data aids in the validation of surface albedo values derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat satellite imagery. Comparisons are made between ASD FieldSpec4 ground measurements and 500m MODIS imagery to assess the ability of MODIS to capture the variability of surface albedo across the glacier surface. The MODIS MCD43A3 BRDF/Albedo Product performs well at Kahiltna Base Camp (albedo (10-28% relative to ASD data) appear to occur along the Kahiltna Glacier due to the snow-free valley walls being captured in the 500m MODIS footprint. Incorporating Landsat imagery will strengthen our interpretations and has the potential to produce a long-term (1982-present) validated satellite albedo record for steep and mountainous terrain. Once validation is complete, we will compare the satellite-derived albedo record to the Denali ice core accumulation rate, aerosol records (i.e. volcanics and biomass burning), and glacier mass balance data. This research will ultimately contribute to an improved understanding of the

The influence of inter-annually varying albedo on regional climate and drought

KAUST Repository

Meng, Xianhong

2013-05-05

strengthening of the second mechanism. That is, the second mechanism is stronger in a drought year compared to a normal year and this difference is larger than for the first mechanism. When both mechanisms are active, the second mechanism tends to dominate across the model domain, particularly during the 2002 drought period. The introduction of observed inter-annual variations in albedo produces an enhancement of the first mechanism and a weakening of the second mechanism during the onset of the drought. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A new albedo parameterization for use in climate models over the Antarctic ice sheet

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuipers Munneke, P.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304831891; van den Broeke, M.R.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/073765643; Lenaerts, J.T.M.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/314850163; Flanner, M.G.; Gardner, A.S.; van de Berg, W.J.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304831611

2011-01-01

A parameterization for broadband snow surface albedo, based on snow grain size evolution, cloud optical thickness, and solar zenith angle, is implemented into a regional climate model for Antarctica and validated against field observations of albedo for the period 1995–2004. Over the Antarctic

Accurate top of the atmosphere albedo determination from multiple views of the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) instrument

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Borel, C.C.; Gerstl, S.A.W. [Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); Tornow, C. [German Aerospace Research Establishment, Berlin (Germany)

1996-05-01

Changes in the Earth`s surface albedo impact the atmospheric and global energy budget and contribute to the global climate change. It is now recognized that multispectral and multiangular views of the Earth`s top of the atmosphere (TOA) albedo are necessary to provide information on albedo changes. In this paper we describe four semi- empirical bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) models which are inverted for two and three unknowns. The retrieved BRF parameters are then used to compute the TOA spectral albedo for clear sky conditions. Using this approach we find that the albedo can be computed with better than one percent error in the visible and one and a half percent in the near infrared (NIR) for most surface types. Global monitoring of the earth radiation budget is one of the main goals in global change research programs. Thus global measurements of the TOA albedo are important. Our goals is to compute the TOA spectral albedo for clear sky conditions.

Decomposing Shortwave Top-of-Atmosphere Radiative Flux Variability in Terms of Surface and Atmospheric Contributions Using CERES Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Loeb, N. G.; Wong, T.; Wang, H.

2017-12-01

Earth's climate is determined by the exchange of radiant energy between the Sun, Earth and space. The absorbed solar radiation (ASR) fuels the climate system, providing the energy required for atmospheric and oceanic motions, while the system cools by emitting outgoing longwave (LW) radiation to space. A central objective of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is to produce a long-term global climate data record of Earth's radiation budget along with the associated atmospheric and surface properties that influence it. CERES data products utilize a number of data sources, including broadband radiometers measuring incoming and reflected solar radiation and OLR, polar orbiting and geostationary spectral imagers, meteorological, aerosol and ozone assimilation data, and snow/sea-ice maps based on microwave radiometer data. Here we use simple diagnostic model of Earth's albedo and CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Ed4.0 data for March 2000-February 2016 to quantify interannual variations in SW TOA flux associated with surface albedo and atmospheric reflectance and transmittance variations. Surface albedo variations account for cloud properties over the Arctic Ocean.

Decreased surface albedo driven by denser vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian, Li; Zhang, Yangjian; Zhu, Juntao

2014-01-01

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has fundamental ecological and environmental significance to China and Asia through its influence on regional and continental climates. In recent years, climate warming has caused unprecedented changes to land surface processes on the TP, which would unavoidably undermine the ecological and environmental functions of the TP. Among the numerous land surface processes potentially impacted by climate warming, the effect of vegetation greenness on surface energy balance is one of the most critical, but has been long ignored. In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal patterns of land surface albedo (LSA) on the TP and evaluated the vegetation greenness in relation to patterns of LSA. We found that LSA has been decreasing in most of the vegetated grasslands on the TP from 2000 to 2013, as compared to a flat trend for desert area. The regions where LSA has been decreasing were spatially correlated to areas of increased vegetation greenness. Along rising altitude, LSA decreasing rate exhibited an overall decreasing trend. Across the TP, elevated vegetation greenness in grasslands acted as a primary factor pulling down LSA. The driving effects of vegetation greenness on LSA vary with grassland types, as revealed by a more significant relationship between vegetation greenness and LSA for the sparsely vegetated zone (i.e. steppe) than the more densely vegetated zone (i.e. meadow). Furthermore, the driving effect of vegetation greenness on LSA exhibited an obvious dependence on altitude as effects with rising altitude were relatively strong up to 3000 m, then weakened from 3500 m to 5000 m, and then the effects again increased from 5000 to 6000 m. The growing season LSA trend revealed in this study emphasizes the need to give greater attention to the growing season LSA flux in future surface energy balance studies. (letter)

Spatio-temporal Variability of Albedo and its Impact on Glacier Melt Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Kinnard, C.; Mendoza, C.; Abermann, J.; Petlicki, M.; MacDonell, S.; Urrutia, R.

2017-12-01

Albedo is an important variable for the surface energy balance of glaciers, yet its representation within distributed glacier mass-balance models is often greatly simplified. Here we study the spatio-temporal evolution of albedo on Glacier Universidad, central Chile (34°S, 70°W), using time-lapse terrestrial photography, and investigate its effect on the shortwave radiation balance and modelled melt rates. A 12 megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera was setup overlooking the glacier and programmed to take three daily images of the glacier during a two-year period (2012-2014). One image was chosen for each day with no cloud shading on the glacier. The RAW images were projected onto a 10m resolution digital elevation model (DEM), using the IMGRAFT software (Messerli and Grinsted, 2015). A six-parameter camera model was calibrated using a single image and a set of 17 ground control points (GCPs), yielding a georeferencing accuracy of accounting for possible camera movement over time. The reflectance values from the projected image were corrected for topographic and atmospheric influences using a parametric solar irradiation model, following a modified algorithm based on Corripio (2004), and then converted to albedo using reference albedo measurements from an on-glacier automatic weather station (AWS). The image-based albedo was found to compare well with independent albedo observations from a second AWS in the glacier accumulation area. Analysis of the albedo maps showed that the albedo is more spatially-variable than the incoming solar radiation, making albedo a more important factor of energy balance spatial variability. The incorporation of albedo maps within an enhanced temperature index melt model revealed that the spatio-temporal variability of albedo is an important factor for the calculation of glacier-wide meltwater fluxes.

Modeling Earth Albedo Currents on Sun Sensors for Improved Vector Observations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bhanderi, Dan

2006-01-01

Earth albedo influences vector measurements of the solar line of sight vector, due to the induced current on in the photo voltaics of Sun sensors. Although advanced digital Sun sensors exist, these are typically expensive and may not be suited for satellites in the nano or pico-class. Previously...... an Earth albedo model, based on reflectivity data from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer project, has been published. In this paper the proposed model is presented, and the model is sought validated by comparing simulated data with telemetry from the Danish Ørsted satellite. A novel method...... for modeling Sun sensor output by incorporating the Earth albedo model is presented. This model utilizes the directional information of in the Earth albedo model, which is achieved by Earth surface partitioning. This allows accurate simulation of the Sun sensor output and the results are consistent with Ørsted...

Stochastic dynamics of melt ponds and sea ice-albedo climate feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Sudakov, Ivan

Evolution of melt ponds on the Arctic sea surface is a complicated stochastic process. We suggest a low-order model with ice-albedo feedback which describes stochastic dynamics of melt ponds geometrical characteristics. The model is a stochastic dynamical system model of energy balance in the climate system. We describe the equilibria in this model. We conclude the transition in fractal dimension of melt ponds affects the shape of the sea ice albedo curve.

Seasonal Variations of the Surface Urban Heat Island in a Semi-Arid City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sirous Haashemi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The process of the surface urban heat island (SUHI varies with latitude, climate, topography and meteorological conditions. This study investigated the seasonal variability of SUHI in the Tehran metropolitan area, Iran, with respect to selected surface biophysical variables. Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST was retrieved as nighttime LST data, while daytime LST was retrieved from Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS using the split-window algorithm. Both data covered the time period from September 2013 to September 2015. To assess SUHI intensity, we employed three SUHI indicators, i.e., the LST difference of urban-rural, that of urban-agriculture and that of urban-water. Physical and biophysical surface variables, including land use and land cover (LULC, elevation, impervious surface (IS, fractional vegetation cover (FVC and albedo, were selected to estimate the relationship between LST seasonal variability and the surface properties. Results show that an inversion of the SUHI phenomenon (i.e., surface urban cool island existed at daytime with the maximal value of urban-rural LST difference of −4 K in March; whereas the maximal value of SUHI at nighttime yielded 3.9 K in May. When using the indicators of urban-agriculture and urban-water LST differences, the maximal value of SUHI was found to be 8.2 K and 15.5 K, respectively. Both results were observed at daytime, suggesting the role of bare soils in the inversion of the SUHI phenomenon with the urban-rural indicator. Maximal correlation was observed in the relationship between night LST and elevation in spring (coefficient: −0.76, night LST and IS in spring (0.60, night LST and albedo in winter (−0.53 and day LST with fractional vegetation cover in summer (−0.41. The relationship between all surface properties with LST possessed large seasonal variations, and thus, using these relationships for SUHI modeling may not be

SAI/EPRI Albedo Information Library

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, G.L.

1979-03-01

The SAI/EPRI Albedo Information Library (SAIL) is described. This description included the techniques used to develop the data and comparisons with albedo data. Albedo data are presented for Type 04 Concrete and Low Carbon Steel, the most common materials encountered in radiation streaming analysis. Applications of the SAIL data are presented and compared with experimental results

Quantifying the missing link between forest albedo and productivity in the boreal zone

Science.gov (United States)

Hovi, Aarne; Liang, Jingjing; Korhonen, Lauri; Kobayashi, Hideki; Rautiainen, Miina

2016-11-01

Albedo and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) determine the shortwave radiation balance and productivity of forests. Currently, the physical link between forest albedo and productivity is poorly understood, yet it is crucial for designing optimal forest management strategies for mitigating climate change. We investigated the relationships between boreal forest structure, albedo and FAPAR using a radiative transfer model called Forest Reflectance and Transmittance model FRT and extensive forest inventory data sets ranging from southern boreal forests to the northern tree line in Finland and Alaska (N = 1086 plots). The forests in the study areas vary widely in structure, species composition, and human interference, from intensively managed in Finland to natural growth in Alaska. We show that FAPAR of tree canopies (FAPARCAN) and albedo are tightly linked in boreal coniferous forests, but the relationship is weaker if the forest has broadleaved admixture, or if canopies have low leaf area and the composition of forest floor varies. Furthermore, the functional shape of the relationship between albedo and FAPARCAN depends on the angular distribution of incoming solar irradiance. We also show that forest floor can contribute to over 50 % of albedo or total ecosystem FAPAR. Based on our simulations, forest albedos can vary notably across the biome. Because of larger proportions of broadleaved trees, the studied plots in Alaska had higher albedo (0.141-0.184) than those in Finland (0.136-0.171) even though the albedo of pure coniferous forests was lower in Alaska. Our results reveal that variation in solar angle will need to be accounted for when evaluating climate effects of forest management in different latitudes. Furthermore, increasing the proportion of broadleaved trees in coniferous forests is the most important means of maximizing albedo without compromising productivity: based on our findings the potential of controlling forest

Growing season carries stronger contributions to albedo dynamics on the Tibetan plateau.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Li; Chen, Jiquan; Zhang, Yangjian

2017-01-01

The Tibetan Plateau has experienced higher-than-global-average climate warming in recent decades, resulting in many significant changes in ecosystem structure and function. Among them is albedo, which bridges the causes and consequences of land surface processes and climate. The plateau is covered by snow/ice and vegetation in the non-growing season (nGS) and growing season (GS), respectively. Based on the MODIS products, we investigated snow/ice cover and vegetation greenness in relation to the spatiotemporal changes of albedo on the Tibetan Plateau from 2000 through 2013. A synchronous relationship was found between the change in GSNDVI and GSalbedo over time and across the Tibetan landscapes. We found that the annual average albedo had a decreasing trend, but that the albedo had slightly increased during the nGS and decreased during the GS. Across the landscapes, the nGSalbedo fluctuated in a synchronous pattern with snow/ice cover. Temporally, monthly snow/ice coverage also had a high correspondence with albedo, except in April and October. We detected clear dependencies of albedo on elevation. With the rise in altitude, the nGSalbedo decreased below 4000 m, but increased for elevations of 4500-5500 m. Above 5500 m, the nGSalbedo decreased, which was in accordance with the decreased amount of snow/ice coverage and the increased soil moisture on the plateau. More importantly, the decreasing albedo in the most recent decade appeared to be caused primarily by lowered growing season albedo.

Growing season carries stronger contributions to albedo dynamics on the Tibetan plateau.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Tian

Full Text Available The Tibetan Plateau has experienced higher-than-global-average climate warming in recent decades, resulting in many significant changes in ecosystem structure and function. Among them is albedo, which bridges the causes and consequences of land surface processes and climate. The plateau is covered by snow/ice and vegetation in the non-growing season (nGS and growing season (GS, respectively. Based on the MODIS products, we investigated snow/ice cover and vegetation greenness in relation to the spatiotemporal changes of albedo on the Tibetan Plateau from 2000 through 2013. A synchronous relationship was found between the change in GSNDVI and GSalbedo over time and across the Tibetan landscapes. We found that the annual average albedo had a decreasing trend, but that the albedo had slightly increased during the nGS and decreased during the GS. Across the landscapes, the nGSalbedo fluctuated in a synchronous pattern with snow/ice cover. Temporally, monthly snow/ice coverage also had a high correspondence with albedo, except in April and October. We detected clear dependencies of albedo on elevation. With the rise in altitude, the nGSalbedo decreased below 4000 m, but increased for elevations of 4500-5500 m. Above 5500 m, the nGSalbedo decreased, which was in accordance with the decreased amount of snow/ice coverage and the increased soil moisture on the plateau. More importantly, the decreasing albedo in the most recent decade appeared to be caused primarily by lowered growing season albedo.

Understanding the drivers of post-fire albedo and radiative forcing across Alaska and Canada: implications for management.

Science.gov (United States)

Potter, S.; Solvik, K.; Erb, A.; Goetz, S. J.; Johnstone, J. F.; Mack, M. C.; Randerson, J. T.; Roman, M. O.; Schaaf, C. L.; Turetsky, M. R.; Veraverbeke, S.; Wang, Z.; Rogers, B. M.

2017-12-01

Boreal forest dynamics including succession, composition, carbon cycling, and surface-atmosphere energy exchanges are largely driven by fire. In Alaska and Canada, burned area and fire frequency have increased since the 1970s, and are projected to continue increasing into the 21st century. In contrast to other biomes, alterations to surface albedo from fires in North American boreal forests are one of the primary feedbacks to climate. Understanding how altered fire regimes impact vegetation composition and energy budgets is therefore critical to forecasting regional and global climate change. High-severity fires cause winter and spring albedo to increase due to increased snow exposure and replacement of evergreen conifers by deciduous broadleaf trees. Although summer albedo decreases initially due to the deposition of black carbon and charred surfaces, it typically increases for several decades thereafter when younger and brighter deciduous trees dominate. The net effect of these albedo changes is expected to result in substantive radiative cooling, but there has been little research to examine how albedo trajectories differ spatially and temporally as a result of differences in burn severity, species composition, topography, climate and soil properties, and what the associated implications for future energy balances are. Here we investigate drivers of post-fire monthly albedo trajectories across Canada and Alaska using a new Collection V006 500 m MODIS daily blue-sky albedo product and historical fires from the Canadian and Alaskan National Fire Databases. The impacts of varying fuel type, landscape position, soils, climate, and burn severity on monthly albedo trajectories are explored using a Random Forest model. This information is then used to predict long-term monthly albedo and radiative forcing for fires that occurred during the MODIS era (2001-2012). We find that higher severity burns in denser forests and environmental conditions that promote either

Snow driven Radiative Forcing in High Latitude Areas of Disturbance Using Higher Resolution Albedo Products from Landsat and Sentinel-2

Science.gov (United States)

Erb, A.; Li, Z.; Schaaf, C.; Wang, Z.; Rogers, B. M.

2017-12-01

Land surface albedo plays an important role in the surface energy budget and radiative forcing by determining the proportion of absorbed incoming solar radiation available to drive photosynthesis and surface heating. In Arctic regions, albedo is particularly sensitive to land cover and land use change (LCLUC) and modeling efforts have shown it to be the primary driver of effective radiative forcing from the biogeophysical effects of LCLUC. In boreal forests, the effects of these changes are complicated during snow covered periods when newly exposed, highly reflective snow can serve as the primary driver of radiative forcing. In Arctic biomes disturbance scars from fire, pest and harvest can remain in the landscape for long periods of time. As such, understanding the magnitude and persistence of these disturbances, especially in the shoulder seasons, is critical. The Landsat and Sentinel-2 Albedo Products couple 30m and 20m surface reflectances with concurrent 500m BRDF Products from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The 12 bit radiometric fidelity of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 allow for the inclusion of high-quality, unsaturated albedo calculations over snow covered surfaces at scales more compatible with fragmented landscapes. Recent work on the early spring albedo of fire scars has illustrated significant post-fire spatial heterogeneity of burn severity at the landscape scale and highlights the need for a finer spatial resolution albedo record. The increased temporal resolution provided by multiple satellite instruments also allows for a better understanding of albedo dynamics during the dynamic shoulder seasons and in historically difficult high latitude locations where persistent cloud cover limits high quality retrievals. Here we present how changes in the early spring albedo of recent boreal forest disturbance in Alaska and central Canada affects landscape-scale radiative forcing. We take advantage of the long historical Landsat record

EVALUATION OF THE MAIN CEOS PSEUDO CALIBRATION SITES USING MODIS BRDF/ALBEDO PRODUCTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Kharbouche

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This work describes our findings about an evaluation of the stability and the consistency of twenty primary PICSs (Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites. We present an analysis of 13 years of 8-daily MODIS products of BRDF parameters and white-sky-albedos (WSA over the shortwave band. This time series of WSA and BRDFs shows the variation of the “stability” varies significantly from site to site. Using a 10x10 km window size over all the sites, the change in of WSA stability is around 4% but the isotropicity, which is an important element in inter-satellite calibration, can vary from 75% to 98%. Moreover, some PICS, especially, Libya-4 which is one of the PICS which is most employed, has significant and relatively fast changes in wintertime. PICS observations of BRDF/albedo shows that the Libya-4 PICS has the best performance but it is not too far from some sites such as Libya-1 and Mali. This study also reveals that Niger-3 PICS has the longest continuous period of high stability per year, and Sudan has the most isotropic surface. These observations have important implications for the use of these sites.

Albedo of a hybrid poplar plantation in central Alberta, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Price, D. T.; Bernier, P. Y.; Orchansky, A.; Thomas, B.

2012-04-01

Canada's boreal forest resources are coming under increasing pressure from competing land-uses, including establishment of protected areas, and losses of harvestable forest to mining and oil and gas exploration. In the prairie region, concerns about lack of wood supply for pulpmills and potential opportunities for bioenergy production and carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation, have spurred interest in afforestation of marginal agricultural land, notably with fast-growing hybrid poplars (HP). However, global modelling studies suggest that a shift from grassland or crops to forest cover in temperate and boreal regions could result in reduced surface albedo, particularly in winter, causing an increase in radiative forcing and reducing any climate mitigation benefits due to net GHG removal. We report on seven growing seasons of measurements of short-wave canopy albedo using tower-mounted instruments, along with eddy covariance measurements of carbon, water and energy balance, at a site in central Alberta planted with HP cuttings in spring 2005. The data show little systematic change in average albedo as vegetation has changed from bare ground to a plantation of 6 m trees. Reasons for this include very wide (3 m) spacing between the trees, and snow cover which often persists for 4-5 months and is highly visible below the bare canopies during winter. While measurements should continue as the trees grow larger, we postulate that extensive afforestation with HP is unlikely to have major effects on regional-scale surface albedo compared to the agricultural systems they replace. Normal rotation lengths are 15-20 years, hence even if older plantations have significantly lower winter albedo, their contribution to the regional average would be relatively small because they will cover only a small fraction of the landscape (e.g., compared to forests of boreal conifers or temperate broadleaved species).

Relating black carbon content to reduction of snow albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Brandt, R. E.; Warren, S. G.; Clarke, A. D.

2011-12-01

In remote snow of the Northern Hemisphere, the levels of soot pollution are in the parts-per-billion (ppb) range, where the effect on albedo is at the level of a few percent. A reduction of albedo by 1-2% is significant for climate but is difficult to detect experimentally, because snow albedo depends on several other variables. In our work to quantify the climatic effect of black carbon (BC) in snow, we therefore do not directly measure the albedo reduction. Instead, we use a two-step procedure: (1) We collect snow samples, melt and filter them, and analyze the filters spectrophotometrically for BC concentration. (2) We use the BC amount from the filter measurement, together with snow grain size, in a radiative transfer model to compute the albedo reduction. Our radiative transfer model uses the discrete ordinates algorithm DISORT 2.0. We have chosen a representative BC size distribution and optical constants, and have incorporated those of mineral dust as well. While a given mass of BC causes over an order of magnitude more snow albedo reduction compared to dust, a snowpack containing dust mutes the albedo-reducing effect of BC. Because the computed reduction of snow albedo is model-based, it requires experimental verification. We doubt that direct measurement of albedo-reduction will be feasible in nature, because of the vertical variation of both snow grain size and soot content, and because the natural soot content is small. We conclude that what is needed is an artificial snowpack, with uniform grain size and large uniform soot content (ppm not ppb), to produce a large signal on albedo. We have chosen to pursue this experiment outdoors rather than in the laboratory, for the following reasons: (1) The snowpack in the field of view is uniformly illuminated if the source of radiation is the Sun. (2) Visible radiation penetrates into the snow, so photons emerge horizontally distant from where they entered. In the limited width of a laboratory snowpack, radiation

Impacts of Synoptic Weather Patterns on Snow Albedo at Sites in New England

Science.gov (United States)

Adolph, A. C.; Albert, M. R.; Lazarcik, J.; Dibb, J. E.; Amante, J.; Price, A. N.

2015-12-01

Winter snow in the northeastern United States has changed over the last several decades, resulting in shallower snow packs, fewer days of snow cover and increasing precipitation falling as rain in the winter. In addition to these changes which cause reductions in surface albedo, increasing winter temperatures also lead to more rapid snow grain growth, resulting in decreased snow reflectivity. We present in-situ measurements and analyses to test the sensitivity of seasonal snow albedo to varying weather conditions at sites in New England. In particular, we investigate the impact of temperature on snow albedo through melt and grain growth, the impact of precipitation event frequency on albedo through snow "freshening," and the impact of storm path on snow structure and snow albedo. Over three winter seasons between 2013 and 2015, in-situ snow characterization measurements were made at three non-forested sites across New Hampshire. These near-daily measurements include spectrally resolved albedo, snow optical grain size determined through contact spectroscopy, snow depth, snow density and local meteorological parameters. Combining this information with storm tracks derived from HYSPLIT modeling, we quantify the current sensitivity of northeastern US snow albedo to temperature as well as precipitation type, frequency and path. Our analysis shows that southerly winter storms result in snow with a significantly lower albedo than storms which come from across the continental US or the Atlantic Ocean. Interannual variability in temperature and statewide spatial variability in snowfall rates at our sites show the relative importance of snowfall amount and temperatures in albedo evolution over the course of the winter.

Changes in summer sea ice, albedo, and portioning of surface solar radiation in the Pacific sector of Arctic Ocean during 1982-2009

OpenAIRE

Lei, Ruibo; Tian-Kunze, Xiangshan; Leppäranta, Matti; Wang, Jia; Kaleschke, Lars; Zhang, Zhanhai

2016-01-01

SSM/I sea ice concentration and CLARA black-sky composite albedo were used to estimate sea ice albedo in the region 70 degrees N-82 degrees N, 130 degrees W-180 degrees W. The long-term trends and seasonal evolutions of ice concentration, composite albedo, and ice albedo were then obtained. In July-August 1982-2009, the linear trend of the composite albedo and the ice albedo was -0.069 and -0.046 units per decade, respectively. During 1 June to 19 August, melting of sea ice resulted in an inc...

Albedo and color maps of the Saturnian satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buratti, B.J.; Mosher, J.A.; Johnson, T.V.

1990-01-01

The paper discusses the production of maps of the albedos and colors of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea over the full range of their imaged surfaces. Voyager images were used to prepare maps of the normal reflectances and color ratios (0.58/0.41 micron) of these satelites. 67 refs

Albedo enhancement over land to counteract global warming: impacts on hydrological cycle

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bala, Govindasamy; Nag, Bappaditya [Indian Institute of Science, Divecha Center for Climate Change and Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Bangalore (India)

2012-09-15

A recent modelling study has shown that precipitation and runoff over land would increase when the reflectivity of marine clouds is increased to counter global warming. This implies that large scale albedo enhancement over land could lead to a decrease in runoff over land. In this study, we perform simulations using NCAR CAM3.1 that have implications for Solar Radiation Management geoengineering schemes that increase the albedo over land. We find that an increase in reflectivity over land that mitigates the global mean warming from a doubling of CO{sub 2} leads to a large residual warming in the southern hemisphere and cooling in the northern hemisphere since most of the land is located in northern hemisphere. Precipitation and runoff over land decrease by 13.4 and 22.3%, respectively, because of a large residual sinking motion over land triggered by albedo enhancement over land. Soil water content also declines when albedo over land is enhanced. The simulated magnitude of hydrological changes over land are much larger when compared to changes over oceans in the recent marine cloud albedo enhancement study since the radiative forcing over land needed (-8.2 W m{sup -2}) to counter global mean radiative forcing from a doubling of CO{sub 2} (3.3 W m{sup -2}) is approximately twice the forcing needed over the oceans (-4.2 W m{sup -2}). Our results imply that albedo enhancement over oceans produce climates closer to the unperturbed climate state than do albedo changes on land when the consequences on land hydrology are considered. Our study also has important implications for any intentional or unintentional large scale changes in land surface albedo such as deforestation/afforestation/reforestation, air pollution, and desert and urban albedo modification. (orig.)

Distinguishing the albedo of exoplanets from stellar activity

Science.gov (United States)

Serrano, L. M.; Barros, S. C. C.; Oshagh, M.; Santos, N. C.; Faria, J. P.; Demangeon, O.; Sousa, S. G.; Lendl, M.

2018-03-01

Context. Light curves show the flux variation from the target star and its orbiting planets as a function of time. In addition to the transit features created by the planets, the flux also includes the reflected light component of each planet, which depends on the planetary albedo. This signal is typically referred to as phase curve and could be easily identified if there were no additional noise. As well as instrumental noise, stellar activity, such as spots, can create a modulation in the data, which may be very difficult to distinguish from the planetary signal. Aims: We analyze the limitations imposed by the stellar activity on the detection of the planetary albedo, considering the limitations imposed by the predicted level of instrumental noise and the short duration of the obervations planned in the context of the CHEOPS mission. Methods: As initial condition, we have assumed that each star is characterized by just one orbiting planet. We built mock light curves that included a realistic stellar activity pattern, the reflected light component of the planet and an instrumental noise level, which we have chosen to be at the same level as predicted for CHEOPS. We then fit these light curves to try to recover the reflected light component, assuming the activity patterns can be modeled with a Gaussian process. Results: We estimate that at least one full stellar rotation is necessary to obtain a reliable detection of the planetary albedo. This result is independent of the level of noise, but it depends on the limitation of the Gaussian process to describe the stellar activity when the light curve time-span is shorter than the stellar rotation. As an additional result, we found that with a 6.5 magnitude star and the noise level of CHEOPS, it is possible to detect the planetary albedo up to a lower limit of Rp = 0.03 R*. Finally, in presence of typical CHEOPS gaps in the simulations, we confirm that it is still possible to obtain a reliable albedo.

Measurement of spectral sea ice albedo at Qaanaaq fjord in northwest Greenland

Science.gov (United States)

Tanikawa, T.

2017-12-01

The spectral albedos of sea ice were measured at Qaanaaq fjord in northwest Greenland. Spectral measurements were conducted for sea ice covered with snow and sea ice without snow where snow was artificially removed around measurement point. Thickness of the sea ice was approximately 1.3 m with 5 cm of snow over the sea ice. The measurements show that the spectral albedos of the sea ice with snow were lower than those of natural pure snow especially in the visible regions though the spectral shapes were similar to each other. This is because the spectral albedos in the visible region have information of not only the snow but also the sea ice under the snow. The spectral albedos of the sea ice without the snow were approximately 0.4 - 0.5 in the visible region, 0.05-0.25 in the near-infrared region and almost constant of approximately 0.05 in the region of 1500 - 2500 nm. In the visible region, it would be due to multiple scattering by an air bubble within the sea ice. In contrast, in the near-infrared and shortwave infrared wavelengths, surface reflection at the sea ice surface would be dominant. Since a light absorption by the ice in these regions is relatively strong comparing to the visible region, the light could not be penetrated deeply within the sea ice, resulting that surface reflection based on Fresnel reflection would be dominant. In this presentation we also show the results of comparison between the radiative transfer calculation and spectral measurement data.

Combining NLCD and MODIS to create a land cover-albedo database for the continental United States

Science.gov (United States)

Wickham, J.; Barnes, Christopher A.; Nash, M.S.; Wade, T.G.

2015-01-01

Land surface albedo is an essential climate variable that is tightly linked to land cover, such that specific land cover classes (e.g., deciduous broadleaf forest, cropland) have characteristic albedos. Despite the normative of land-cover class specific albedos, there is considerable variability in albedo within a land cover class. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedo product were combined to produce a long-term (14 years) integrated land cover-albedo database for the continental United States that can be used to examine the temporal behavior of albedo as a function of land cover. The integration identifies areas of homogeneous land cover at the nominal spatial resolution of the MODIS (MCD43A) albedo product (500 m × 500 m) from the NLCD product (30 m × 30 m), and provides an albedo data record per 500 m × 500 m pixel for 14 of the 16 NLCD land cover classes. Individual homogeneous land cover pixels have up to 605 albedo observations, and 75% of the pixels have at least 319 MODIS albedo observations (≥ 50% of the maximum possible number of observations) for the study period (2000–2013). We demonstrated the utility of the database by conducting a multivariate analysis of variance of albedo for each NLCD land cover class, showing that locational (pixel-to-pixel) and inter-annual variability were significant factors in addition to expected seasonal (intra-annual) and geographic (latitudinal) effects.

Effect of surface albedo, water vapour, and atmospheric aerosols on the cloud-free shortwave radiative budget in the Arctic

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Di Biagio, C. [ENEA, Laboratory for Earth Observations and Analyses, Rome (Italy); University of Siena, Department of Earth Science, Siena (Italy); Di Sarra, A. [ENEA, Laboratory for Earth Observations and Analyses, Rome (Italy); Eriksen, P. [Danish Climate Centre, DMI, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen (Denmark); Ascanius, S.E. [DMI, Danish Meteorological Institute, Qaanaaq (Greenland); Muscari, G. [INGV, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome (Italy); Holben, B. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)

2012-08-15

This study is based on ground-based measurements of downward surface shortwave irradiance (SW), columnar water vapour (wv), and aerosol optical depth ({tau}) obtained at Thule Air Base (Greenland) in 2007-2010, together with MODIS observations of the surface shortwave albedo (A). Radiative transfer model calculations are used in combination with measurements to separate the radiative effect of A ({Delta}SW{sub A}), wv ({Delta}SW{sub wv}), and aerosols ({Delta}SW{sub {tau}}) in modulating SW in cloud-free conditions. The shortwave radiation at the surface is mainly affected by water vapour absorption, which produces a reduction of SW as low as -100 Wm{sup -2} (-18%). The seasonal change of A produces an increase of SW by up to +25 Wm{sup -2} (+4.5%). The annual mean radiative effect is estimated to be -(21-22) Wm{sup -2} for wv, and +(2-3) Wm{sup -2} for A. An increase by +0.065 cm in the annual mean wv, to which corresponds an absolute increase in {Delta}SW{sub wv} by 0.93 Wm{sup -2} (4.3%), has been observed to occur between 2007 and 2010. In the same period, the annual mean A has decreased by -0.027, with a corresponding decrease in {Delta}SW{sub A} by 0.41 Wm{sup -2} (-14.9%). Atmospheric aerosols produce a reduction of SW as low as -32 Wm{sup -2} (-6.7%). The instantaneous aerosol radiative forcing (RF{sub {tau}}) reaches values of -28 Wm{sup -2} and shows a strong dependency on surface albedo. The derived radiative forcing efficiency (FE{sub {tau}}) for solar zenith angles between 55 and 70 is estimated to be (-120.6 {+-} 4.3) for 0.1 < A < 0.2, and (-41.2 {+-} 1.6) Wm{sup -2} for 0.5 < A < 0.6. (orig.)

Glacier albedo decrease in the European Alps: potential causes and links with mass balances

Science.gov (United States)

Di Mauro, Biagio; Julitta, Tommaso; Colombo, Roberto

2016-04-01

Both mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets are losing mass all over the Earth. They are highly sensitive to climate variation, and the widespread reduction of glaciers has been ascribed to the atmospheric temperature increase. Beside this driver, also ice albedo plays a fundamental role in defining mass balance of glaciers. In fact, dark ice absorbs more energy causing faster glacier melting, and this can drive to more negative balances. Previous studies showed that the albedo of Himalayan glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet is decreasing with important rates. In this contribution, we tested the hypothesis that also glaciers in the European Alps are getting darker. We analyzed 16-year time series of MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer) snow albedo from Terra (MOD13A1, 2000-2015) and Aqua (MYD13A1, 2002-2015) satellites. These data feature a spatial resolution of 500m and a daily temporal resolution. We evaluated the existence of a negative linear and nonlinear trend of the summer albedo values both at pixel and at glacier level. We also calculated the correlation between MODIS summer albedo and glacier mass balances (from the World Glaciological Monitoring Service, WGMS database), for all the glaciers with available mass balance during the considered period. In order to estimate the percentage of the summer albedo that can be explained by atmospheric temperature, we correlated MODIS albedo and monthly air temperature extracted from the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset. Results show that decreasing trends exist with a strong spatial variability in the whole Alpine chain. In large glaciers, such as the Aletch (Swiss Alps), the trend varies significantly also within the glacier, showing that the trend is higher in the area across the accumulation and ablation zone. Over the 17 glaciers with mass balance available in the WGMS data set, 11 gave significant relationship with the MODIS summer albedo. Moreover, the comparison between ERA-Interim temperature

The effect of a dynamic background albedo scheme on Sahel/Sahara precipitation during the mid-Holocene

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. S. E. Vamborg

2011-02-01

Full Text Available We have implemented a new albedo scheme that takes the dynamic behaviour of the surface below the canopy into account, into the land-surface scheme of the MPI-ESM. The standard (static scheme calculates the seasonal canopy albedo as a function of leaf area index, whereas the background albedo is a gridbox constant derived from satellite measurements. The new (dynamic scheme additionally models the background albedo as a slowly changing function of organic matter in the ground and of litter and standing dead biomass covering the ground. We use the two schemes to investigate the interactions between vegetation, albedo and precipitation in the Sahel/Sahara for two time-slices: pre-industrial and mid-Holocene. The dynamic scheme represents the seasonal cycle of albedo and the correspondence between annual mean albedo and vegetation cover in a more consistent way than the static scheme. It thus gives a better estimate of albedo change between the two time periods. With the introduction of the dynamic scheme, precipitation is increased by 30 mm yr⁻¹ for the pre-industrial simulation and by about 80 mm yr⁻¹ for the mid-Holocene simulation. The present-day dry bias in the Sahel of standard ECHAM5 is thus reduced and the sensitivity of precipitation to mid-Holocene external forcing is increased by around one third. The locations of mid-Holocene lakes, as estimated from reconstructions, lie south of the modelled desert border in both mid-Holocene simulations. The magnitude of simulated rainfall in this area is too low to fully sustain lakes, however it is captured better with the dynamic scheme. The dynamic scheme leads to increased vegetation variability in the remaining desert region, indicating a higher frequency of green spells, thus reaching a better agreement with the vegetation distribution as derived from pollen records.

Simulated cold bias being improved by using MODIS time-varying albedo in the Tibetan Plateau in WRF model

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, X.; Lyu, S.; Zhang, T.; Zhao, L.; Li, Z.; Han, B.; Li, S.; Ma, D.; Chen, H.; Ao, Y.; Luo, S.; Shen, Y.; Guo, J.; Wen, L.

2018-04-01

Systematic cold biases exist in the simulation for 2 m air temperature in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) when using regional climate models and global atmospheric general circulation models. We updated the albedo in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model lower boundary condition using the Global LAnd Surface Satellite Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer albedo products and demonstrated evident improvement for cold temperature biases in the TP. It is the large overestimation of albedo in winter and spring in the WRF model that resulted in the large cold temperature biases. The overestimated albedo was caused by the simulated precipitation biases and over-parameterization of snow albedo. Furthermore, light-absorbing aerosols can result in a large reduction of albedo in snow and ice cover. The results suggest the necessity of developing snow albedo parameterization using observations in the TP, where snow cover and melting are very different from other low-elevation regions, and the influence of aerosols should be considered as well. In addition to defining snow albedo, our results show an urgent call for improving precipitation simulation in the TP.

Photometric evidence on long-term stability of albedo and colour markings on Io

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morrison, D.; Pieri, D.; Veverka, J.; Johnson, T.V.

1979-01-01

This article re-examines the historical measurements of the albedo and colour of Io to determine whether there is evidence of variations, or if not, to set a limit on major resurfacing events resulting in hemispheric brightness changes during the past half century. (author)

Neutron albedo effects of underground nuclear explosion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Bo; Ying Yangjun; Li Jinhong; Bai Yun

2013-01-01

The neutron field distribution is affected by the surrounding medium in the underground nuclear explosion. It will influence the radiation chemical diagnosis. By Monte Carlo simulation, the fuel burnup induced by device and neutron albedo was calculated. The analysis method of albedo effect on radiation chemical diagnosis result under special environment was proposed. Neutron albedo should be considered when capture reaction burnup fraction is used, and then correct analysis can be carried out on the nuclear device.The neutron field distribution is affected by the surrounding medium in the underground nuclear explosion. It will influence the radiation chemical diagnosis. By Monte Carlo simulation, the fuel burnup induced by device and neutron albedo was calculated. The analysis method of albedo effect on radiation chemical diagnosis result under special environment was proposed. Neutron albedo should be considered when capture reaction burnup fraction is used, and then correct analysis can be carried out on the nuclear device. (authors)

Deriving albedo maps for HAPEX-Sahel from ASAS data using kernel-driven BRDF models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Lewis

1999-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the application and testing of a method for deriving spatial estimates of albedo from multi-angle remote sensing data. Linear kernel-driven models of surface bi-directional reflectance have been inverted against high spatial resolution multi-angular, multi- spectral airborne data of the principal cover types within the HAPEX-Sahel study site in Niger, West Africa. The airborne data are obtained from the NASA Airborne Solid-state Imaging Spectrometer (ASAS instrument, flown in Niger in September and October 1992. The maps of model parameters produced are used to estimate integrated reflectance properties related to spectral albedo. Broadband albedo has been estimated from this by weighting the spectral albedo for each pixel within the map as a function of the appropriate spectral solar irradiance and proportion of direct and diffuse illumination. Partial validation of the results was performed by comparing ASAS reflectance and derived directional-hemispherical reflectance with simulations of a millet canopy made with a complex geometric canopy reflectance model, the Botanical Plant Modelling System (BPMS. Both were found to agree well in magnitude. Broadband albedo values derived from the ASAS data were compared with ground-based (point sample albedo measurements and found to agree extremely well. These results indicate that the linear kernel-driven modelling approach, which is to be used operationally to produce global 16 day, 1 km albedo maps from forthcoming NASA Earth Observing System spaceborne data, is both sound and practical for the estimation of angle-integrated spectral reflectance quantities related to albedo. Results for broadband albedo are dependent on spectral sampling and on obtaining the correct spectral weigthings.

Evaluation of MODIS albedo product (MCD43A) over grassland, agriculture and forest surface types during dormant and snow-covered periods

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuosen Wang; Crystal B. Schaaf; Alan H. Strahler; Mark J. Chopping; Miguel O. Román; Yanmin Shuai; Curtis E. Woodcock; David Y. Hollinger; David R. Fitzjarrald

2014-01-01

This study assesses the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) BRDF/albedo 8 day standard product and products from the daily Direct Broadcast BRDF/albedo algorithm, and shows that these products agree well with ground-based albedo measurements during the more difficult periods of vegetation dormancy and snow cover. Cropland, grassland, deciduous and...

CARP: a computer code and albedo data library for use by BREESE, the MORSE albedo package

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emmett, M.B.; Rhoades, W.A.

1978-10-01

The CARP computer code was written to allow processing of DOT angular flux tapes to produce albedo data for use in the MORSE computer code. An albedo data library was produced containing several materials. 3 tables

Long-term archives of land surface albedo products through the EUMETSAT/LSA-SAF and ECMWF/C3S projects: status and project development plan

Science.gov (United States)

Carrer, D.; Pinault, F.; Ceamanos, X.; Meurey, C.; Moparthy, S.; Swinnen, E.; Trigo, I.

2017-12-01

The two space programs of EUMETSAT (project CDOP3, LSA-SAF) and ECMWF (the Copernicus Climate Change Service; C3S_312a Lot9) provide (or will provide) added-value satellite products for the meteorological and environmental science communities, especially in the fields of climate modeling, environmental management, natural hazards management, and climate change detection. The EUMETSAT/LSA-SAF project started in 1999 with research and development activities. The Third Continuous Development and Operations Phase (CDOP-3) starts in March 2017 and will end in 2022. This project uses instruments on board European satellites that were, or will be, launched between 2004 and 2022. Unlike the LSA-SAF, the COPERNICUS/C3S_312a project has no NRT constraint. Its first phase started in november 2016. One of the major objective of the COPERNICUS/C3S_312a project is to harmonize datasets from various sensors in order to provide consistent and continuous ECV products from the 80's until now.Presently, the delivered operational products comprise several surface albedo products using data from various space missions (METEOSAT, NOAA, METOP, …). We present here the portfolio of the surface albedo products that are disseminated with an operational status. Their characteristics and accuracy are detailed here after. Also we will present the development plan to produce long-term re-analysis and to prepare the arrival of the next generation of satellite (MTG, EPS-SG, ...). This work will lead in 2018 to 40 years of products characterizing the albedo properties of the surface. These programs provide a great opportunity to monitor and identify human-induced climate change since consistent production of data sets is guaranteed until at least 2022.

Comparisons of spectral aerosol single scattering albedo in Seoul, South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Mok, Jungbin; Krotkov, Nickolay A.; Torres, Omar; Jethva, Hiren; Li, Zhanqing; Kim, Jhoon; Koo, Ja-Ho; Go, Sujung; Irie, Hitoshi; Labow, Gordon; Eck, Thomas F.; Holben, Brent N.; Herman, Jay; Loughman, Robert P.; Spinei, Elena; Lee, Seoung Soo; Khatri, Pradeep; Campanelli, Monica

2018-04-01

Quantifying aerosol absorption at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths is important for monitoring air pollution and aerosol amounts using current (e.g., Aura/OMI) and future (e.g., TROPOMI, TEMPO, GEMS, and Sentinel-4) satellite measurements. Measurements of column average atmospheric aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) are performed on the ground by the NASA AERONET in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths and in the UV-VIS-NIR by the SKYNET networks. Previous comparison studies have focused on VIS and NIR wavelengths due to the lack of co-incident measurements of aerosol and gaseous absorption properties in the UV. This study compares the SKYNET-retrieved SSA in the UV with the SSA derived from a combination of AERONET, MFRSR, and Pandora (AMP) retrievals in Seoul, South Korea, in spring and summer 2016. The results show that the spectrally invariant surface albedo assumed in the SKYNET SSA retrievals leads to underestimated SSA compared to AMP values at near UV wavelengths. Re-processed SKYNET inversions using spectrally varying surface albedo, consistent with the AERONET retrieval improve agreement with AMP SSA. The combined AMP inversions allow for separating aerosol and gaseous (NO2 and O3) absorption and provide aerosol retrievals from the shortest UVB (305 nm) through VIS to NIR wavelengths (870 nm).

Modeling Earth Albedo for Satellites in Earth Orbit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bhanderi, Dan; Bak, Thomas

2005-01-01

Many satellite are influences by the Earthøs albedo, though very few model schemes exist.in order to predict this phenomenon. Earth albedo is often treated as noise, or ignored completely. When applying solar cells in the attitude hardware, Earth albedo can cause the attitude estimate to deviate...... with as much as 20 deg. Digital Sun sensors with Earth albedo correction in hardware exist, but are expensive. In addition, albedo estimates are necessary in thermal calculations and power budgets. We present a modeling scheme base4d on Eartht reflectance, measured by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer......, in which the Earth Probe Satellite has recorded reflectivity data daily since mid 1996. The mean of these data can be used to calculate the Earth albedo given the positions of the satellite and the Sun. Our results show that the albedo varies highly with the solar angle to the satellite's field of view...

A Synthetical Estimation of Northern Hemisphere Sea-ice Albedo Radiative Forcing and Feedback between 1982 and 2009

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Y.

2014-12-01

The decreasing surface albedo caused by continously vanishing sea ice over the Arctic plays a very important role in Arctic warming amplification. However, the quantification of the change of radiative forcing at top of atmosphere (TOA) introduced by the decreasing sea ice albedo and its generated feedback to the climate remain uncertain. Two recent representative studies showed a large difference with each other: Flanner et al. (2011) used a method of synthesis of surface albedo and radiative kernels and found that the change of sea ice radiative forcing (ΔSIRF) in Northern Hemisphere (NH) from 1979 to 2008 was 0.22 (0.15 - 0.32) W m-2, and the corresponding sea ice albedo feedback (SIAF) over NH was 0.28 (0.19 - 0.41) W m-2 K-1; while Pistone et al. (2014) directly used the observed planetary albedo to estimate the NH ΔSIRF and SIAF from 1979 to 2011 and draw a NH ΔSIRF of 0.43 ± 0.07 W m-2, which was nearly twice as larger as Flanner's result, and the estimated global SIAF was 0.31 ± 0.04 W m-2 K-1. Motivated by reconciling the difference between these two studies and obtaining a more accurate qualification of the NH ΔSIRF, we used a newly released satellite-retrieved surface albedo product CLARA-A1 and made an attempt in two steps: Firstly, based on synthesising the surface albedo and raditive kernels, we calcualted the ΔSIRF from 1982 to 2009 was 0.20 ± 0.05 W m-2, and the NH SIAF was 0.25 W m-2 K-1; After comparing with TOA observed radiative flux, we found it's quite likely the kernel methods yield an underestimation for the all-sky ΔSIRF. Then, we tried to use TOA observed broadband radiative flux to adjust the estimation with kernels. After an adjustment, the NH all-sky ΔSIRF was 0.34 ± 0.09 W m-2, and the corresponding SIAF was 0.43 W m-2 K-1 over NH and 0.31 W m-2 K-1 over the entire globe.

A Multi-Scale Validation Strategy for Albedo Products over Rugged Terrain and Preliminary Application in Heihe River Basin, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xingwen Lin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The issue for the validation of land surface remote sensing albedo products over rugged terrain is the scale effects between the reference albedo measurements and coarse scale albedo products, which is caused by the complex topography. This paper illustrates a multi-scale validation strategy specified for coarse scale albedo validation over rugged terrain. A Mountain-Radiation-Transfer-based (MRT-based albedo upscaling model was proposed in the process of multi-scale validation strategy for aggregating fine scale albedo to coarse scale. The simulated data of both the reference coarse scale albedo and fine scale albedo were used to assess the performance and uncertainties of the MRT-based albedo upscaling model. The results showed that the MRT-based model could reflect the albedo scale effects over rugged terrain and provided a robust solution for albedo upscaling from fine scale to coarse scale with different mean slopes and different solar zenith angles. The upscaled coarse scale albedos had the great agreements with the simulated coarse scale albedo with a Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE of 0.0029 and 0.0017 for black sky albedo (BSA and white sky albedo (WSA, respectively. Then the MRT-based model was preliminarily applied for the assessment of daily MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS Albedo Collection V006 products (MCD43A3 C6 over rugged terrain. Results showed that the MRT-based model was effective and suitable for conducting the validation of MODIS albedo products over rugged terrain. In this research area, it was shown that the MCD43A3 C6 products with full inversion algorithm, were generally in agreement with the aggregated coarse scale reference albedos over rugged terrain in the Heihe River Basin, with the BSA RMSE of 0.0305 and WSA RMSE of 0.0321, respectively, which were slightly higher than those over flat terrain.

MODIS-Derived 1.64 micron white-sky albedo on a global, 1-minute equal angle grid (Collection 004 and 005)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Filled Land Surface Albedo Product is a global data set of spatially complete albedo maps. It was derived from the MODIS MOD43B3 Land product and includes both...

Estimates of the Spectral Aerosol Single Sea Scattering Albedo and Aerosol Radiative Effects during SAFARI 2000

Science.gov (United States)

Bergstrom, Robert W.; Pilewskie, Peter; Schmid, Beat; Russell, Philip B.

2003-01-01

Using measurements of the spectral solar radiative flux and optical depth for 2 days (24 August and 6 September 2000) during the SAFARI 2000 intensive field experiment and a detailed radiative transfer model, we estimate the spectral single scattering albedo of the aerosol layer. The single scattering albedo is similar on the 2 days even though the optical depth for the aerosol layer was quite different. The aerosol single scattering albedo was between 0.85 and 0.90 at 350 nm, decreasing to 0.6 in the near infrared. The magnitude and decrease with wavelength of the single scattering albedo are consistent with the absorption properties of small black carbon particles. We estimate the uncertainty in the single scattering albedo due to the uncertainty in the measured fractional absorption and optical depths. The uncertainty in the single scattering albedo is significantly less on the high-optical-depth day (6 September) than on the low-optical-depth day (24 August). On the high-optical-depth day, the uncertainty in the single scattering albedo is 0.02 in the midvisible whereas on the low-optical-depth day the uncertainty is 0.08 in the midvisible. On both days, the uncertainty becomes larger in the near infrared. We compute the radiative effect of the aerosol by comparing calculations with and without the aerosol. The effect at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is to cool the atmosphere by 13 W/sq m on 24 August and 17 W/sq m on 6 September. The effect on the downward flux at the surface is a reduction of 57 W/sq m on 24 August and 200 W/sq m on 6 September. The aerosol effect on the downward flux at the surface is in good agreement with the results reported from the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX).

MORSE/STORM: A generalized albedo option for Monte Carlo calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomes, I.C.; Stevens, P.N.

1991-09-01

The advisability of using the albedo procedure for the Monte Carlo solution of deep penetration shielding problems that have ducts and other penetrations has been investigated. The use of albedo data can dramatically improve the computational efficiency of certain Monte Carlo calculations. However, the accuracy of these results may be unacceptable because of lost information during the albedo event and serious errors in the available differential albedo data. This study was done to evaluate and appropriately modify the MORSE/BREESE package, to develop new methods for generating the required albedo data, and to extend the adjoint capability to the albedo-modified calculations. Major modifications to MORSE/BREESE include an option to save for further use information that would be lost at the albedo event, an option to displace the point of emergence during an albedo event, and an option to use spatially dependent albedo data for both forward and adjoint calculations, which includes the point of emergence as a new random variable to be selected during an albedo event. The theoretical basis for using TORT-generated forward albedo information to produce adjuncton albedos was derived. The MORSE/STORM package was developed to perform both forward and adjoint modes of analysis using spatially dependent albedo data. Results obtained with MORSE/STORM for both forward and adjoint modes were compared with benchmark solutions. Excellent agreement and improved computational efficiency were achieved, demonstrating the full utilization of the albedo option in the MORSE code. 7 refs., 17 figs., 15 tabs

Forests, nitrogen and albedo, a very interesting trio indeed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borghetti M

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A short comment is made on a recent paper (Ollinger et al. 2008 which shows that forest ecosystem carbon uptake in temperate and boreal forests is directly related to canopy nitrogen concentration and that both carbon uptake capacity and canopy nitrogen concentration are positively correlated with shortwave surface albedo measured with broad-band satellite sensors.

On the importance of the albedo parameterization for the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet in EC-Earth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. M. Helsen

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The albedo of the surface of ice sheets changes as a function of time due to the effects of deposition of new snow, ageing of dry snow, bare ice exposure, melting and run-off. Currently, the calculation of the albedo of ice sheets is highly parameterized within the earth system model EC-Earth by taking a constant value for areas with thick perennial snow cover. This is an important reason why the surface mass balance (SMB of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS is poorly resolved in the model. The purpose of this study is to improve the SMB forcing of the GrIS by evaluating different parameter settings within a snow albedo scheme. By allowing ice-sheet albedo to vary as a function of wet and dry conditions, the spatial distribution of albedo and melt rate improves. Nevertheless, the spatial distribution of SMB in EC-Earth is not significantly improved. As a reason for this, we identify omissions in the current snow albedo scheme, such as separate treatment of snow and ice and the effect of refreezing. The resulting SMB is downscaled from the lower-resolution global climate model topography to the higher-resolution ice-sheet topography of the GrIS, such that the influence of these different SMB climatologies on the long-term evolution of the GrIS is tested by ice-sheet model simulations. From these ice-sheet simulations we conclude that an albedo scheme with a short response time of decaying albedo during wet conditions performs best with respect to long-term simulated ice-sheet volume. This results in an optimized albedo parameterization that can be used in future EC-Earth simulations with an interactive ice-sheet component.

Criticality analysis of thermal reactors for two energy groups applying Monte Carlo and neutron Albedo method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terra, Andre Miguel Barge Pontes Torres

2005-01-01

The Albedo method applied to criticality calculations to nuclear reactors is characterized by following the neutron currents, allowing to make detailed analyses of the physics phenomena about interactions of the neutrons with the core-reflector set, by the determination of the probabilities of reflection, absorption, and transmission. Then, allowing to make detailed appreciations of the variation of the effective neutron multiplication factor, keff. In the present work, motivated for excellent results presented in dissertations applied to thermal reactors and shieldings, was described the methodology to Albedo method for the analysis criticality of thermal reactors by using two energy groups admitting variable core coefficients to each re-entrant current. By using the Monte Carlo KENO IV code was analyzed relation between the total fraction of neutrons absorbed in the core reactor and the fraction of neutrons that never have stayed into the reflector but were absorbed into the core. As parameters of comparison and analysis of the results obtained by the Albedo method were used one dimensional deterministic code ANISN (ANIsotropic SN transport code) and Diffusion method. The keff results determined by the Albedo method, to the type of analyzed reactor, showed excellent agreement. Thus were obtained relative errors of keff values smaller than 0,78% between the Albedo method and code ANISN. In relation to the Diffusion method were obtained errors smaller than 0,35%, showing the effectiveness of the Albedo method applied to criticality analysis. The easiness of application, simplicity and clarity of the Albedo method constitute a valuable instrument to neutronic calculations applied to nonmultiplying and multiplying media. (author)

Changes in Snow Albedo Resulting from Snow Darkening Caused by Black Carbon

Science.gov (United States)

Engels, J.; Kloster, S.; Bourgeois, Q.

2014-12-01

We investigate the potential impact of snow darkening caused by pre-industrial and present-day black carbon (BC) emissions on snow albedo and subsequently climate. To assess this impact, we implemented the effect of snow darkening caused by BC emitted from natural as well as anthropogenic sources into the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model (MPI-M ESM). Considerable amounts of BC are emitted e.g. from fires and are transported through the atmosphere for several days before being removed by rain or snow precipitation in snow covered regions. Already very small quantities of BC reduce the snow reflectance significantly, with consequences for snow melting and snow spatial coverage. We implemented the snow albedo reduction caused by BC contamination and snow aging in the one layer land surface component (JSBACH) of the atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM6, developed at MPI-M. For this we used the single-layer simulator of the SNow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiation (SNICAR-Online (Flanner et al., 2007); http://snow.engin.umich.edu) model to derive snow albedo values for BC in snow concentrations ranging between 0 and 1500 ng(BC)/g(snow) for different snow grain sizes for the visible (0.3 - 0.7 μm) and near infrared range (0.7 - 1.5 μm). As snow grains grow over time, we assign different snow ages to different snow grain sizes (50, 150, 500, and 1000 μm). Here, a radius of 50 μm corresponds to new snow, whereas a radius of 1000 μm corresponds to old snow. The deposition rates of BC on snow are prescribed from previous ECHAM6-HAM simulations for two time periods, pre-industrial (1880-1889) and present-day (2000-2009), respectively. We perform a sensitivity study regarding the scavenging of BC by snow melt. To evaluate the newly implemented albedo scheme we will compare the modeled black carbon in snow concentrations to observed ones. Moreover, we will show the impact of the BC contamination and snow aging on the simulated snow albedo. The

Implications of albedo changes following afforestation on the benefits of forests as carbon sinks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. U. F. Kirschbaum

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Increased carbon storage with afforestation leads to a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and thus decreases radiative forcing and cools the Earth. However, afforestation also changes the reflective properties of the surface vegetation from more reflective pasture to relatively less reflective forest cover. This increase in radiation absorption by the forest constitutes an increase in radiative forcing, with a warming effect. The net effect of decreased albedo and carbon storage on radiative forcing depends on the relative magnitude of these two opposing processes.

We used data from an intensively studied site in New Zealand's Central North Island that has long-term, ground-based measurements of albedo over the full short-wave spectrum from a developing Pinus radiata forest. Data from this site were supplemented with satellite-derived albedo estimates from New Zealand pastures. The albedo of a well-established forest was measured as 13 % and pasture albedo as 20 %. We used these data to calculate the direct radiative forcing effect of changing albedo as the forest grew.

We calculated the radiative forcing resulting from the removal of carbon from the atmosphere as a decrease in radiative forcing of −104 GJ tC⁻¹ yr⁻¹. We also showed that the observed change in albedo constituted a direct radiative forcing of 2759 GJ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Thus, following afforestation, 26.5 tC ha⁻¹ needs to be stored in a growing forest to balance the increase in radiative forcing resulting from the observed albedo change. Measurements of tree biomass and albedo were used to estimate the net change in radiative forcing as the newly planted forest grew. Albedo and carbon-storage effects were of similar magnitude for the first four to five years after tree planting, but as the stand grew older, the carbon storage effect increasingly dominated. Averaged over the whole

Quantifying the climate impacts of albedo changes due to biofuel production: a comparison with biogeochemical effects

Science.gov (United States)

Caiazzo, Fabio; Malina, Robert; Staples, Mark D.; Wolfe, Philip J.; Yim, Steve H. L.; Barrett, Steven R. H.

2014-01-01

Lifecycle analysis is a tool widely used to evaluate the climate impact of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the production and use of biofuels. In this paper we employ an augmented lifecycle framework that includes climate impacts from changes in surface albedo due to land use change. We consider eleven land-use change scenarios for the cultivation of biomass for middle distillate fuel production, and compare our results to previous estimates of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for the same set of land-use change scenarios in terms of CO2e per unit of fuel energy. We find that two of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a warming effect due to changes in surface albedo, compared to conventional fuel, the largest of which is for replacement of desert land with salicornia cultivation. This corresponds to 222 gCO2e/MJ, equivalent to 3890% and 247% of the lifecycle GHG emissions of fuels derived from salicornia and crude oil, respectively. Nine of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a cooling effect, the largest of which is for the replacement of tropical rainforests with soybean cultivation. This corresponds to - 161 gCO2e/MJ, or - 28% and - 178% of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of fuels derived from soybean and crude oil, respectively. These results indicate that changes in surface albedo have the potential to dominate the climate impact of biofuels, and we conclude that accounting for changes in surface albedo is necessary for a complete assessment of the aggregate climate impacts of biofuel production and use.

Factors affecting polyamide prototypes design of Albedo dosemeters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, M.M.; Mauricio, C.L.P.; Fonseca, E.S.

1996-01-01

This work studies the most important factors which affect the response of albedo neutron dosemeters containing LiF TLDs with the aim to improve their sensitivity. It includes tests of thickness and shape of the polyamide moderator body prototypes, albedo window diameter and TLD position inside the moderator. Analyzing the results, an albedo neutron dosemeter prototype, B 4 C covered, was developed. The prototype has a response three times higher than the albedo dosemeter now in use in Brazil. (author)

The Effect of Increasing Surface Albedo on Urban Climate and Air Quality: A Detailed Study for Sacramento, Houston, and Chicago

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zahra Jandaghian

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Increasing surface reflectivity in urban areas can decrease ambient temperature, resulting in reducing photochemical reaction rates, reducing cooling energy demands and thus improving air quality and human health. The weather research and forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem is coupled with the multi-layer of the urban canopy model (ML-UCM to investigate the effects of surface modification on urban climate in a two-way nested approach over North America focusing on Sacramento, Houston, and Chicago during the 2011 heat wave period. This approach decreases the uncertainties associated with scale separation and grid resolution and equip us with an integrated simulation setup to capture the full impacts of meteorological and photochemical reactions. WRF-ChemV3.6.1 simulated the diurnal variation of air temperature reasonably well, overpredicted wind speed and dew point temperature, underpredicted relative humidity, overpredicted ozone and nitrogen dioxide concentrations, and underpredicted fine particular matters (PM2.5. The performance of PM2.5 is a combination of overprediction of particulate sulfate and underprediction of particulate nitrate and organic carbon. Increasing the surface albedo of roofs, walls, and pavements from 0.2 to 0.65, 0.60, and 0.45, respectively, resulted in a decrease in air temperature by 2.3 °C in urban areas and 0.7 °C in suburban areas; a slight increase in wind speed; an increase in relative humidity (3% and dew point temperature (0.3 °C; a decrease of PM2.5 and O3 concentrations by 2.7 µg/m3 and 6.3 ppb in urban areas and 1.4 µg/m3 and 2.5 ppb in suburban areas, respectively; minimal changes in PM2.5 subspecies; and a decrease of nitrogen dioxide (1 ppb in urban areas.

The role of sea-ice albedo in the climate of slowly rotating aquaplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Salameh, Josiane; Popp, Max; Marotzke, Jochem

2018-04-01

We investigate the influence of the rotation period (P_{rot}) on the mean climate of an aquaplanet, with a focus on the role of sea-ice albedo. We perform aquaplanet simulations with the atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM6 for various rotation periods from one Earth-day to 365 Earth-days in which case the planet is synchronously rotating. The global-mean surface temperature decreases with increasing P_{rot} and sea ice expands equatorwards. The cooling of the mean climate with increasing P_{rot} is caused partly by the high surface albedo of sea ice on the dayside and partly by the high albedo of the deep convective clouds over the substellar region. The cooling caused by these deep convective clouds is weak for non-synchronous rotations compared to synchronous rotation. Sensitivity simulations with the sea-ice model switched off show that the global-mean surface temperature is up to 27 K higher than in our main simulations with sea ice and thus highlight the large influence of sea ice on the climate. We present the first estimates of the influence of the rotation period on the transition of an Earth-like climate to global glaciation. Our results suggest that global glaciation of planets with synchronous rotation occurs at substantially lower incoming solar irradiation than for planets with slow but non-synchronous rotation.

Generalized Calibration of the Polarimetric Albedo Scale of Asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Lupishko, D. F.

2018-03-01

Six different calibrations of the polarimetric albedo scale of asteroids have been published so far. Each of them contains its particular random and systematic errors and yields its values of geometric albedo. On the one hand, this complicates their analysis and comparison; on the other hand, it becomes more and more difficult to decide which of the proposed calibrations should be used. Moreover, in recent years, new databases on the albedo of asteroids obtained from the radiometric surveys of the sky with the orbital space facilities (the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), the Japanese astronomical satellite AKARI (which means "light"), the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), and the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE)) have appeared; and the database on the diameters and albedos of asteroids obtained from their occultations of stars has substantially increased. Here, we critically review the currently available calibrations and propose a new generalized calibration derived from the interrelations between the slope h and the albedo and between P min and the albedo. This calibration is based on all of the available series of the asteroid albedos and the most complete data on the polarization parameters of asteroids. The generalized calibration yields the values of the polarimetric albedo of asteroids in the system unified with the radiometric albedos and the albedos obtained from occultations of stars by asteroids. This, in turn, removes the difficulties in their comparison, joint analysis, etc.

ANALYSIS OF THE INTRA-CITY VARIATION OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND ITS RELATION TO LAND SURFACE/COVER PARAMETERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Gerçek

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Along with urbanization, sealing of vegetated land and evaporation surfaces by impermeable materials, lead to changes in urban climate. This phenomenon is observed as temperatures several degrees higher in densely urbanized areas compared to the rural land at the urban fringe particularly at nights, so-called Urban Heat Island. Urban Heat Island (UHI effect is related with urban form, pattern and building materials so far as it is associated with meteorological conditions, air pollution, excess heat from cooling. UHI effect has negative influences on human health, as well as other environmental problems such as higher energy demand, air pollution, and water shortage. Urban Heat Island (UHI effect has long been studied by observations of air temperature from thermometers. However, with the advent and proliferation of remote sensing technology, synoptic coverage and better representations of spatial variation of surface temperature became possible. This has opened new avenues for the observation capabilities and research of UHIs. In this study, "UHI effect and its relation to factors that cause it" is explored for İzmit city which has been subject to excess urbanization and industrialization during the past decades. Spatial distribution and variation of UHI effect in İzmit is analysed using Landsat 8 and ASTER day & night images of 2015 summer. Surface temperature data derived from thermal bands of the images were analysed for UHI effect. Higher temperatures were classified into 4 grades of UHIs and mapped both for day and night. Inadequate urban form, pattern, density, high buildings and paved surfaces at the expanse of soil ground and vegetation cover are the main factors that cause microclimates giving rise to spatial variations in temperatures across cities. These factors quantified as land surface/cover parameters for the study include vegetation index (NDVI, imperviousness (NDISI, albedo, solar insolation, Sky View Factor (SVF, building

Analysis of the Intra-City Variation of Urban Heat Island and its Relation to Land Surface/cover Parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Gerçek, D.; Güven, İ. T.; Oktay, İ. Ç.

2016-06-01

Along with urbanization, sealing of vegetated land and evaporation surfaces by impermeable materials, lead to changes in urban climate. This phenomenon is observed as temperatures several degrees higher in densely urbanized areas compared to the rural land at the urban fringe particularly at nights, so-called Urban Heat Island. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is related with urban form, pattern and building materials so far as it is associated with meteorological conditions, air pollution, excess heat from cooling. UHI effect has negative influences on human health, as well as other environmental problems such as higher energy demand, air pollution, and water shortage. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect has long been studied by observations of air temperature from thermometers. However, with the advent and proliferation of remote sensing technology, synoptic coverage and better representations of spatial variation of surface temperature became possible. This has opened new avenues for the observation capabilities and research of UHIs. In this study, "UHI effect and its relation to factors that cause it" is explored for İzmit city which has been subject to excess urbanization and industrialization during the past decades. Spatial distribution and variation of UHI effect in İzmit is analysed using Landsat 8 and ASTER day & night images of 2015 summer. Surface temperature data derived from thermal bands of the images were analysed for UHI effect. Higher temperatures were classified into 4 grades of UHIs and mapped both for day and night. Inadequate urban form, pattern, density, high buildings and paved surfaces at the expanse of soil ground and vegetation cover are the main factors that cause microclimates giving rise to spatial variations in temperatures across cities. These factors quantified as land surface/cover parameters for the study include vegetation index (NDVI), imperviousness (NDISI), albedo, solar insolation, Sky View Factor (SVF), building envelope

Measurement of TLD Albedo response on various calibration phantoms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Momose, T.; Tsujimura, N.; Shinohara, K.; Ishiguro, H.; Nakamura, T.

1996-01-01

The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) has recommended that individual dosemeter should be calibrated on a suitable phantom and has pointed out that the calibration factor of a neutron dosemeter is strongly influenced by the the exact size and shape of the body and the phantom to which the dosemeter is attached. As the principle of an albedo type thermoluminescent personal dosemeter (albedo TLD) is essentially based on a detection of scattered and moderated neutron from a human body, the sensitivity of albedo TLD is strongly influenced by the incident neutron energy and the calibration phantom. (1) Therefore for albedo type thermoluminescent personal dosemeter (albedo TLD), the information of neutron albedo response on the calibration phantom is important for appropriate dose estimation. In order to investigate the effect of phantom type on the reading of the albedo TLD, measurement of the TLD energy response and angular response on some typical calibration phantoms was performed using dynamitron accelerator and 252 Cf neutron source. (author)

A Stabilizing Feedback Between Cloud Radiative Effects and Greenland Surface Melt: Verification From Multi-year Automatic Weather Station Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Zender, C. S.; Wang, W.; van As, D.

2017-12-01

Clouds have strong impacts on Greenland's surface melt through the interaction with the dry atmosphere and reflective surfaces. However, their effects are uncertain due to the lack of in situ observations. To better quantify cloud radiative effects (CRE) in Greenland, we analyze and interpret multi-year radiation measurements from 30 automatic weather stations encompassing a broad range of climatological and topographical conditions. During melt season, clouds warm surface over most of Greenland, meaning the longwave greenhouse effect outweighs the shortwave shading effect; on the other hand, the spatial variability of net (longwave and shortwave) CRE is dominated by shortwave CRE and in turn by surface albedo, which controls the potential absorption of solar radiation when clouds are absent. The net warming effect decreases with shortwave CRE from high to low altitudes and from north to south (Fig. 1). The spatial correlation between albedo and net CRE is strong (r=0.93, palbedo determines the net CRE seasonal trend, which decreases from May to July and increases afterwards. On an hourly timescale, we find two distinct radiative states in Greenland (Fig. 2). The clear state is characterized by clear-sky conditions or thin clouds, when albedo and solar zenith angle (SZA) weakly correlates with CRE. The cloudy state is characterized by opaque clouds, when the combination of albedo and SZA strongly correlates with CRE (r=0.85, palbedo and solar zenith angle, explains the majority of the CRE variation in spatial distribution, seasonal trend in the ablation zone, and in hourly variability in the cloudy radiative state. Clouds warm the brighter and colder surfaces of Greenland, enhance snow melt, and tend to lower the albedo. Clouds cool the darker and warmer surfaces, inhibiting snow melt, which increases albedo, and thus stabilizes surface melt. This stabilizing mechanism may also occur over sea ice, helping to forestall surface melt as the Arctic becomes dimmer.

Thermal neutron albedo measurements for multilithic reflectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mehboob, Khurram; Ahmed, Raheel; Ali, Majid; Tabassam, Uzma

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Measurement of thermal neuron albedo for multilithic reflectors. • Modeling of experiments in MATLAB. • Comparison of numerical calculated and experimental values. • Study of thermal neutron albedo in different multilayered shielding. - Abstract: An experimental measurement of the thermal neutron (0.025 eV) albedo (αth) has been carried out for multilithic shielding by using Am–Be neutron source and BF 3 detector. The measured saturation value for the thermal albedo of paraffin wax has been found to be 0.734 ± 0.020, which is in close agreement to the corresponding value 0.83 quoted in the literature. The thermal neutron albedo has been measured for the multilayered shielding in copper–wood, copper–aluminum, wood–paraffin and paraffin–iron combinations in horizontal geometric configurations. Modeling and numerical simulation have been carried out by developing a MATLAB code which solves the diffusion equation in order to calculate the experimental results. Good agreement has been found between the numerical calculated and experimental results. The uncertainties in the measurements have also been calculated based on error propagation of the underlying Poisson distribution

How robust are in situ observations for validating satellite-derived albedo over the dark zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet?

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, J.; Hubbard, A., II; Irvine-Fynn, T. D.; Doyle, S. H.; Cook, J.; Stibal, M.; Smith, L. C.; Box, J. E.

2017-12-01

Calibration and validation of satellite-derived ice sheet albedo data require high-quality, in situ measurements commonly acquired by up and down facing pyranometers mounted on automated weather stations (AWS). However, direct comparison between ground and satellite-derived albedo can only be justified when the measured surface is homogeneous at the length-scale of both satellite pixel and in situ footprint. We used digital imagery acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle to evaluate point-to-pixel albedo comparisons across the western, ablating margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Our results reveal that in situ measurements overestimate albedo by up to 0.10 at the end of the melt season because the ground footprints of AWS-mounted pyranometers are insufficient to capture the spatial heterogeneity of the ice surface as it progressively ablates and darkens. Statistical analysis of 21 AWS across the entire Greenland Ice Sheet reveals that almost half suffer from this bias, including some AWS located within the wet snow zone.

On the importance of the albedo parameterization for the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet in EC-Earth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helsen, Michiel M.; Van De Wal, Roderik S.W.; Reerink, Thomas J.; Bintanja, Richard; Madsen, Marianne S.; Yang, Shuting; Li, Qiang; Zhang, Qiong

2017-01-01

The albedo of the surface of ice sheets changes as a function of time due to the effects of deposition of new snow, ageing of dry snow, bare ice exposure, melting and run-off. Currently, the calculation of the albedo of ice sheets is highly parameterized within the earth system model ECEarth by

Quantifying the climate impacts of albedo changes due to biofuel production: a comparison with biogeochemical effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caiazzo, Fabio; Malina, Robert; Staples, Mark D; Wolfe, Philip J; Yim, Steve H L; Barrett, Steven R H

2014-01-01

Lifecycle analysis is a tool widely used to evaluate the climate impact of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the production and use of biofuels. In this paper we employ an augmented lifecycle framework that includes climate impacts from changes in surface albedo due to land use change. We consider eleven land-use change scenarios for the cultivation of biomass for middle distillate fuel production, and compare our results to previous estimates of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for the same set of land-use change scenarios in terms of CO 2 e per unit of fuel energy. We find that two of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a warming effect due to changes in surface albedo, compared to conventional fuel, the largest of which is for replacement of desert land with salicornia cultivation. This corresponds to 222 gCO 2 e/MJ, equivalent to 3890% and 247% of the lifecycle GHG emissions of fuels derived from salicornia and crude oil, respectively. Nine of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a cooling effect, the largest of which is for the replacement of tropical rainforests with soybean cultivation. This corresponds to − 161 gCO 2 e/MJ, or − 28% and − 178% of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of fuels derived from soybean and crude oil, respectively. These results indicate that changes in surface albedo have the potential to dominate the climate impact of biofuels, and we conclude that accounting for changes in surface albedo is necessary for a complete assessment of the aggregate climate impacts of biofuel production and use. (paper)

The influence of green areas and roof albedos on air temperatures during extreme heat events in Berlin, Germany

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schubert, Sebastian; Grossmann-Clarke, Susanne [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam (Germany)

2013-04-15

The mesoscale atmospheric model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) with the Double Canyon Effect Parametrization Scheme (DCEP) is applied to investigate possible adaption measures to extreme heat events (EHEs) for the city of Berlin, Germany. The emphasis is on the effects of a modified urban vegetation cover and roof albedo on near-surface air temperatures. Five EHEs with a duration of 5 days or more are identified for the period 2000 to 2009. A reference simulation is carried out for each EHE with current vegetation cover, roof albedo and urban canopy parameters (UCPs), and is evaluated with temperature observations from weather stations in Berlin and its surroundings. The derivation of the UCPs from an impervious surface map and a 3-D building data set is detailed. Characteristics of the simulated urban heat island for each EHE are analysed in terms of these UCPs. In addition, six sensitivity runs are examined with a modified vegetation cover of each urban grid cell by -25%, 5% and 15%, with a roof albedo increased to 0.40 and 0.65, and with a combination of the largest vegetation cover and roof albedo, respectively. At the weather stations' grid cells, the results show a maximum of the average diurnal change in air temperature during each EHE of 0.82 K and -0.48 K for the -25% and 15% vegetation covers, -0.50 K for the roof albedos of 0.65, and -0.63 K for the combined vegetation and albedo case. The largest effects on the air temperature are detected during midday. (orig.)

On the importance of the albedo parameterization for the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet in EC-Earth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helsen, Michiel M.; van de Wal, Roderik S. W.; Reerink, Thomas J.; Bintanja, Richard; Madsen, Marianne S.; Yang, Shuting; Li, Qiang; Zhang, Qiong

2017-01-01

The albedo of the surface of ice sheets changes as a function of time due to the effects of deposition of new snow, ageing of dry snow, bare ice exposure, melting and run-off. Currently, the calculation of the albedo of ice sheets is highly parameterized within the earth system model EC-Earth by

Colour, albedo and nucleus size of Halley's comet

Science.gov (United States)

Cruikshank, D. P.; Tholen, D. J.; Hartmann, W. K.

1985-01-01

Photometry of Halley's comet in the B, J, V, and K broadband filters during a time when the coma was very weak and presumed to contribute negligibly to the broadband photometry is reported. The V-J and J-K colors suggest that the color of the nucleus of Halley's comet is similar to that of the D-type asteroids, which in turn suggests that the surface of the nucleus has an albedo less than 0.1.

Overlapping constraint for variational surface reconstruction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aanæs, Henrik; Solem, J.E.

2005-01-01

In this paper a counter example, illustrating a shortcoming in most variational formulations for 3D surface estimation, is presented. The nature of this shortcoming is a lack of an overlapping constraint. A remedy for this shortcoming is presented in the form of a penalty function with an analysi...... of the effects of this function on surface motion. For practical purposes, this will only have minor influence on current methods. However, the insight provided in the analysis is likely to influence future developments in the field of variational surface reconstruction....

Resolved spectrophotometric properties of the Ceres surface from Dawn Framing Camera images

Science.gov (United States)

Schröder, S. E.; Mottola, S.; Carsenty, U.; Ciarniello, M.; Jaumann, R.; Li, J.-Y.; Longobardo, A.; Palmer, E.; Pieters, C.; Preusker, F.; Raymond, C. A.; Russell, C. T.

2017-05-01

We present a global spectrophotometric characterization of the Ceres surface using Dawn Framing Camera (FC) images. We identify the photometric model that yields the best results for photometrically correcting images. Corrected FC images acquired on approach to Ceres were assembled into global maps of albedo and color. Generally, albedo and color variations on Ceres are muted. The albedo map is dominated by a large, circular feature in Vendimia Planitia, known from HST images (Li et al., 2006), and dotted by smaller bright features mostly associated with fresh-looking craters. The dominant color variation over the surface is represented by the presence of "blue" material in and around such craters, which has a negative spectral slope over the visible wavelength range when compared to average terrain. We also mapped variations of the phase curve by employing an exponential photometric model, a technique previously applied to asteroid Vesta (Schröder et al., 2013b). The surface of Ceres scatters light differently from Vesta in the sense that the ejecta of several fresh-looking craters may be physically smooth rather than rough. High albedo, blue color, and physical smoothness all appear to be indicators of youth. The blue color may result from the desiccation of ejected material that is similar to the phyllosilicates/water ice mixtures in the experiments of Poch et al. (2016). The physical smoothness of some blue terrains would be consistent with an initially liquid condition, perhaps as a consequence of impact melting of subsurface water ice. We find red terrain (positive spectral slope) near Ernutet crater, where De Sanctis et al. (2017) detected organic material. The spectrophotometric properties of the large Vendimia Planitia feature suggest it is a palimpsest, consistent with the Marchi et al. (2016) impact basin hypothesis. The central bright area in Occator crater, Cerealia Facula, is the brightest on Ceres with an average visual normal albedo of about 0.6 at

MALIBU: A High Spatial Resolution Multi-Angle Imaging Unmanned Airborne System to Validate Satellite-derived BRDF/Albedo Products

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Z.; Roman, M. O.; Pahlevan, N.; Stachura, M.; McCorkel, J.; Bland, G.; Schaaf, C.

2016-12-01

Albedo is a key climate forcing variable that governs the absorption of incoming solar radiation and its ultimate transfer to the atmosphere. Albedo contributes significant uncertainties in the simulation of climate changes; and as such, it is defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as a terrestrial essential climate variable (ECV) required by global and regional climate and biogeochemical models. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Multi AngLe Imaging Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function small-UAS (MALIBU) is part of a series of pathfinder missions to develop enhanced multi-angular remote sensing techniques using small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). The MALIBU instrument package includes two multispectral imagers oriented at two different viewing geometries (i.e., port and starboard sides) capture vegetation optical properties and structural characteristics. This is achieved by analyzing the surface reflectance anisotropy signal (i.e., BRDF shape) obtained from the combination of surface reflectance from different view-illumination angles and spectral channels. Satellite measures of surface albedo from MODIS, VIIRS, and Landsat have been evaluated by comparison with spatially representative albedometer data from sparsely distributed flux towers at fixed heights. However, the mismatch between the footprint of ground measurements and the satellite footprint challenges efforts at validation, especially for heterogeneous landscapes. The BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) models of surface anisotropy have only been evaluated with airborne BRDF data over a very few locations. The MALIBU platform that acquires extremely high resolution sub-meter measures of surface anisotropy and surface albedo, can thus serve as an important source of reference data to enable global land product validation efforts, and resolve the errors and uncertainties in the various existing products generated by NASA and its national and

Retrieving Single Scattering Albedos and Temperatures from CRISM Hyperspectral Data Using Neural Networks

Science.gov (United States)

He, L.; Arvidson, R. E.; O'Sullivan, J. A.

2018-04-01

We use a neural network (NN) approach to simultaneously retrieve surface single scattering albedos and temperature maps for CRISM data from 1.40 to 3.85 µm. It approximates the inverse of DISORT which simulates solar and emission radiative streams.

Parameterizations for narrowband and broadband albedo of pure snow and snow containing mineral dust and black carbon

Science.gov (United States)

Dang, Cheng; Brandt, Richard E.; Warren, Stephen G.

2015-06-01

The reduction of snow spectral albedo by black carbon (BC) and mineral dust, both alone and in combination, is computed using radiative transfer modeling. Broadband albedo is shown for mass fractions covering the full range from pure snow to pure BC and pure dust, and for snow grain radii from 5 µm to 2500 µm, to cover the range of possible grain sizes on planetary surfaces. Parameterizations are developed for opaque homogeneous snowpacks for three broad bands used in general circulation models and several narrower bands. They are functions of snow grain radius and the mass fraction of BC and/or dust and are valid up to BC content of 10 ppm, needed for highly polluted snow. A change of solar zenith angle can be mimicked by changing grain radius. A given mass fraction of BC causes greater albedo reduction in coarse-grained snow; BC and grain radius can be combined into a single variable to compute the reduction of albedo relative to pure snow. The albedo reduction by BC is less if the snow contains dust, a common situation on mountain glaciers and in agricultural and grazing lands. Measured absorption spectra of mineral dust are critically reviewed as a basis for specifying dust properties for modeling. The effect of dust on snow albedo at visible wavelengths can be represented by an "equivalent BC" amount, scaled down by a factor of about 200. Dust has little effect on the near-IR albedo because the near-IR albedo of pure dust is similar to that of pure snow.

Bright is the New Black - Multi-Year Performance of Generic High-Albedo Roofs in an Urban Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Gaffin, S. R.; Imhoff, M.; Rosenzweig, C.; Khanbilvardi, R.; Pasqualini, A.; Kong, A. Y. Y.; Grillo, D.; Freed, A.; Hillel, D.; Hartung, E.

2012-01-01

High-albedo white and cool roofing membranes are recognized as a fundamental strategy that dense urban areas can deploy on a large scale, at low cost, to mitigate the urban heat island effect. We are monitoring three generic white membranes within New York City that represent a cross-section of the dominant white membrane options for U.S. flat roofs: (1) an ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber membrane; (2) a thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) membrane and; (3) an asphaltic multi-ply built-up membrane coated with white elastomeric acrylic paint. The paint product is being used by New York City s government for the first major urban albedo enhancement program in its history. We report on the temperature and related albedo performance of these three membranes at three different sites over a multi-year period. The results indicate that the professionally installed white membranes are maintaining their temperature control effectively and are meeting the Energy Star Cool Roofing performance standards requiring a three-year aged albedo above 0.50. The EPDM membrane however shows evidence of low emissivity. The painted asphaltic surface shows high emissivity but lost about half of its initial albedo within two years after installation. Given that the acrylic approach is an important "do-it-yourself," low-cost, retrofit technique, and, as such, offers the most rapid technique for increasing urban albedo, further product performance research is recommended to identify conditions that optimize its long-term albedo control. Even so, its current multi-year performance still represents a significant albedo enhancement for urban heat island mitigation.

Measuring the influence of aerosols and albedo on sky polarization.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreuter, A; Emde, C; Blumthaler, M

2010-11-01

All-sky distributions of the polarized radiance are measured using an automated fish-eye camera system with a rotating polarizer. For a large range of aerosol and surface albedo situations, the influence on the degree of polarization and sky radiance is investigated. The range of aerosol optical depth and albedo is 0.05-0.5 and 0.1-0.75, respectively. For this range of parameters, a reduction of the degree of polarization from about 0.7 to 0.4 was observed. The analysis is done for 90° scattering angle in the principal plane under clear sky conditions for a broadband channel of 450 ± 25 nm and solar zenith angles between 55° and 60°. Radiative transfer calculations considering three different aerosol mixtures are performed and and agree with the measurements within the statistical error.

Intercomparison measurements with albedo neutron dosimeters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alberts, W.G.; Kluge, H.

1994-01-01

Since the introduction of the albedo dosimeter as the official personal neutron dosimeter the dosimetry services concerned have participated in intercomparison measurements at the PTB. Their albedo dosimeters were irradiated in reference fields produced by unmoderated and D 2 O-moderated 252 Cf neutron sources in the standard irradiation facility of the PTB. Six fields with fluences different in energy and angle distribution could be realised in order to determine the response of the albedo dosimeter. The dose equivalent values evaluated by the services were compared with the reference values of the PTB for the directional dose equivalent H'(10). The results turned out to be essentially dependent on the evaluation method and the choice of the calibration factors. (orig.) [de

Analysis of earth albedo effect on sun sensor measurements based on theoretical model and mission experience

Science.gov (United States)

Brasoveanu, Dan; Sedlak, Joseph

1998-01-01

Analysis of flight data from previous missions indicates that anomalous Sun sensor readings could be caused by Earth albedo interference. A previous Sun sensor study presented a detailed mathematical model of this effect. The model can be used to study the effect of both diffusive and specular reflections and to improve Sun angle determination based on perturbed Sun sensor measurements, satellite position, and an approximate knowledge of attitude. The model predicts that diffuse reflected light can cause errors of up to 10 degrees in Coarse Sun Sensor (CSS) measurements and 5 to 10 arc sec in Fine Sun Sensor (FSS) measurements, depending on spacecraft orbit and attitude. The accuracy of these sensors is affected as long as part of the illuminated Earth surface is present in the sensor field of view. Digital Sun Sensors (DSS) respond in a different manner to the Earth albedo interference. Most of the time DSS measurements are not affected, but for brief periods of time the Earth albedo can cause errors which are a multiple of the sensor least significant bit and may exceed one degree. This paper compares model predictions with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) CSS measurements in order to validate and refine the model. Methods of reducing and mitigating the impact of Earth albedo are discussed. ne CSS sensor errors are roughly proportional to the Earth albedo coefficient. Photocells that are sensitive only to ultraviolet emissions would reduce the effective Earth albedo by up to a thousand times, virtually eliminating all errors caused by Earth albedo interference.

Impact of Atmospheric Albedo on Amazon Evapotranspiration

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, A. V.; Thompson, S. E.; Dracup, J. A.

2013-12-01

The vulnerability of the Amazon region to climate and anthropogenic driven disturbances has been the subject of extensive research efforts, given its importance in the global and regional climate and ecologic systems. The evaluation of such vulnerabilities requires the proper understanding of physical mechanisms controlling water and energy balances and how the disturbances change them. Among those mechanisms, the effects of atmospheric albedo on evapotranspiration have not been fully explored yet and are explored in this study. Evapotranspiration in the Amazon is sustained at high levels across all seasons and represents a large fraction of water and energy surface budgets. In this study, statistical analysis of data from four flux towers installed at Amazon primary forest sites was employed to quantify the impact of atmospheric albedo, mostly resulted from cloudiness, on evapotranspiration and to compare it to the effect of water limitation. Firstly, the difference in eddy-flux derived evapotranspiration at the flux towers under rainy and non-rainy antecedent conditions was tested for significance. Secondly, the same statistical comparison was performed under cloudy and clear sky conditions at hourly and daily time scales, using the reduction in incoming solar radiation as an indicator of cloudiness. Finally, the sensitivity of seasonal evapotranspiration totals to atmospheric albedo resulted from rainfall patterns is evaluated. That was done by sampling daily evapotranspiration estimates from empirical probability distribution functions conditioned to rainfall occurrence and then varying the number of dry days in each season. It was found that light limitation is much more important than water limitation in the Amazon, resulting in up to 43% reduction in daily evapotranspiration. Also, this effect varies by location and by season, the largest impact being in wet season, from December do January. Moreover, seasonal evapotranspiration totals were found to be

Atmospheric statistical dynamic models. Climate experiments: albedo experiments with a zonal atmospheric model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Potter, G.L.; Ellsaesser, H.W.; MacCracken, M.C.; Luther, F.M.

1978-06-01

The zonal model experiments with modified surface boundary conditions suggest an initial chain of feedback processes that is largest at the site of the perturbation: deforestation and/or desertification → increased surface albedo → reduced surface absorption of solar radiation → surface cooling and reduced evaporation → reduced convective activity → reduced precipitation and latent heat release → cooling of upper troposphere and increased tropospheric lapse rates → general global cooling and reduced precipitation. As indicated above, although the two experiments give similar overall global results, the location of the perturbation plays an important role in determining the response of the global circulation. These two-dimensional model results are also consistent with three-dimensional model experiments. These results have tempted us to consider the possibility that self-induced growth of the subtropical deserts could serve as a possible mechanism to cause the initial global cooling that then initiates a glacial advance thus activating the positive feedback loop involving ice-albedo feedback (also self-perpetuating). Reversal of the cycle sets in when the advancing ice cover forces the wave-cyclone tracks far enough equatorward to quench (revegetate) the subtropical deserts

NEOWISE REACTIVATION MISSION YEAR TWO: ASTEROID DIAMETERS AND ALBEDOS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nugent, C. R.; Cutri, R. M. [Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Mainzer, A.; Bauer, J.; Kramer, E. A.; Masiero, J.; Sonnett, S. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Grav, T. [Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ (United States); Wright, E. L., E-mail: cnugent@ipac.caltech.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)

2016-09-01

The Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission continues to detect, track, and characterize minor planets. We present diameters and albedos calculated from observations taken during the second year since the spacecraft was reactivated in late 2013. These include 207 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and 8885 other asteroids. Of the NEAs, 84% NEAs did not have previously measured diameters and albedos by the NEOWISE mission. Comparison of sizes and albedos calculated from NEOWISE measurements with those measured by occultations, spacecraft, and radar-derived shapes shows accuracy consistent with previous NEOWISE publications. Diameters and albedos fall within ±∼20% and ±∼40%, 1-sigma, respectively, of those measured by these alternate techniques. NEOWISE continues to preferentially discover near-Earth objects which are large (>100 m), and have low albedos.

Baring high-albedo soils by overgrazing - A hypothesized desertification mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Otterman, J.

1974-01-01

Observations are reported of high-albedo soils denuded by overgrazing which appear bright, in high contrast to regions covered by natural vegetation. Measurements and modeling show that the denuded surfaces are cooler, when compared under sunlit conditions. This observed 'thermal depression' effect should, on theoretical grounds, result in a decreased lifting of air necessary for cloud formation and precipitation, and thus lead to regional climatic desertification.

Effect of spectrally varying albedo of vegetation surfaces on shortwave radiation fluxes and aerosol direct radiative forcing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Zhu

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This study develops an algorithm for representing detailed spectral features of vegetation albedo based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS observations at 7 discrete channels, referred to as the MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Albedo (MEVA algorithm. The MEVA algorithm empirically fills spectral gaps around the vegetation red edge near 0.7 μm and vegetation water absorption features at 1.48 and 1.92 μm which cannot be adequately captured by the MODIS 7 channels. We then assess the effects of applying MEVA in comparison to four other traditional approaches to calculate solar fluxes and aerosol direct radiative forcing (DRF at the top of atmosphere (TOA based on the MODIS discrete reflectance bands. By comparing the DRF results obtained through the MEVA method with the results obtained through the other four traditional approaches, we show that filling the spectral gap of the MODIS measurements around 0.7 μm based on the general spectral behavior of healthy green vegetation leads to significant improvement in the instantaneous aerosol DRF at TOA (up to 3.02 W m⁻² difference or 48% fraction of the aerosol DRF, −6.28 W m⁻², calculated for high spectral resolution surface reflectance from 0.3 to 2.5 μm for deciduous vegetation surface. The corrections of the spectral gaps in the vegetation spectrum in the near infrared, again missed by the MODIS reflectances, also contributes to improving TOA DRF calculations but to a much lower extent (less than 0.27 W m⁻², or about 4% of the instantaneous DRF.

Compared to traditional approaches, MEVA also improves the accuracy of the outgoing solar flux between 0.3 to 2.5 μm at TOA by over 60 W m⁻² (for aspen 3 surface and aerosol DRF by over 10 W m⁻² (for dry grass. Specifically, for Amazon vegetation types, MEVA can improve the accuracy of daily averaged aerosol radiative forcing in the spectral range of 0.3 to 2.5 μm at

An Alternative Approach to Mapping Thermophysical Units from Martian Thermal Inertia and Albedo Data Using a Combination of Unsupervised Classification Techniques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eriita Jones

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Thermal inertia and albedo provide information on the distribution of surface materials on Mars. These parameters have been mapped globally on Mars by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES onboard the Mars Global Surveyor. Two-dimensional clusters of thermal inertia and albedo reflect the thermophysical attributes of the dominant materials on the surface. In this paper three automated, non-deterministic, algorithmic classification methods are employed for defining thermophysical units: Expectation Maximisation of a Gaussian Mixture Model; Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA; and Maximum Likelihood. We analyse the behaviour of the thermophysical classes resulting from the three classifiers, operating on the 2007 TES thermal inertia and albedo datasets. Producing a rigorous mapping of thermophysical classes at ~3 km/pixel resolution remains important for constraining the geologic processes that have shaped the Martian surface on a regional scale, and for choosing appropriate landing sites. The results from applying these algorithms are compared to geologic maps, surface data from lander missions, features derived from imaging, and previous classifications of thermophysical units which utilized manual (and potentially more time consuming classification methods. These comparisons comprise data suitable for validation of our classifications. Our work shows that a combination of the algorithms—ISODATA and Maximum Likelihood—optimises the sensitivity to the underlying dataspace, and that new information on Martian surface materials can be obtained by using these methods. We demonstrate that the algorithms used here can be applied to define a finer partitioning of albedo and thermal inertia for a more detailed mapping of surface materials, grain sizes and thermal behaviour of the Martian surface and shallow subsurface, at the ~3 km scale.

Can uncertainties in sea ice albedo reconcile patterns of data-model discord for the Pliocene and 20th/21st centuries?

Science.gov (United States)

Howell, Fergus W.; Haywood, Alan M.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Francis, Jane E; Hill, Daniel J.; Pickering, Steven J.; Pope, James O.; Salzmann, Ulrich; Wade, Bidget S

2014-01-01

General Circulation Model simulations of the mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP, 3.264 to 3.025 Myr ago) currently underestimate the level of warming that proxy data suggest existed at high latitudes, with discrepancies of up to 11°C for sea surface temperature estimates and 17°C for surface air temperature estimates. Sea ice has a strong influence on high-latitude climates, partly due to the albedo feedback. We present results demonstrating the effects of reductions in minimum sea ice albedo limits in general circulation model simulations of the mPWP. While mean annual surface air temperature increases of up to 6°C are observed in the Arctic, the maximum decrease in model-data discrepancies is just 0.81°C. Mean annual sea surface temperatures increase by up to 2°C, with a maximum model-data discrepancy improvement of 1.31°C. It is also suggested that the simulation of observed 21st century sea ice decline could be influenced by the adjustment of the sea ice albedo parameterization.

Atmospheric sensitivity to land surface changes: comparing the impact of albedo, roughness, and evaporative resistance on near-surface air temperature using an idealized land model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lague, M. M.; Swann, A. L. S.; Bonan, G. B.

2017-12-01

Past studies have demonstrated how changes in vegetation can impact the atmosphere; however, it is often difficult to identify the exact physical pathway through which vegetation changes drive an atmospheric response. Surface properties (such as vegetation color, or height) control surface energy fluxes, which feed back on the atmosphere on both local and global scales by modifying temperatures, cloud cover, and energy gradients. Understanding how land surface properties influence energy fluxes is crucial for improving our understanding of how vegetation change - past, present, and future - impacts the atmosphere, global climate, and people. We explore the sensitivity of the atmosphere to perturbations of three land surface properties - albedo, roughness, and evaporative resistance - using an idealized land model coupled to an Earth System Model. We derive a relationship telling us how large a change in each surface property is required to drive a local 0.1 K change in 2m air temperature. Using this idealized framework, we are able to separate the influence on the atmosphere of each individual surface property. We demonstrate that the impact of each surface property on the atmosphere is spatially variable - that is, a similar change in vegetation can have different climate impacts if made in different locations. This analysis not only improves our understanding of how the land system can influence climate, but also provides us with a set of theoretical limits on the potential climate impact of arbitrary vegetation change (natural or anthropogenic).

Extensive computation of albedo contrast between martian dust devil tracks and their neighboring regions

Science.gov (United States)

Statella, Thiago; Pina, Pedro; da Silva, Erivaldo Antônio

2015-04-01

We have developed a method to compute the albedo contrast between dust devil tracks and their surrounding regions on Mars. It is mainly based on Mathematical Morphology operators and uses all the points of the edges of the tracks to compute the values of the albedo contrast. It permits the extraction of more accurate and complete information, when compared to traditional point sampling, not only providing better statistics but also permitting the analysis of local variations along the entirety of the tracks. This measure of contrast, based on relative quantities, is much more adequate to establish comparisons at regional scales and in multi-temporal basis using imagery acquired in rather different environmental and operational conditions. Also, the substantial increase in the details extracted may permit quantifying differential depositions of dust by computing local temporal fading of the tracks with consequences on a better estimation of the thickness of the top most layer of dust and the minimum value needed to create dust devils tracks. The developed tool is tested on 110 HiRISE images depicting regions in the Aeolis, Argyre, Eridania, Noachis and Hellas quadrangles. As a complementary evaluation, we also performed a temporal analysis of the albedo in a region of Russell crater, where high seasonal dust devil activity was already observed before, comprising the years 2007-2012. The mean albedo of the Russell crater is in this case indicative of dust devil tracks presence and, therefore, can be used to quantify dust devil activity.

The effect of host star spectral energy distribution and ice-albedo feedback on the climate of extrasolar planets.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Aomawa L; Meadows, Victoria S; Bitz, Cecilia M; Pierrehumbert, Raymond T; Joshi, Manoj M; Robinson, Tyler D

2013-08-01

Planetary climate can be affected by the interaction of the host star spectral energy distribution with the wavelength-dependent reflectivity of ice and snow. In this study, we explored this effect with a one-dimensional (1-D), line-by-line, radiative transfer model to calculate broadband planetary albedos as input to a seasonally varying, 1-D energy balance climate model. A three-dimensional (3-D) general circulation model was also used to explore the atmosphere's response to changes in incoming stellar radiation, or instellation, and surface albedo. Using this hierarchy of models, we simulated planets covered by ocean, land, and water-ice of varying grain size, with incident radiation from stars of different spectral types. Terrestrial planets orbiting stars with higher near-UV radiation exhibited a stronger ice-albedo feedback. We found that ice extent was much greater on a planet orbiting an F-dwarf star than on a planet orbiting a G-dwarf star at an equivalent flux distance, and that ice-covered conditions occurred on an F-dwarf planet with only a 2% reduction in instellation relative to the present instellation on Earth, assuming fixed CO(2) (present atmospheric level on Earth). A similar planet orbiting the Sun at an equivalent flux distance required an 8% reduction in instellation, while a planet orbiting an M-dwarf star required an additional 19% reduction in instellation to become ice-covered, equivalent to 73% of the modern solar constant. The reduction in instellation must be larger for planets orbiting cooler stars due in large part to the stronger absorption of longer-wavelength radiation by icy surfaces on these planets in addition to stronger absorption by water vapor and CO(2) in their atmospheres, which provides increased downwelling longwave radiation. Lowering the IR and visible-band surface ice and snow albedos for an M-dwarf planet increased the planet's climate stability against changes in instellation and slowed the descent into global ice

Potential decadal predictability and its sensitivity to sea ice albedo parameterization in a global coupled model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koenigk, Torben; Caian, Mihaela; Doescher, Ralf; Wyser, Klaus [Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Rossby Centre, Norrkoeping (Sweden); Koenig Beatty, Christof [Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)

2012-06-15

Decadal prediction is one focus of the upcoming 5th IPCC Assessment report. To be able to interpret the results and to further improve the decadal predictions it is important to investigate the potential predictability in the participating climate models. This study analyzes the upper limit of climate predictability on decadal time scales and its dependency on sea ice albedo parameterization by performing two perfect ensemble experiments with the global coupled climate model EC-Earth. In the first experiment, the standard albedo formulation of EC-Earth is used, in the second experiment sea ice albedo is reduced. The potential prognostic predictability is analyzed for a set of oceanic and atmospheric parameters. The decadal predictability of the atmospheric circulation is small. The highest potential predictability was found in air temperature at 2 m height over the northern North Atlantic and the southern South Atlantic. Over land, only a few areas are significantly predictable. The predictability for continental size averages of air temperature is relatively good in all northern hemisphere regions. Sea ice thickness is highly predictable along the ice edges in the North Atlantic Arctic Sector. The meridional overturning circulation is highly predictable in both experiments and governs most of the decadal climate predictability in the northern hemisphere. The experiments using reduced sea ice albedo show some important differences like a generally higher predictability of atmospheric variables in the Arctic or higher predictability of air temperature in Europe. Furthermore, decadal variations are substantially smaller in the simulations with reduced ice albedo, which can be explained by reduced sea ice thickness in these simulations. (orig.)

Intercomparison and validation of snow albedo parameterization schemes in climate models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pedersen, Christina A.; Winther, Jan-Gunnar [Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsoe (Norway)

2005-09-01

Snow albedo is known to be crucial for heat exchange at high latitudes and high altitudes, and is also an important parameter in General Circulation Models (GCMs) because of its strong positive feedback properties. In this study, seven GCM snow albedo schemes and a multiple linear regression model were intercompared and validated against 59 years of in situ data from Svalbard, the French Alps and six stations in the former Soviet Union. For each site, the significant meteorological parameters for modeling the snow albedo were identified by constructing the 95% confidence intervals. The significant parameters were found to be: temperature, snow depth, positive degree day and a dummy of snow depth, and the multiple linear regression model was constructed to include these. Overall, the intercomparison showed that the modeled snow albedo varied more than the observed albedo for all models, and that the albedo was often underestimated. In addition, for several of the models, the snow albedo decreased at a faster rate or by a greater magnitude during the winter snow metamorphosis than the observed albedo. Both the temperature dependent schemes and the prognostic schemes showed shortcomings. (orig.)

Albedos and spectral signatures determination and it connection to geological processes: Simile between Earth and other solar system bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez, J.; Ochoa, L.; Saavedra, F.

2017-07-01

Remote sensing has always been the best investigation tool for planetary sciences. In this research have been used data of Surface albedo, electromagnetic spectra and satelital imagery in search of understanding glacier dynamics in some bodies of the solar system, and how it's related to their compositions and associated geological processes, this methodology is very common in icy moons studies. Through analytic software's some albedos map's and geomorphological analysis were made that allow interpretation of different types of ice in the glacier's and it's interaction with other materials, almost all the images were worked in the visible and infrared ranges of the spectrum; spectral data were later used to connect the reflectance whit chemical and reologic properties of the compounds studied. It have been concluded that the albedo analysis is an effective tool to differentiate materials in the bodies surfaces, but the application of spectral data is necessary to know the exact compounds of the glaciers and to have a better understanding of the icy bodies.

Derivation of high spatial resolution albedo from UAV digital imagery: application over the Greenland Ice Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Jonathan C.; Hubbard, Alun; Box, Jason E.; Brough, Stephen; Cameron, Karen; Cook, Joseph M.; Cooper, Matthew; Doyle, Samuel H.; Edwards, Arwyn; Holt, Tom; Irvine-Fynn, Tristram; Jones, Christine; Pitcher, Lincoln H.; Rennermalm, Asa K.; Smith, Laurence C.; Stibal, Marek; Snooke, Neal

2017-05-01

Measurements of albedo are a prerequisite for modelling surface melt across the Earth's cryosphere, yet available satellite products are limited in spatial and/or temporal resolution. Here, we present a practical methodology to obtain centimetre resolution albedo products with accuracies of 5% using consumer-grade digital camera and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies. Our method comprises a workflow for processing, correcting and calibrating raw digital images using a white reference target, and upward and downward shortwave radiation measurements from broadband silicon pyranometers. We demonstrate the method with a set of UAV sorties over the western, K-sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The resulting albedo product, UAV10A1, covers 280 km2, at a resolution of 20 cm per pixel and has a root-mean-square difference of 3.7% compared to MOD10A1 and 4.9% compared to ground-based broadband pyranometer measurements. By continuously measuring downward solar irradiance, the technique overcomes previous limitations due to variable illumination conditions during and between surveys over glaciated terrain. The current miniaturization of multispectral sensors and incorporation of upward facing radiation sensors on UAV packages means that this technique will likely become increasingly attractive in field studies and used in a wide range of applications for high temporal and spatial resolution surface mapping of debris, dust, cryoconite and bioalbedo and for directly constraining surface energy balance models.

Reactive solid surface morphology variation via ionic diffusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Zhenchao; Zhou, Qiang; Fan, Liang-Shih

2012-08-14

In gas-solid reactions, one of the most important factors that determine the overall reaction rate is the solid morphology, which can be characterized by a combination of smooth, convex and concave structures. Generally, the solid surface structure varies in the course of reactions, which is classically noted as being attributed to one or more of the following three mechanisms: mechanical interaction, molar volume change, and sintering. Here we show that if a gas-solid reaction involves the outward ionic diffusion of a solid-phase reactant then this outward ionic diffusion could eventually smooth the surface with an initial concave and/or convex structure. Specifically, the concave surface is filled via a larger outward diffusing surface pointing to the concave valley, whereas the height of the convex surface decreases via a lower outward diffusion flux in the vertical direction. A quantitative 2-D continuum diffusion model is established to analyze these two morphological variation processes, which shows consistent results with the experiments. This surface morphology variation by solid-phase ionic diffusion serves to provide a fourth mechanism that supplements the traditionally acknowledged solid morphology variation or, in general, porosity variation mechanisms in gas-solid reactions.

Thermoluminescence albedo-neutron dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strand, T.; Storruste, A.

1986-10-01

The report discusses neutron detection with respect to dosimetry and compares different thermoluminescent dosimetry materials for neutron dosimetry. Construction and calibration of a thermoluminescence albedo neutron dosemeter, developed by the authors, is described

Albedo's determination by the method of neutron impulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flores Calderon, J.E.

1982-01-01

Experiments with non-stationary neutron transport in large cavity moderators (l>>Σsub(tr) -1 ) (where l is the characteristic cavity length and Σsub(tr) -1 the macroscopic transport section of the moderator) led to the method reported in this study which, based on neutron impulses for determining albedo of thermal neutrons, gave a precision greater by an order of magnitude over previous methods. A sufficient time interval after introduction of the neutron flux into the moderator chamber decreased exponentially the decay constant L, which was itself related to albedo by a function called f. Numerical calculations of albedo were assisted. (author)

MERIS albedo climatology for FRESCO+ O2 A-band cloud retrieval

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Zhou

2011-03-01

Full Text Available A new global albedo climatology for Oxygen A-band cloud retrievals is presented. The climatology is based on MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS Albedomap data and its favourable impact on the derivation of cloud fraction is demonstrated for the FRESCO+ (Fast Retrieval Scheme for Clouds from the Oxygen A-band algorithm. To date, a relatively coarse resolution (1° × 1° surface reflectance dataset from GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment Lambert-equivalent reflectivity (LER is used in FRESCO+. The GOME LER climatology does not account for the usually higher spatial resolution of UV/VIS instruments designed for trace gas remote sensing which introduces several artefacts, e.g. in regions with sharp spectral contrasts like coastlines or over bright surface targets. Therefore, MERIS black-sky albedo (BSA data from the period October 2002 to October 2006 were aggregated to a grid of 0.25° × 0.25° for each month of the year and for different spectral channels. In contrary to other available surface reflectivity datasets, MERIS includes channels at 754 nm and 775 nm which are located close to the spectral windows required for O2 A-band cloud retrievals. The MERIS BSA in the near-infrared compares well to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS derived BSA with an average difference lower than 1% and a correlation coefficient of 0.98. However, when relating MERIS BSA to GOME LER a distinctly lower correlation (0.80 and enhanced scatter is found. Effective cloud fractions from two exemplary months (January and July 2006 of Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY data were subsequently derived with FRESCO+ and compared to those from the Heidelberg Iterative Cloud Retrieval Utilities (HICRU algorithm. The MERIS climatology generally improves FRESCO+ effective cloud fractions. In particular small cloud fractions are in better agreement with HICRU. This is of importance for atmospheric

Higher albedos and size distribution of large transneptunian objects

Science.gov (United States)

Lykawka, Patryk Sofia; Mukai, Tadashi

2005-11-01

Transneptunian objects (TNOs) orbit beyond Neptune and do offer important clues about the formation of our solar system. Although observations have been increasing the number of discovered TNOs and improving their orbital elements, very little is known about elementary physical properties such as sizes, albedos and compositions. Due to TNOs large distances (>40 AU) and observational limitations, reliable physical information can be obtained only from brighter objects (supposedly larger bodies). According to size and albedo measurements available, it is evident the traditionally assumed albedo p=0.04 cannot hold for all TNOs, especially those with approximately absolute magnitudes H⩽5.5. That is, the largest TNOs possess higher albedos (generally >0.04) that strongly appear to increase as a function of size. Using a compilation of published data, we derived empirical relations which can provide estimations of diameters and albedos as a function of absolute magnitude. Calculations result in more accurate size/albedo estimations for TNOs with H⩽5.5 than just assuming p=0.04. Nevertheless, considering low statistics, the value p=0.04 sounds still convenient for H>5.5 non-binary TNOs as a group. We also discuss about physical processes (e.g., collisions, intrinsic activity and the presence of tenuous atmospheres) responsible for the increase of albedo among large bodies. Currently, all big TNOs (>700 km) would be capable to sustain thin atmospheres or icy frosts composed of CH 4, CO or N 2 even for body bulk densities as low as 0.5 g cm -3. A size-dependent albedo has important consequences for the TNOs size distribution, cumulative luminosity function and total mass estimations. According to our analysis, the latter can be reduced up to 50% if higher albedos are common among large bodies. Lastly, by analyzing orbital properties of classical TNOs ( 42AUbodies. For both populations, distinct absolute magnitude distributions are maximized for an inclination threshold

Matrix albedo for discrete ordinates infinite-medium boundary condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mathews, K.; Dishaw, J.

2007-01-01

Discrete ordinates problems with an infinite exterior medium (reflector) can be more efficiently computed by eliminating grid cells in the exterior medium and applying a matrix albedo boundary condition. The albedo matrix is a discretized bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF) that accounts for the angular quadrature set, spatial quadrature method, and spatial grid that would have been used to model a portion of the exterior medium. The method is exact in slab geometry, and could be used as an approximation in multiple dimensions or curvilinear coordinates. We present an adequate method for computing albedo matrices and demonstrate their use in verifying a discrete ordinates code in slab geometry by comparison with Ganapol's infinite medium semi-analytic TIEL benchmark. With sufficient resolution in the spatial and angular grids and iteration tolerance to yield solutions converged to 6 digits, the conventional (scalar) albedo boundary condition yielded 2-digit accuracy at the boundary, but the matrix albedo solution reproduced the benchmark scalar flux at the boundary to all 6 digits. (authors)

Surface BRDF estimation from an aircraft compared to MODIS and ground estimates at the Southern Great Plains site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knobelspiesse, Kirk D.; Cairns, Brian; Schmid, Beat; Roman, Miguel O.; Schaaf, Crystal B.

2008-10-21

Ames Airborne Tracking Sunphotometer (AATS-14), which was operated on the same aircraft as the RSP. The RSP data can therefore be used to validate the MODIS BRDF product and diagnose the reason for the discrepancies with BEFLUX. Our analysis indicates that MODIS and RSP estimates of surface absorption and BEFLUX measurements do agree and that previously noticed differences between MODIS albedo products and BEFLUX were due as much to the analysis techniques used as to any instrumental effects. We conclude that the MODIS BRDF products provide a useful measure of surface albedo that can be used to determine whether the surface radiative heating in climate models has a realistic spatial and seasonal variation.

The impact of implementing the bare essentials of surface transfer land surface scheme into the BMRC GCM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Z.L. [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Pitman, A.J. [Macquarie Univ., Sydney (Australia); McAvaney, B. [Bureau of Meterology Research Centre, Melbourne (Australia)] [and others

1995-07-01

This study describes the first order impacts of incorporating a complex land-surface scheme, the bare essentials of surface transfer (BEST), into the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC) global atmospheric general circulation model (GCM). Land seasonal climatologies averaged over the last six years of integrations after equilibrium from the GCM with BEST and without BEST (the control) are compared. The modeled results are evaluated with comprehensive sources of data, including the layer-cloud climatologies project (ISCCP) data from 1983 to 1991 and the surface-observed global data of Warrent et al., a five-year climatology of surface albedo estimated from earth radiation budget experiment (ERBE) top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative fluxes, global grid point datasets of precipitation, and the climatological analyses of surface evaporation and albedo. Emphasis is placed on the surface evaluation of simulations of land-surface conditions such as surface roughness, surface albedo and the surface wetness factor, and on their effects on surface evaporation, precipitation, layer-cloud and surface temperature. The improvements due to the inclusion of BEST are: a realistic geographical distribution of surface roughness, a decrease in surface albedo over areas with seasonal snow cover, an an increase in surface albedo over snow-free land. The simulated reduction in surface evaporation due, in part, to the bio-physical control of vegetation, is also consistent with the previous studies. Since the control climate has a dry bias, the overall simulations from the GCM with BEST are degraded, except for significant improvements for the northern winter hemisphere because of the realistic vegetation-masking effects. The implications of our results for synergistic developments of other aspects of model parameterization schemes such as boundary layer dynamics, clouds, convection and rainfall are discussed. 82 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.

Continuous versus discontinuous albedo representations in a simple diffusive climate model

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, P. A.; Griffel, D. H.

1988-07-01

A one-dimensional annually and zonally averaged energy-balance model, with diffusive meridional heat transport and including icealbedo feedback, is considered. This type of model is found to be very sensitive to the form of albedo used. The solutions for a discontinuous step-function albedo are compared to those for a more realistic smoothly varying albedo. The smooth albedo gives a closer fit to present conditions, but the discontinuous form gives a better representation of climates in earlier epochs.

Urban Morphology Influence on Urban Albedo: A Revisit with the S olene Model

Science.gov (United States)

Groleau, Dominique; Mestayer, Patrice G.

2013-05-01

This heuristic study of the urban morphology influence on urban albedo is based on some 3,500 simulations with the S olene model. The studied configurations include square blocks in regular and staggered rows, rectangular blocks with different street widths, cross-shaped blocks, infinite street canyons and several actual districts in Marseilles, Toulouse and Nantes, France. The scanned variables are plan density, facade density, building height, layout orientation, latitude, date and time of the day. The sky-view factors of the ground and canopy surfaces are also considered. This study demonstrates the significance of the facade density, in addition to the built plan density, as the explanatory geometrical factor to characterize the urban morphology, rather than building height. On the basis of these albedo calculations the puzzling results of Kondo et al. (Boundary-Layer Meteorol 100:225-242, 2001) for the influence of building height are explained, and the plan density influence is quantitatively assessed. It is shown that the albedo relationship with plan and facade densities obtained with the regular square plot configuration may be considered as a reference for all other configurations, with the exception of the infinite street canyon that shows systematic differences for the lower plan densities. The curves representing this empirical relationship may be used as a sort of abacus for all other geometries while an approximate simple mathematical model is proposed, as well as relationships between the albedo and sky-view factors.

Algorithm to retrieve the melt pond fraction and the spectral albedo of Arctic summer ice from satellite optical data

OpenAIRE

Zege, E.; Malinka, A.; Katsev, I.; Prikhach, A.; Heygster, Georg; Istomina, L.; Birnbaum, Gerit; Schwarz, Pascal

2015-01-01

A new algorithmto retrieve characteristics (albedo and melt pond fraction) of summer ice in the Arctic fromoptical satellite data is described. In contrast to other algorithms this algorithm does not use a priori values of the spectral albedo of the sea-ice constituents (such asmelt ponds,white ice etc.). Instead, it is based on an analytical solution for the reflection from sea ice surface. The algorithm includes the correction of the sought-for ice and ponds characteristics with...

The melt pond fraction and spectral sea ice albedo retrieval from MERIS data: validation and trends of sea ice albedo and melt pond fraction in the Arctic for years 2002-2011

Science.gov (United States)

Istomina, L.; Heygster, G.; Huntemann, M.; Schwarz, P.; Birnbaum, G.; Scharien, R.; Polashenski, C.; Perovich, D.; Zege, E.; Malinka, A.; Prikhach, A.; Katsev, I.

2014-10-01

The presence of melt ponds on the Arctic sea ice strongly affects the energy balance of the Arctic Ocean in summer. It affects albedo as well as transmittance through the sea ice, which has consequences on the heat balance and mass balance of sea ice. An algorithm to retrieve melt pond fraction and sea ice albedo (Zege et al., 2014) from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) data is validated against aerial, ship borne and in situ campaign data. The result show the best correlation for landfast and multiyear ice of high ice concentrations (albedo: R = 0.92, RMS = 0.068, melt pond fraction: R = 0.6, RMS = 0.065). The correlation for lower ice concentrations, subpixel ice floes, blue ice and wet ice is lower due to complicated surface conditions and ice drift. Combining all aerial observations gives a mean albedo RMS equal to 0.089 and a mean melt pond fraction RMS equal to 0.22. The in situ melt pond fraction correlation is R = 0.72 with an RMS = 0.14. Ship cruise data might be affected by documentation of varying accuracy within the ASPeCT protocol, which is the reason for discrepancy between the satellite value and observed value: mean R = 0.21, mean RMS = 0.16. An additional dynamic spatial cloud filter for MERIS over snow and ice has been developed to assist with the validation on swath data. The case studies and trend analysis for the whole MERIS period (2002-2011) show pronounced and reasonable spatial features of melt pond fractions and sea ice albedo. The most prominent feature is the melt onset shifting towards spring (starting already in weeks 3 and 4 of June) within the multiyear ice area, north to the Queen Elizabeth Islands and North Greenland.

a Study of the Impact of Doubling Carbon Dioxide and Solar Radiation Variations on the Climate System.

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Shaoping

The exchange of moisture and heat between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface fundamentally affect the dynamics and thermodynamics of the climate system. In order to trace moisture flow through the climate system and examine its impact on climate, a hydrologic cycle and a land energy balance have been developed and incorporated into a coupled climate-thermodynamic sea ice (CCSI) model. The expanded CCSI model has been tested by comparing computed climate parameters with available observations and GCM modeling results. In general, the expanded model does a good job in simulating the large scale features of the atmospheric circulation and precipitation in both space and time. The expanded model has been used to examine the possibility that increased levels of CO_2 in the atmosphere may induce the growth of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Results of the study indicate that if summer ice albedo is high enough, and there is some mechanism for initially maintaining ice through the summer season, then it may be possible to have ice sheet growth under the conditions CO_2 induced warming, mainly the result of decreased summer ice melt in response to the higher land ice albedo, and not an increase in precipitation. The expanded model has also been used to examine the impact of Milankovitch solar radiation variations on the climate system, to study the mechanisms that produce glacial-interglacial cycles, especially with respect to the initiation of ice sheets. The results show the Milankovitch solar radiation variations affect the climate system most in the polar regions with the mean annual surface air temperature varying directly in response to changes in the annually averaged incoming solar radiation. However, the seasonal variations in the surface air temperatures are much more complex with large magnitude variations for brief times during the year. The study indicates that ice sheets may start to grow under the conditions of low insolation that occurred at 25, 70, and

What is the potential of cropland albedo management in the fight against global warming? A case study based on the use of cover crops

Science.gov (United States)

Carrer, Dominique; Pique, Gaétan; Ferlicoq, Morgan; Ceamanos, Xavier; Ceschia, Eric

2018-04-01

Land cover management in agricultural areas is a powerful tool that could play a role in the mitigation of climate change and the counterbalance of global warming. First, we attempted to quantify the radiative forcing that would increase the surface albedo of croplands in Europe following the inclusion of cover crops during the fallow period. This is possible since the albedo of bare soil in many areas of Europe is lower than the albedo of vegetation. By using satellite data, we demonstrated that the introduction of cover crops into the crop rotation during the fallow period would increase the albedo over 4.17% of Europe’s surface. According to our study, the effect resulting from this increase in the albedo of the croplands would be equivalent to a mitigation of 3.16 MtCO2-eq.year‑1 over a 100 year time horizon. This is equivalent to a mitigation potential per surface unit (m2) of introduced cover crop over Europe of 15.91 gCO2-eq.year‑1.m‑2. This value, obtained at the European scale, is consistent with previous estimates. We show that this mitigation potential could be increased by 27% if the cover crop is maintained for a longer period than 3 months and reduced by 28% in the case of no irrigation. In the second part of this work, based on recent studies estimating the impact of cover crops on soil carbon sequestration and the use of fertilizer, we added the albedo effect to those estimates, and we argued that, by considering areas favourable to their introduction, cover crops in Europe could mitigate human-induced agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by up to 7% per year, using 2011 as a reference. The impact of the albedo change per year would be between 10% and 13% of this total impact. The countries showing the greatest mitigation potentials are France, Bulgaria, Romania, and Germany.

Remote sensing the susceptibility of cloud albedo to changes in drop concentration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Platnick, S.E.

1991-01-01

The role of clouds in reflecting solar radiation to space and thereby reducing surface heating is of critical importance to climate. Combustion processes that produce greenhouse gases also increase cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations which in turn increase cloud drop concentrations and thereby cloud albedo. A calculation of cloud susceptibility, defined in this work as the increase in albedo resulting from the addition of one cloud drop per cubic centimeter (as cloud liquid water content remains constant), is made through satellite remote sensing of cloud drop radius and optical thickness. The remote technique uses spectral channels of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument on board the NOAA polar orbiting satellites. Radiative transfer calculations of reflectance and effective surface and cloud emissivities are made for applicable sun and satellite viewing angles, including azimuth, at various radii and optical thicknesses for each AVHRR channel. Emission in channel 3 (at 3.75 microns) is removed to give the reflected solar component. These calculations are used to infer the radius and optical thickness giving the best match to the satellite measurements. The effect of the atmosphere on the signal received by the satellite is included in the analysis

Operational comparison of TLD albedo dosemeters and etched-track detectors in the PuO2-UO2 mixed oxide fuel fabrication facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsujimura, N.; Takada, C.; Yoshida, T.; Momose, T.

2005-01-01

Full text: The authors carried out an operational study that compared the use of TLD albedo dosemeters with etched-track detector in plutonium environments of Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, Tokai Works. A selected group of workers engaged in the fabrication process of MOX (PuO 2 -UO 2 mixed oxide) fuel wore both TLD albedo dosemeters and etched-track detectors over a period from 1991 to 1993. The TLD albedo dosemeter is the Panasonic model UD-809P and the etched-track detector is the NEUTRAK (polyallyl diglycol carbonate + 1mm-t polyethylene radiator) commercially available from Nagase-Landauer Ltd. Both dosemeters were issued and read monthly. It was found that the TL readings were generally proportional to the counted etch-pits, and thus the dose equivalent results obtained from TLD albedo dosemeter agreed with those from etched-track detector within a factor of 1.5. This result indicates that, in the workplaces of the MOX plants, the neutron spectrum remained almost constant in terms of time and space, and the appropriate range of field-specific correction with spectrum variations could be small in albedo dosimetry. In addition, the calibrations of both dosemeters in the workplaces and in a bare and moderated 252 Cf calibration field were performed for quantitative validation for the results from the operational comparison. In the former experiments, locations were selected that were representative of typical neutron measurements according to the prior neutron spectra measurements with the multi-sphere spectrometer. In the latter experiments, the workplace environments were simulated by using a 252 Cf source surrounded with cylindrical steel/PMMA moderators. From both experiments, the relationship between TL readings and counted etch-pits with neutron spectrum variation was determined. As expected, the relationship obtained from the simulated workplace field calibration reproduced that from the operational comparison. (author)

Albedo and vegetation demand-side management options for warm climates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hall, Darwin C.

1997-01-01

For electric utilities, demand-side management (DSM) can reduce electric load and shift load from peak to off-peak periods. In general, the investor in DSM collects the reward with lower electric bills, excepting a positive externality because of reduced tropospheric and stratospheric air pollution from fossil fuel power plants. In warm climates, DSM options include increasing albedo and vegetation, respectively, by painting surfaces white and planting trees; these DSM options are distinguished from all other DSM options because of ecosystem effects. Ambient temperature falls, mitigating the urban 'heat island', which reduces electric load and ozone formation. The investor in albedo and vegetation DSM options does not collect all of the reward from lower electric bills, since the lower ambient temperature provides savings to all customers who use electricity for air conditioning and refrigeration. Similar to other DSM options, air pollution is also reduced as a result of lower power plant emissions. Complex airshed models and electric utility system dispatch models are applied in this paper to account for some of these ecosystem effects. Unaccounted ecosystem effects remain, stymieing cost effectiveness analysis

Energy-balance climate models: stability experiments with a refined albedo and updated coefficients for infrared emission

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oerlemans, J.

1978-01-01

A zonally averaged' climate model of the energy-balance type is examined. Recently published satellite measurements were used to improve existing parameterizations of planetary albedo and outgoing radiation in terms of surface and sea level temperature. A realistic constant for the diffusion of

Sunlight, Sea Ice, and the Ice Albedo Feedback in a Changing Arctic Sea Ice Cover

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-30

fraction product and the remotely sensed albedo product in the context of understanding the surface radiation budget. Particular attention is paid to...Stamnes, Chapter 2 The Polar Environment: Sun, Clouds, and Ice, in Ocean Colour Remote Sensing in Polar Seas, p 5-25, in press. Istomina, L, G

Sunlight, Sea Ice, and the Ice Albedo Feedback in a Changing Artic Sea Ice Cover

Science.gov (United States)

2015-11-30

the remotely sensed albedo product in the context of understanding the surface radiation budget. Particular attention is paid to the infrequent...Chapter 2 The Polar Environment: Sun, Clouds, and Ice, in Ocean Colour Remote Sensing in Polar Seas, p 5-25, in press. Istomina, L, G. Heygster, M

Albedo-adjusted fast-neutron diffusion coefficients in reactor reflectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terney, W.B.

1975-01-01

In the newer, larger pressurized-water reactor cores, the calculated power distributions are fairly sensitive to the number of neutron groups used and to the treatment of the reflector cross sections. Comparisons between transport and diffusion calculations show that the latter substantially underpredict the reflector albedos in the fast (top) group and that the power distribution is shifted toward the core center when compared to 4-group transport theory results. When the fast-neutron diffusion coefficients are altered to make the transport- and diffusion-theory albedos agree, the power distributions are also brought into agreement. An expression for the fast-neutron diffusion coefficients in reflector regions has been derived such that the diffusion calculation reproduces the albedo obtained from a transport solution. In addition, a correction factor for mesh effects applicable to coarse mesh problems is presented. The use of the formalism gives the correct albedos and improved power distributions. (U.S.)

A variational approach to closed bosonic strings on bordered Riemann surfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohrndorf, T.

1987-01-01

Polyakov's path integral for bosonic closed strings defined on a bordered Riemann surface is investigated by variational methods. It is demonstrated that boundary variations are generated by the Virasoro operators. The investigation is performed for both, simply connected Riemann surfaces as well as ringlike domains. It is shown that the form of the variational operator is the same on both kinds of surfaces. The Virasoro algebra arises as a consistency condition for the variation. (orig.)

Personal neutron monitoring using TLD albedo combined with etched tracks detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsujimura, N.; Momose, T. [Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, Ibarakiken (Japan)

2002-07-01

The albedo dosimetry has been carried out in personal neutron monitoring in the MOX fuel plant of JNC Tokai Works, however, it has shortcomings mainly due to the inherently poor energy response. This paper describes our efforts to overcome these difficulties in practical use of albedo dosemeters. The following four subjects are presented: (1) the neutron energy response functions of albedo TLD obtained from the mono-energetic neutron irradiation experiments and the Monte-Carlo calculations, (2) the location- dependent correction factors calculated from the response functions and neutron energy spectra measured in the workplaces, (3) the results of the international personal neutron dosimetry intercomparison program, and (4) the operational comparison program of TLD albedo and etched tracks detector worn by workers engaged in the fabrication process of the MOX fuel plant. Finally, the characteristics of the combination neutron dosemeter using TLD albedo and solid state etched track detector are summarized.

Evidence for ice-ocean albedo feedback in the Arctic Ocean shifting to a seasonal ice zone.

Science.gov (United States)

Kashiwase, Haruhiko; Ohshima, Kay I; Nihashi, Sohey; Eicken, Hajo

2017-08-15

Ice-albedo feedback due to the albedo contrast between water and ice is a major factor in seasonal sea ice retreat, and has received increasing attention with the Arctic Ocean shifting to a seasonal ice cover. However, quantitative evaluation of such feedbacks is still insufficient. Here we provide quantitative evidence that heat input through the open water fraction is the primary driver of seasonal and interannual variations in Arctic sea ice retreat. Analyses of satellite data (1979-2014) and a simplified ice-upper ocean coupled model reveal that divergent ice motion in the early melt season triggers large-scale feedback which subsequently amplifies summer sea ice anomalies. The magnitude of divergence controlling the feedback has doubled since 2000 due to a more mobile ice cover, which can partly explain the recent drastic ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean.

Derivation of High Spatial Resolution Albedo from UAV Digital Imagery: Application over the Greenland Ice Sheet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan C. Ryan

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Measurements of albedo are a prerequisite for modeling surface melt across the Earth's cryosphere, yet available satellite products are limited in spatial and/or temporal resolution. Here, we present a practical methodology to obtain centimeter resolution albedo products with accuracies of ±5% using consumer-grade digital camera and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV technologies. Our method comprises a workflow for processing, correcting and calibrating raw digital images using a white reference target, and upward and downward shortwave radiation measurements from broadband silicon pyranometers. We demonstrate the method with a set of UAV sorties over the western, K-sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The resulting albedo product, UAV10A1, covers 280 km2, at a resolution of 20 cm per pixel and has a root-mean-square difference of 3.7% compared to MOD10A1 and 4.9% compared to ground-based broadband pyranometer measurements. By continuously measuring downward solar irradiance, the technique overcomes previous limitations due to variable illumination conditions during and between surveys over glaciated terrain. The current miniaturization of multispectral sensors and incorporation of upward facing radiation sensors on UAV packages means that this technique could become increasingly common in field studies and used for a wide range of applications. These include the mapping of debris, dust, cryoconite and bioalbedo, and directly constraining surface energy balance models.

Titan’s mid-latitude surface regions with Cassini VIMS and RADAR

Science.gov (United States)

Solomonidou, Anezina; Lopes, Rosaly M. C.; Coustenis, Athena; Malaska, Michael; Rodriguez, Sebastien; Maltagliati, Luca; Drossart, Pierre; Janssen, Michael; Lawrence, Kenneth; Jaumann, Ralf; Sohl, Frank; Stephan, Katrin; Brown, Robert H.; Bratsolis, Emmanuel; Matsoukas, Christos

2015-11-01

The Cassini-Huygens mission instruments have revealed Titan to have a complex and dynamic atmosphere and surface. Data from the remote sensing instruments have shown the presence of diverse surface terrains in terms of morphology and composition, suggesting both exogenic and endogenic processes [1]. We define both the surface and atmospheric contributions in the VIMS spectro-imaging data by use of a radiative transfer code in the near-IR range [2]. To complement this dataset, the Cassini RADAR instrument provides additional information on the surface morphology, from which valuable geological interpretations can be obtained [3]. We examine the origin of key Titan terrains, covering the mid-latitude zones extending from 50ºN to 50ºS. The different geological terrains we investigate include: mountains, plains, labyrinths, craters, dune fields, and possible cryovolcanic and/or evaporite features. We have found that the labyrinth terrains and the undifferentiated plains seem to consist of a very similar if not the same material, while the different types of plains show compositional variations [3]. The processes most likely linked to their formation are aeolian, fluvial, sedimentary, lacustrine, in addition to the deposition of atmospheric products though the process of photolysis and sedimentation of organics. We show that temporal variations of surface albedo exist for two of the candidate cryovolcanic regions. The surface albedo variations together with the presence of volcanic-like morphological features suggest that the active regions are possibly related to the deep interior, possibly via cryovolcanism processes (with important implications for the satellite’s astrobiological potential) as also indicated by new interior structure models of Titan and corresponding calculations of the spatial pattern of maximum tidal stresses [4]. However, an explanation attributed to exogenic processes is also possible [5]. We will report on results from our most recent

Anthropogenic desertification by high-albedo pollution Observations and modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Otterman, J.; Rosenberg, N. W.; Rosenberg, E.

1974-01-01

ERTS-1 MSS albedo data of Western Negev, Sinai and the Gaza strip are presented. A sharp contrast in albedo exists across the Negev-Sinai and Negev-Gaza strip borders. Anthropogenic desertification has occurred on the Arab side due to overgrazing and Bedouin agriculture, whereas natural vegetation grows much more abundantly on the Israeli side.

Trade-offs between three forest ecosystem services across the state of New Hampshire, USA: timber, carbon, and albedo.

Science.gov (United States)

Lutz, David A; Burakowski, Elizabeth A; Murphy, Mackenzie B; Borsuk, Mark E; Niemiec, Rebecca M; Howarth, Richard B

2016-01-01

Forests are more frequently being managed to store and sequester carbon for the purposes of climate change mitigation. Generally, this practice involves long-term conservation of intact mature forests and/or reductions in the frequency and intensity of timber harvests. However, incorporating the influence of forest surface albedo often suggests that long rotation lengths may not always be optimal in mitigating climate change in forests characterized by frequent snowfall. To address this, we investigated trade-offs between three ecosystem services: carbon storage, albedo-related radiative forcing, and timber provisioning. We calculated optimal rotation length at 498 diverse Forest Inventory and Analysis forest sites in the state of New Hampshire, USA. We found that the mean optimal rotation lengths across all sites was 94 yr (standard deviation of sample means = 44 yr), with a large cluster of short optimal rotation lengths that were calculated at high elevations in the White Mountain National Forest. Using a regression tree approach, we found that timber growth, annual storage of carbon, and the difference between annual albedo in mature forest vs. a post-harvest landscape were the most important variables that influenced optimal rotation. Additionally, we found that the choice of a baseline albedo value for each site significantly altered the optimal rotation lengths across all sites, lowering the mean rotation to 59 yr with a high albedo baseline, and increasing the mean rotation to 112 yr given a low albedo baseline. Given these results, we suggest that utilizing temperate forests in New Hampshire for climate mitigation purposes through carbon storage and the cessation of harvest is appropriate at a site-dependent level that varies significantly across the state.

Testing the Prediction of Iron Alteration Minerals on Low Albedo Asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Jarvis, K. S.; Vilas, Faith; Howell, E.; Kelley, M.; Cochran, A.

1999-01-01

Absorption features centered near 0.60 - 0.65 and 0.80 - 0.90 micron were identified in the spectra of three low-albedo main-belt (165, 368, 877) and two low-albedo outer-belt (225, 334) asteroids (Vilas et al., Icarus, v. 109,274,1994). The absorption features were attributed to charge transfer transitions in iron alteration minerals such as goethite, hematite, and jarosite, all products of aqueous alteration. Concurrently, Jarvis et al. (LPSC XXIV, 715, 1993) presented additional spectra of low-albedo asteroids that had absorption features centered near 0.60 - 0.65 micron without the longer wavelength feature. Since these two features in iron oxides originate from the same ground state, and the longer wavelength feature requires less energy to exist, the single shorter wavelength feature cannot be caused by the iron alteration minerals. In addition, spectra of minerals such as hematite and goethite show a rapid increase in reflectance beginning near 0.5 micron absent in the low-albedo asteroid spectra. The absence of this rise has been attributed to its suppresion from opaques in the surface material. Spectra on more than one night were available for only one of these five asteroids, 225 Henrietta, and showed good repeatability of the 0.65-micron feature. We have acquired additional spectra of all five asteroids in order to test the repeatability of the 0.65-micron feature, and the presence and repeatability of the features centered near 0.8 - 0.9 micron. We specifically will test the possibility that longer wavelength features could be caused by incomplete removal of telluric water. Asteroid 877 Walkure is a member of the Nysa-Hertha family, and will be compared to spectra of other members of that family. Data were acquired in 1996 and 1999 on the 2.1-m telescope with a facility cassegrain spectrograph, McDonald Observatory, Univ. Of Texas, and the 1.5-m telescope with facility cassegrain spectrograph at CTIO. This research is supported by the NASA Planetary

NLCD - MODIS land cover- albedo dataset for the continental United States

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The NLCD-MODIS land cover-albedo database integrates high-quality MODIS albedo observations with areas of homogeneous land cover from NLCD. The spatial resolution...

The influence of burn severity on post-fire vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in North American boreal forests

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Y.; Randerson, J. T.; Goetz, S. J.; Beck, P. S.; Loranty, M. M.; Goulden, M.

2011-12-01

Severity of burning can influence multiple aspects of forest composition, carbon cycling, and climate forcing. We quantified how burn severity affected vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in Canadian boreal regions by combining satellite observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Canadian Large Fire Data Base (LFDB). We used the difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and changes in spring albedo derived from MODIS 500m albedo product as measures of burn severity. We found that the most severe burns had the greatest reduction in summer EVI in first year after fire, indicating greater loss of vegetation cover immediately following fire. By 5-7 years after fire, summer EVI for all severity classes had recovered to within 90-110% of pre-fire levels. Burn severity had a positive effect on the increase of post-fire spring albedo during the first 7 years after fire, and a shift from low to moderate or moderate to severe fires led to amplification of the post-fire albedo increase by approximately 30%. Fire-induced increases in both spring and summer albedo became progressively larger with stand age from years 1-7, with the trend in spring albedo likely driven by continued losses of needles and branches from trees killed by the fire (and concurrent losses of black carbon coatings on remaining debris), and the summer trend associated with increases in leaf area of short-stature herbs and shrubs. Our results suggest that increases in burn severity and carbon losses observed in some areas of boreal forests (e.g., Turetsky et al., 2011) may be at least partly offset by increases in negative forcing associated with changes in surface albedo.

The Ultraviolet Albedo of Ganymede

Science.gov (United States)

McGrath, Melissa; Hendrix, A.

2013-10-01

A large set of ultraviolet images of Ganymede have been acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope over the last 15 years. These images have been used almost exclusively to study Ganymede’s stunning auroral emissions (Feldman et al. 2000; Eviatar et al. 2001; McGrath et al. 2004; Saur et al. 2011; McGrath et al. 2013), and even the most basic information about Ganymede’s UV albedo has yet to be gleaned from these data. We will present a first-cut analysis of both disk-averaged and spatially-resolved UV albedos of Ganymede, with focus on the spatially-resolved Lyman-alpha albedo, which has never been considered previously for this satellite. Ganymede's visibly bright regions are known to be rich in water ice, while the visibly dark regions seem to be more carbonaceous (Carlson et al., 1996). At Lyman-alpha, these two species should also have very different albedo values. References Carlson, R. and 39 co-authors, Near-infrared spectroscopy and spectral mapping of Jupiter and the Galilean satellites: Results from Galileo’s initial orbit, Science, 274, 385-388, 1996. Eviatar, A., D. F. Strobel, B. C. Wolven, P. D. Feldman, M. A. McGrath, and D. J. Williams, Excitation of the Ganymede ultraviolet aurora, Astrophys. J, 555, 1013-1019, 2001. Feldman, P. D., M. A. McGrath, D. F. Strobel, H. W. Moos, K. D. Retherford, and B. C. Wolven, HST/STIS imaging of ultraviolet aurora on Ganymede, Astrophys. J, 535, 1085-1090, 2000. McGrath M. A., Lellouch E., Strobel D. F., Feldman P. D., Johnson R. E., Satellite Atmospheres, Chapter 19 in Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere, ed. F. Bagenal, T. Dowling, W. McKinnon, Cambridge University Press, 2004. McGrath M. A., Jia, Xianzhe; Retherford, Kurt; Feldman, Paul D.; Strobel, Darrell F.; Saur, Joachim, Aurora on Ganymede, J. Geophys. Res., doi: 10.1002/jgra.50122, 2013. Saur, J., S. Duling, S., L. Roth, P. D. Feldman, D. F. Strobel, K. D. Retherford, M. A. McGrath, A. Wennmacher, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting

Effects of illumination differences on photometric stereo shape-and-albedo-from-shading for precision lunar surface reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Chung Liu, Wai; Wu, Bo; Wöhler, Christian

2018-02-01

Photoclinometric surface reconstruction techniques such as Shape-from-Shading (SfS) and Shape-and-Albedo-from-Shading (SAfS) retrieve topographic information of a surface on the basis of the reflectance information embedded in the image intensity of each pixel. SfS or SAfS techniques have been utilized to generate pixel-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Moon and other planetary bodies. Photometric stereo SAfS analyzes images under multiple illumination conditions to improve the robustness of reconstruction. In this case, the directional difference in illumination between the images is likely to affect the quality of the reconstruction result. In this study, we quantitatively investigate the effects of illumination differences on photometric stereo SAfS. Firstly, an algorithm for photometric stereo SAfS is developed, and then, an error model is derived to analyze the relationships between the azimuthal and zenith angles of illumination of the images and the reconstruction qualities. The developed algorithm and error model were verified with high-resolution images collected by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). Experimental analyses reveal that (1) the resulting error in photometric stereo SAfS depends on both the azimuthal and the zenith angles of illumination as well as the general intensity of the images and (2) the predictions from the proposed error model are consistent with the actual slope errors obtained by photometric stereo SAfS using the LROC NAC images. The proposed error model enriches the theory of photometric stereo SAfS and is of significance for optimized lunar surface reconstruction based on SAfS techniques.

Effect of land albedo, CO2, orography, and oceanic heat transport on extreme climates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Romanova

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Using an atmospheric general circulation model of intermediate complexity coupled to a sea ice – slab ocean model, we perform a number of sensitivity experiments under present-day orbital conditions and geographical distribution to assess the possibility that land albedo, atmospheric CO2, orography and oceanic heat transport may cause an ice-covered Earth. Changing only one boundary or initial condition, the model produces solutions with at least some ice-free oceans in the low latitudes. Using some combination of these forcing parameters, a full Earth's glaciation is obtained. We find that the most significant factor leading to an ice-covered Earth is the high land albedo in combination with initial temperatures set equal to the freezing point. Oceanic heat transport and orography play only a minor role for the climate state. Extremely low concentrations of CO2 also appear to be insufficient to provoke a runaway ice-albedo feedback, but the strong deviations in surface air temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere point to the existence of a strong nonlinearity in the system. Finally, we argue that the initial condition determines whether the system can go into a completely ice covered state, indicating multiple equilibria, a feature known from simple energy balance models.

Iron alteration minerals in the visible and near-infrared spectra of low-albedo asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Vilas, Faith; Jarvis, Kandy S.; Gaffey, Michael J.

1994-01-01

Absorption features centered near 0.60-0.65 and 0.80-0.90 micrometers have been identified in the spectra of five low-albedo main-belt and outer-belt asteroids. These absorption features are attributed respectively to the (6)A(sub 1) goes to (4)T(sub 2)(G) and (6)A(sub 1) goes to (4)T(sub 1)(G) charge transfer transitions in minerals such as goethite, hematite, and jarosite that are products of the aqueous alteration of anhydrous silicates. A shoulder near 0.63 micrometers has also been identified in the absorption feature centered near 0.7 micrometers attributed to oxidized iron in phyllosilicates found predominantly in C- and G-class asteroids reflectance spectra. The coexistence of iron oxides with phyllosilicates in asteroids believed to have undergone aqueous alteration would be expected based upon analogy with terrestrial aqueous alteration and the observed mineralogy of carbonaceous chondrites. The number of low-albedo asteroids having only iron alteration absorption features compared to the number of low-albedo asteroids having spectral characteristics indicative of phyllosilicates is small. Either the conditions under which these asteroids formed are rare, or the iron alteration minerals could be formed in the interiors of objects where phyllosilicates dominate the surface mineralogy.

LLL development of a combined etch track: albedo dosimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffith, R.V.; Fisher, J.C.; Harder, C.A.

1977-01-01

The addition of polycarbonate sheet to albedo detectors for electrochemical etching provides a simple, inexpensive way to reduce the spectral sensitivity of the personnel dosimeter without losing the albedo features of sensitivity and ease of automation. The ECEP technique also provides the dosimetrist with the potential for identifying conditions of body orientation that might otherwise lead to significant error in dosimeter evaluation

CLARA-A1: a cloud, albedo, and radiation dataset from 28 yr of global AVHRR data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K.-G. Karlsson

2013-05-01

Full Text Available A new satellite-derived climate dataset – denoted CLARA-A1 ("The CM SAF cLoud, Albedo and RAdiation dataset from AVHRR data" – is described. The dataset covers the 28 yr period from 1982 until 2009 and consists of cloud, surface albedo, and radiation budget products derived from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor carried by polar-orbiting operational meteorological satellites. Its content, anticipated accuracies, limitations, and potential applications are described. The dataset is produced by the EUMETSAT Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility (CM SAF project. The dataset has its strengths in the long duration, its foundation upon a homogenized AVHRR radiance data record, and in some unique features, e.g. the availability of 28 yr of summer surface albedo and cloudiness parameters over the polar regions. Quality characteristics are also well investigated and particularly useful results can be found over the tropics, mid to high latitudes and over nearly all oceanic areas. Being the first CM SAF dataset of its kind, an intensive evaluation of the quality of the datasets was performed and major findings with regard to merits and shortcomings of the datasets are reported. However, the CM SAF's long-term commitment to perform two additional reprocessing events within the time frame 2013–2018 will allow proper handling of limitations as well as upgrading the dataset with new features (e.g. uncertainty estimates and extension of the temporal coverage.

Phase-Angle Dependence of Determinations of Diameter, Albedo, and Taxonomy: A Case Study of NEO 3691 Bede

Science.gov (United States)

Wooden, Diane H.; Lederer, Susan M.; Jehin, Emmanuel; Howell, Ellen S.; Fernandez, Yan; Harker, David E.; Ryan, Erin; Lovell, Amy; Woodward, Charles E.; Benner, Lance A.

2015-01-01

Parameters important for NEO risk assessment and mitigation include Near-Earth Object diameter and taxonomic classification, which translates to surface composition. Diameters of NEOs are derived from the thermal fluxes measured by WISE, NEOWISE, Spitzer Warm Mission and ground-based telescopes including the IRTF and UKIRT. Diameter and its coupled parameters Albedo and IR beaming parameter (a proxy for thermal inertia and/or surface roughness) are dependent upon the phase angle, which is the Sun-target-observer angle. Orbit geometries of NEOs, however, typically provide for observations at phase angles greater than 20 degrees. At higher phase angles, the observed thermal emission is sampling both the day and night sides of the NEO. We compare thermal models for NEOs that exclude (NEATM) and include (NESTM) night-side emission. We present a case study of NEO 3691 Bede, which is a higher albedo object, X (Ec) or Cgh taxonomy, to highlight the range of H magnitudes for this object (depending on the albedo and phase function slope parameter G), and to examine at different phase angles the taxonomy and thermal model fits for this NEO. Observations of 3691 Bede include our observations with IRTF+SpeX and with the 10 micrometer UKIRT+Michelle instrument, as well as WISE and Spitzer Warm mission data. By examining 3691 Bede as a case study, we highlight the interplay between the derivation of basic physical parameters and observing geometry, and we discuss the uncertainties in H magnitude, taxonomy assignment amongst the X-class (P, M, E), and diameter determinations. Systematic dependencies in the derivation of basic characterization parameters of H-magnitude, diameter, albedo and taxonomy with observing geometry are important to understand. These basic characterization parameters affect the statistical assessments of the NEO population, which in turn, affects the assignment of statistically-assessed basic parameters to discovered but yet-to-be-fully-characterized NEOs.

The Impact of Albedo Increase to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island in Terni (Italy Using the WRF Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Morini

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The impacts of the urban heat island (UHI phenomenon on energy consumption, air quality, and human health have been widely studied and described. Mitigation strategies have been developed to fight the UHI and its detrimental consequences. A potential countermeasure is the increase of urban albedo by using cool materials. Cool materials are highly reflective materials that can maintain lower surface temperatures and thus can present an effective solution to mitigate the UHI. Terni’s proven record of high temperatures along with related environmental and comfort issues in its urban areas have reflected the local consequences of global warming. On the other hand, it promoted integrated actions by the government and research institutes to investigate solutions to mitigate the UHI effects. In this study, the main goal is to investigate the effectiveness of albedo increase as a strategy to tackle the UHI, by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF mesoscale model to simulate the urban climate of Terni (Italy. Three different scenarios through a summer heat wave in the summer of 2015 are analyzed. The Base Scenario, which simulates the actual conditions of the urban area, is the control case. In the Albedo Scenario (ALB Scenario, the albedo of the roof, walls and road of the whole urban area is increased. In the Albedo-Industrial Scenario (ALB-IND Scenario, the albedo of the roof, walls and road of the area occupied by the main industrial site of Terni, located in close proximity to the city center, is increased. The simulation results show that the UHI is decreased up to 2 °C both at daytime and at nighttime in the ALB and in ALB-IND Scenarios. Peak temperatures in the urban area can be decreased by 1 °C at daytime, and by about 2 °C at nighttime. Albedo increase in the area of interest might thus represent an opportunity to decrease the UHI effect and its consequences.

Validation of response simulation methodology of Albedo dosemeter; Validacao da metodologia de simulacao de resposta de dosimetro de Albedo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Freitas, B.M.; Silva, A.X. da, E-mail: bfreitas@nuclear.ufrj.br [Coordenacao do Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Mauricio, C.L.P. [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria (IRD/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2016-07-01

The Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria developed and runs a neutron TLD albedo individual monitoring service. To optimize the dose calculation algorithm and to infer new calibration factors, the response of this dosemeter was simulated. In order to validate this employed methodology, it was applied in the simulation of the problem of the QUADOS (Quality Assurance of Computational Tools for Dosimetry) intercomparison, aimed to evaluate dosimetric problems, one being to calculate the response of a generic albedo dosemeter. The obtained results were compared with those of other modeling and the reference one, with good agreements. (author)

Climate warming feedback from mountain birch forest expansion: reduced albedo dominates carbon uptake.

Science.gov (United States)

de Wit, Heleen A; Bryn, Anders; Hofgaard, Annika; Karstensen, Jonas; Kvalevåg, Maria M; Peters, Glen P

2014-07-01

Expanding high-elevation and high-latitude forest has contrasting climate feedbacks through carbon sequestration (cooling) and reduced surface reflectance (warming), which are yet poorly quantified. Here, we present an empirically based projection of mountain birch forest expansion in south-central Norway under climate change and absence of land use. Climate effects of carbon sequestration and albedo change are compared using four emission metrics. Forest expansion was modeled for a projected 2.6 °C increase in summer temperature in 2100, with associated reduced snow cover. We find that the current (year 2000) forest line of the region is circa 100 m lower than its climatic potential due to land-use history. In the future scenarios, forest cover increased from 12% to 27% between 2000 and 2100, resulting in a 59% increase in biomass carbon storage and an albedo change from 0.46 to 0.30. Forest expansion in 2100 was behind its climatic potential, forest migration rates being the primary limiting factor. In 2100, the warming caused by lower albedo from expanding forest was 10 to 17 times stronger than the cooling effect from carbon sequestration for all emission metrics considered. Reduced snow cover further exacerbated the net warming feedback. The warming effect is considerably stronger than previously reported for boreal forest cover, because of the typically low biomass density in mountain forests and the large changes in albedo of snow-covered tundra areas. The positive climate feedback of high-latitude and high-elevation expanding forests with seasonal snow cover exceeds those of afforestation at lower elevation, and calls for further attention of both modelers and empiricists. The inclusion and upscaling of these climate feedbacks from mountain forests into global models is warranted to assess the potential global impacts. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Climate Benefits of Potential Avoided Emissions from Forest Conversion Diminished by Albedo Warming: Comprehensive, Data-Driven Assessment for the US and Beyond

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, C. A.; Gu, H.; Jiao, T.

2017-12-01

Avoided deforestation is a leading pathway for climate change mitigation, featuring prominently in many country's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, but its climate benefits remain contested, in part because of reports of large offsetting effects in some regions of the world. It is well known that avoiding forest to non-forest conversion prevents forest carbon release, and sustains forest carbon uptake, but also increases albedo thus diminishing the potency of this mitigation strategy. While the mechanisms are known, their relative importance and the resulting climate benefit remain unclear. This is in part due to a lack of quantitative assessments documenting geographic variation in rates of forest conversion, associated carbon emissions, resulting radiative forcing, and the magnitude of simultaneous albedo offsets. This study (i) quantifies the current rate of forest conversion and carbon release in the United States with Landsat remote sensing and a carbon assessment framework, and (ii) compares this to quantitative estimates of the radiative forcing from the corresponding albedo change. Albedo radiative forcing is assessed with a recently-generated, global atlas of land-cover-specific albedos derived from a fusion of MODIS and Landsat reflectances, combined with snow cover and solar radiation datasets. We document the degree to which albedo warming offsets carbon cooling from contemporary forest conversions taking place in different regions of the United States and identify the underlying drivers of spatial variability. We then extend this to other regions of the world where forests are under threat and where avoided deforestation is viewed as a primary tool for climate mitigation. Results shed light on the, at times contentious, debate about the efficacy of forest protection as a mitigation mechanism.

IAU nomenclature for albedo features on the planet Mercury

Science.gov (United States)

Dollfus, A.; Chapman, C. R.; Davies, M. E.; Gingerich, O.; Goldstein, R.; Guest, J.; Morrison, D.; Smith, B. A.

1978-01-01

The International Astronomical Union has endorsed a nomenclature for the albedo features on Mercury. Designations are based upon the mythological names related to the god Hermes; they are expressed in Latin form. The dark-hued albedo features are associated with the generic term Solitudo. The light-hued areas are designated by a single name without generic term. The 32 names adopted are allocated on the Mercury map.

High Resolution Ecosystem Structure, Biomass and Blue Carbon stocks in Mangrove Ecosystems- Methods and Applications of Lidar, radar Interferometry and High Resolution imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Lagomasino, D.; Fatoyinbo, T. E.; Lee, S. K.; Feliciano, E. A.; Simard, M.; Trettin, C.

2016-12-01

Earth's climate is determined by the exchange of radiant energy between the Sun, Earth and space. The absorbed solar radiation (ASR) fuels the climate system, providing the energy required for atmospheric and oceanic motions, while the system cools by emitting outgoing longwave (LW) radiation to space. A central objective of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is to produce a long-term global climate data record of Earth's radiation budget along with the associated atmospheric and surface properties that influence it. CERES data products utilize a number of data sources, including broadband radiometers measuring incoming and reflected solar radiation and OLR, polar orbiting and geostationary spectral imagers, meteorological, aerosol and ozone assimilation data, and snow/sea-ice maps based on microwave radiometer data. Here we use simple diagnostic model of Earth's albedo and CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Ed4.0 data for March 2000-February 2016 to quantify interannual variations in SW TOA flux associated with surface albedo and atmospheric reflectance and transmittance variations. Surface albedo variations account for albedo and atmospheric reflectance/transmittance. Equatorward of 60-degree latitude, the atmospheric contribution exceeds that of the surface by at least an order-of-magnitude. In contrast, the surface and atmospheric variations contribute equally poleward of 60S and surface variations account for twice as much as the atmosphere poleward of 60N. However, as much as 40% of the total SW TOA flux variance poleward of 60N is explained by the covariance of surface albedo and atmospheric reflectance/transmittance, highlighting the tight coupling between sea-ice concentration and cloud properties over the Arctic Ocean.

Quantifying bioalbedo: a new physically based model and discussion of empirical methods for characterising biological influence on ice and snow albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Joseph M.; Hodson, Andrew J.; Gardner, Alex S.; Flanner, Mark; Tedstone, Andrew J.; Williamson, Christopher; Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D. L.; Nilsson, Johan; Bryant, Robert; Tranter, Martyn

2017-11-01

The darkening effects of biological impurities on ice and snow have been recognised as a control on the surface energy balance of terrestrial snow, sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. With a heightened interest in understanding the impacts of a changing climate on snow and ice processes, quantifying the impact of biological impurities on ice and snow albedo (bioalbedo) and its evolution through time is a rapidly growing field of research. However, rigorous quantification of bioalbedo has remained elusive because of difficulties in isolating the biological contribution to ice albedo from that of inorganic impurities and the variable optical properties of the ice itself. For this reason, isolation of the biological signature in reflectance data obtained from aerial/orbital platforms has not been achieved, even when ground-based biological measurements have been available. This paper provides the cell-specific optical properties that are required to model the spectral signatures and broadband darkening of ice. Applying radiative transfer theory, these properties provide the physical basis needed to link biological and glaciological ground measurements with remotely sensed reflectance data. Using these new capabilities we confirm that biological impurities can influence ice albedo, then we identify 10 challenges to the measurement of bioalbedo in the field with the aim of improving future experimental designs to better quantify bioalbedo feedbacks. These challenges are (1) ambiguity in terminology, (2) characterising snow or ice optical properties, (3) characterising solar irradiance, (4) determining optical properties of cells, (5) measuring biomass, (6) characterising vertical distribution of cells, (7) characterising abiotic impurities, (8) surface anisotropy, (9) measuring indirect albedo feedbacks, and (10) measurement and instrument configurations. This paper aims to provide a broad audience of glaciologists and biologists with an overview of radiative transfer and

Quantifying bioalbedo: a new physically based model and discussion of empirical methods for characterising biological influence on ice and snow albedo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. M. Cook

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The darkening effects of biological impurities on ice and snow have been recognised as a control on the surface energy balance of terrestrial snow, sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. With a heightened interest in understanding the impacts of a changing climate on snow and ice processes, quantifying the impact of biological impurities on ice and snow albedo (bioalbedo and its evolution through time is a rapidly growing field of research. However, rigorous quantification of bioalbedo has remained elusive because of difficulties in isolating the biological contribution to ice albedo from that of inorganic impurities and the variable optical properties of the ice itself. For this reason, isolation of the biological signature in reflectance data obtained from aerial/orbital platforms has not been achieved, even when ground-based biological measurements have been available. This paper provides the cell-specific optical properties that are required to model the spectral signatures and broadband darkening of ice. Applying radiative transfer theory, these properties provide the physical basis needed to link biological and glaciological ground measurements with remotely sensed reflectance data. Using these new capabilities we confirm that biological impurities can influence ice albedo, then we identify 10 challenges to the measurement of bioalbedo in the field with the aim of improving future experimental designs to better quantify bioalbedo feedbacks. These challenges are (1 ambiguity in terminology, (2 characterising snow or ice optical properties, (3 characterising solar irradiance, (4 determining optical properties of cells, (5 measuring biomass, (6 characterising vertical distribution of cells, (7 characterising abiotic impurities, (8 surface anisotropy, (9 measuring indirect albedo feedbacks, and (10 measurement and instrument configurations. This paper aims to provide a broad audience of glaciologists and biologists with an overview of

Brazilian two-component TLD albedo neutron individual monitoring system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martins, M.M., E-mail: marcelo@ird.gov.b [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria (IRD), Av. Salvador Allende, s/n, CEP: 22780-160, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Mauricio, C.L.P., E-mail: claudia@ird.gov.b [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria (IRD), Av. Salvador Allende, s/n, CEP: 22780-160, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Fonseca, E.S. da, E-mail: evaldo@ird.gov.b [Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria (IRD), Av. Salvador Allende, s/n, CEP: 22780-160, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Silva, A.X. da, E-mail: ademir@con.ufrj.b [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia, COPPE/PEN Caixa Postal 68509, CEP: 21941-972, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2010-12-15

Since 1983, Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria, Brazil, uses a TLD one-component albedo neutron monitor, which has a single different calibration factor specifically for each installation type. In order to improve its energy response, a two-component albedo monitor was developed, which measure the thermal neutron component besides the albedo one. The two-component monitor has been calibrated in reference neutron fields: thermal, five accelerator-produced monoenergetic beams (70, 144, 565, 1200 and 5000 keV) and five radionuclide sources ({sup 252}Cf, {sup 252}Cf(D{sub 2}O), {sup 241}Am-Be, {sup 241}Am-B and {sup 238}Pu-Be) at several distances. Since January 2008, mainly Brazilian workers who handle neutron sources at different distances and moderation, such as in well logging and calibration facilities are using it routinely.

Strength of forest-albedo feedback in mid-Holocene climate simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Otto

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Reconstructions of the mid-Holocene climate, 6000 years before present, suggest that spring temperatures were higher at high northern latitudes compared to the pre-industrial period. A positive feedback between expansion of forest and climate presumably contributed to this warming. In the presence of snow, forests have a lower albedo than grass land. Therefore, the expansion of forest likely favoured a warming in spring, counteracting the lower insolation at the mid-Holocene.

We investigate the sensitivity of the vegetation-atmosphere interaction under mid-Holocene orbital forcing with respect to the strength of the forest-albedo feedback by using a comprehensive coupled atmosphere-vegetation model (ECHAM5/JSBACH. We perform two sets of model simulations: a first set of simulations with a relatively weak reduction of albedo of snow by forest; and a second set of simulations with a relatively strong reduction of the albedo of snow by forest.

We show that the parameterisation of the albedo of snow leads to uncertainties in the temperature signal. Compared to the set with weak snow masking, the simulations with strong snow masking reveal a spring warming that is three times higher, by 0.34 °C north of 60° N. This warming is related to a forest expansion of only 13%.

Albedo of a cucumber culture in polyethylene greenhouses in the North-South and East-West orientations; Albedo da cultura do pepino (Cucumis sativus) em estufas de polietileno, nas orientacoes norte-sul e leste-oeste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Assis, Simone V. de [Pelotas Univ., RS (Brazil). Dept. de Meteorologia; Escobedo, Joao F. [UNESP, Botucatu, SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Ciencias Agronomicas

1998-12-31

The calculation of albedo on a complete cycle of a cucumber culture was obtained in two polyethylene greenhouses with different orientations (north-south and east-west) and outside. The area of the greenhouse was 35 m{sup 2} and outside 80 cm longer than the surface. They were built in the Solar Radiometer Station, in Botucatu, SP. They are formed by central body, two glasses dome and two glasses dome and two sensors (thin film thermopiles). The sensors are positioned on the up and down part of the instrument. Th up sensor is used to measure global solar radiation and the down sensor is used to measure reflected solar radiation. The signs received from albedo meters were sent to a system of the data acquisition Datalogger 21 XL - CAMPBELL. (author) 5 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.

A photometric function of planetary surfaces for gourmets

Science.gov (United States)

Shkuratov, Yuriy; Korokhin, Viktor; Shevchenko, Vasilij; Mikhalchenko, Olga; Belskaya, Irina; Kaydash, Vadym; Videen, Gorden; Zubko, Evgenij; Velikodsky, Yuriy

2018-03-01

A new photometric model with small number of parameters is presented. The model is based on an assumption that there exist such surfaces for which spatial brightness variations caused by small topography undulations can be reproduced exactly by corresponding spatial variations of albedo. This indistinguishability results in a differential equation suggesting a new photometric function that generalizes, in particular, the Akimov disk-function. Our model provides excellent fits in a wide phase-angle range for integral observations of asteroids of different albedos. We also carried out fitting to integral observations of the Moon and Mercury, confirming difficulties in describing Mercury's phase function at large phase angles, which were also found for the Hapke model. Comparisons of global latitude and longitude trends with our model calculations have shown good coincidence for the Moon. To retrieve the lunar trends, we use the phase-ratio technique, applying it to our telescope observations. Mapping the model parameters using LROC WAC data were carried out for a region comprising the Reiner Gamma formation. This mapping allows us to calculate phase-ratio images of the region, showing at large phase angles systematically steeper phase curves of young craters and smaller steepness for the very Reiner Gamma formation.

Daily temperature variations on Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Ditteon, R.

1982-01-01

It is noted that for approximately 32% of the Martian surface area no values of thermal inertia or albedo can fit the thermal observations. These temperature anomalies do not correlate with elevation, geologic units, morphology, or atmospheric dust content. All regions having a Lambert albedo less than 0.18 can be well fit with the standard thermal model, but all areas with albedo greater than 0.28 are anomalous. A strong inverse correlation is seen between the magnitude of the anomaly and the thermal inertia. This correlation is seen as indicating that some surface property is responsible for the anomaly. In the anomalous region the temperatures are observed to be warmer in the morning and cooler late in the afternoon and to decrease more slowly during the night than the Viking model temperatures. It is believed that of all the physical processes likely to occur on Mars but not included in the Viking thermal model, only a layered soil can explain the observations. A possible explanation of the layering deduced from the infrared thermal mapper observations is a layer of aeolian deposited dust about one thermal skin depth thick (1 to 4 cm), covering a duricrust.

Spectrophotometry of the Ceres surface

Science.gov (United States)

Schröder, Stefan; Mottola, Stefano; Carsenty, Uri; Jaumann, Ralf; Keller, Uwe; Krohn, Katrin; Li, Jian-Yang; Matz, Klaus-Dieter; McFadden, Lucy; Otto, Katharina; Preusker, Frank; Roatsch, Thomas; Scholten, Frank; Stephan, Katrin; Wagner, Roland; Raymond, Carol; Russell, Chris

2015-11-01

The Dawn spacecraft is in orbit around dwarf planet Ceres. The onboard Framing Camera (FC) is mapping the surface through a clear filter and 7 narrow-band filters at various observational geometries and image resolutions. Generally, Ceres' appearance in these images is affected by shadows and shading, effects which obscure the intrinsic reflective properties of the surface. By means of photometric modeling we remove these effects and reconstruct the surface reflectance for each of the FC filters, creating albedo and color maps in the process. Considering these maps in unison provides clues to the physical nature and composition of the surface and the dominant geologic processes that shape the surface. We assess the nature of color variations in the visible wavelength range for Ceres globally. We identify which terrains express the dominant colors and investigate why some areas are exceptions to the rule. By correlating the color over the surface with geologic units we find an relatively strong enhancement of the reflectance towards the blue end of the visible spectrum for recent impacts and their ejecta.

Production of Arctic Sea-ice Albedo by fusion of MISR and MODIS data

Science.gov (United States)

Kharbouche, Said; Muller, Jan-Peter

2017-04-01

We have combined data from the NASA MISR and MODIS spectro-radiometers to create a cloud-free albedo dataset specifically for sea-ice. The MISR (Multi-Angular Spectro-Radiometer) instrument on board Terra satellite has a unique ability to create high-quality Bidirectional Reflectance (BRF) over a 7 minute time interval per single overpass, thanks to its 9 cameras of different view angles (±70°,±60°,±45°,±26°). However, as MISR is limited to narrow spectral bands (443nm, 555nm, 670nm, 865nm), which is not sufficient to mask cloud effectively and robustly, we have used the sea-ice mask MOD09 product (Collection 6) from MODIS (Moderate resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer) instrument, which is also on board Terra satellite and acquiring data simultaneously. Only We have created a new and consistent sea-ice (for Arctic) albedo product that is daily, from 1st March to 22nd September for each and every year between 2000 to 2016 at two spatial grids, 1km x 1km and 5km x 5km in polar stereographic projection. Their analysis is described in a separate report [1]. References [1] Muller & Kharbouche, Variation of Arctic's Sea-ice Albedo between 2000 and 2016 by fusion of MISR and MODIS data. This conference. Acknowledgements This work was supported by www.QA4ECV.eu, a project of European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 607405. We thank our colleagues at JPL and NASA LaRC for processing these data, especially Sebastian Val and Steve Protack.

Light-absorbing impurities enhance glacier albedo reduction in the southeastern Tibetan plateau

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yulan; Kang, Shichang; Cong, Zhiyuan; Schmale, Julia; Sprenger, Michael; Li, Chaoliu; Yang, Wei; Gao, Tanguang; Sillanpää, Mika; Li, Xiaofei; Liu, Yajun; Chen, Pengfei; Zhang, Xuelei

2017-07-01

Light-absorbing impurities (LAIs) in snow of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) and their climatic impacts are of interest not only because this region borders areas affected by the South Asian atmospheric brown clouds but also because the seasonal snow and glacier melt from this region form important headwaters of large rivers. In this study, we collected surface snow and snowpit samples from four glaciers in the southeastern TP in June 2015 to investigate the comprehensive observational data set of LAIs. Results showed that the LAI concentrations were much higher in the aged snow and granular ice than in the fresh snow and snowpits due to postdepositional processes. Impurity concentrations fluctuated across snowpits, with maximum LAI concentrations frequently occurring toward the bottom of snowpits. Based on the SNow ICe Aerosol Radiative model, the albedo simulation indicated that black carbon and dust account for approximately 20% of the albedo reduction relative to clean snow. The radiative forcing caused by black carbon and dust deposition on the glaciers were between 1.0-141 W m-2 and 1.5-120 W m-2, respectively. Black carbon (BC) played a larger role in albedo reduction and radiative forcing than dust in the study area, enhancing approximately 15% of glacier melt. Analysis based on the Fire INventory from NCAR indicated that nonbiomass-burning sources of BC played an important role in the total BC deposition, especially during the monsoon season. This study suggests that eliminating anthropogenic BC could mitigate glacier melt in the future of the southeastern TP.

Size and Albedo of Irregular Saturnian Satellites from Spitzer Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Michael; Grav, T.; Trilling, D.; Stansberry, J.; Sykes, M.

2008-09-01

Using MIPS onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, we observed the thermal emission (24 and, for some targets, 70 um) of eight irregular satellites of Saturn: Albiorix, Siarnaq, Paaliaq, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Tarvos, Erriapus, and Ymir. We determined the size and albedo of all targets. An analysis of archived MIPS observations of Phoebe reproduces Cassini results very accurately, thereby validating our method. For all targets, the geometric albedo is found to be low, probably below 10% and clearly below 15%. Irregular satellites are much darker than the large regular satellites. Their albedo is, however, quite similar to that of small bodies in the outer Solar System (such as cometary nuclei, Jupiter Trojans, or TNOs). This is consistent with color measurements as well as dynamical considerations which suggest a common origin of the said populations. There appear to be significant object-to-object albedo differences. Similar albedos found for some members of dynamical clusters support the idea that they may have originated in the breakup of a parent body. For three satellites, thermal data at two wavelengths are available, enabling us to constrain their thermal properties. Sub-solar temperatures are similar to that found from Cassini's Phoebe fly-by. This suggests a rather low thermal inertia, as expected for regolith-covered objects. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by JPL under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA.

The impact of atmospheric mineral aerosol deposition on the albedo of snow & sea ice: are snow and sea ice optical properties more important than mineral aerosol optical properties?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. L. Lamare

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Knowledge of the albedo of polar regions is crucial for understanding a range of climatic processes that have an impact on a global scale. Light-absorbing impurities in atmospheric aerosols deposited on snow and sea ice by aeolian transport absorb solar radiation, reducing albedo. Here, the effects of five mineral aerosol deposits reducing the albedo of polar snow and sea ice are considered. Calculations employing a coupled atmospheric and snow/sea ice radiative-transfer model (TUV-snow show that the effects of mineral aerosol deposits are strongly dependent on the snow or sea ice type rather than the differences between the aerosol optical characteristics. The change in albedo between five different mineral aerosol deposits with refractive indices varying by a factor of 2 reaches a maximum of 0.0788, whereas the difference between cold polar snow and melting sea ice is 0.8893 for the same mineral loading. Surprisingly, the thickness of a surface layer of snow or sea ice loaded with the same mass ratio of mineral dust has little effect on albedo. On the contrary, the surface albedo of two snowpacks of equal depth, containing the same mineral aerosol mass ratio, is similar, whether the loading is uniformly distributed or concentrated in multiple layers, regardless of their position or spacing. The impact of mineral aerosol deposits is much larger on melting sea ice than on other types of snow and sea ice. Therefore, the higher input of shortwave radiation during the summer melt cycle associated with melting sea ice accelerates the melt process.

Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pistone, Kristina; Eisenman, Ian; Ramanathan, V

2014-03-04

The decline of Arctic sea ice has been documented in over 30 y of satellite passive microwave observations. The resulting darkening of the Arctic and its amplification of global warming was hypothesized almost 50 y ago but has yet to be verified with direct observations. This study uses satellite radiation budget measurements along with satellite microwave sea ice data to document the Arctic-wide decrease in planetary albedo and its amplifying effect on the warming. The analysis reveals a striking relationship between planetary albedo and sea ice cover, quantities inferred from two independent satellite instruments. We find that the Arctic planetary albedo has decreased from 0.52 to 0.48 between 1979 and 2011, corresponding to an additional 6.4 ± 0.9 W/m(2) of solar energy input into the Arctic Ocean region since 1979. Averaged over the globe, this albedo decrease corresponds to a forcing that is 25% as large as that due to the change in CO2 during this period, considerably larger than expectations from models and other less direct recent estimates. Changes in cloudiness appear to play a negligible role in observed Arctic darkening, thus reducing the possibility of Arctic cloud albedo feedbacks mitigating future Arctic warming.

Thermal repellent properties of surface coating using silica

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Y. Y.; Halim, M. S.; Aminudin, E.; Guntor, N. A.

2017-11-01

Extensive land development in urban areas is completely altering the surface profile of human living environment. As cities growing rapidly, impervious building and paved surfaces are replacing the natural landscape. In the developing countries with tropical climate, large masses of building elements, such as brick wall and concrete members, absorb and store large amount of heat, which in turn radiate back to the surrounding air during the night time. This bubble of heat is known as urban heat island (UHI). The use of high albedo urban surfaces is an inexpensive measure that can reduce surrounded temperature. Thus, the main focus of this study is to investigate the ability of silica, SiO2, with high albedo value, to be used as a thermal-repelled surface coating for brick wall. Three different silica coatings were used, namely silicone resin, silicone wax and rain repellent and one exterior commercial paint (jota shield paint) that commercially available in the market were applied on small-scale brick wall models. An uncoated sample also had been fabricated as a control sample for comparison. These models were placed at the outdoor space for solar exposure. Outdoor environment measurement was carried out where the ambient temperature, surface temperature, relative humidity and UV reflectance were recorded. The effect of different type of surface coating on temperature variation of the surface brick wall and the thermal performance of coatings as potential of heat reduction for brick wall have been studied. Based on the results, model with silicone resin achieved the lowest surface temperature which indicated that SiO2 can be potentially used to reduce heat absorption on the brick wall and further retains indoor passive thermal comfortability.

Retrieval of snow albedo and grain size using reflectance measurements in Himalayan basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. S. Negi

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In the present paper, spectral reflectance measurements of Himalayan seasonal snow were carried out and analysed to retrieve the snow albedo and effective grain size. The asymptotic radiative transfer (ART theory was applied to retrieve the plane and spherical albedo. The retrieved plane albedo was compared with the measured spectral albedo and a good agreement was observed with ±10% differences. Retrieved integrated albedo was found within ±6% difference with ground observed broadband albedo. The retrieved snow grain sizes using different models based on the ART theory were compared for various snow types and it was observed that the grain size model using two channel method (one in visible and another in NIR region can work well for the Himalayan seasonal snow and it was found consistent with temporal changes in grain size. This method can work very well for clean, dry snow as in the upper Himalaya, but sometimes, due to the low reflectances (<20% using wavelength 1.24 μm, the ART theory cannot be applied, which is common in lower and middle Himalayan old snow. This study is important for monitoring the Himalayan cryosphere using air-borne or space-borne sensors.

Photometric Lunar Surface Reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Nefian, Ara V.; Alexandrov, Oleg; Morattlo, Zachary; Kim, Taemin; Beyer, Ross A.

2013-01-01

Accurate photometric reconstruction of the Lunar surface is important in the context of upcoming NASA robotic missions to the Moon and in giving a more accurate understanding of the Lunar soil composition. This paper describes a novel approach for joint estimation of Lunar albedo, camera exposure time, and photometric parameters that utilizes an accurate Lunar-Lambertian reflectance model and previously derived Lunar topography of the area visualized during the Apollo missions. The method introduced here is used in creating the largest Lunar albedo map (16% of the Lunar surface) at the resolution of 10 meters/pixel.

Surface texture generation during cylindrical milling in the aspect of cutting force variations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wojciechowski, S; Twardowski, P; Pelic, M

2014-01-01

The work presented here concentrates on surface texture analysis, after cylindrical milling of hardened steel. Cutting force variations occurring in the machining process have direct influence on the cutter displacements and thus on the generated surface texture. Therefore, in these experiments, the influence of active number of teeth (z c ) on the cutting force variations was investigated. Cutting forces and cutter displacements were measured during machining process (online) using, namely piezoelectric force dynamometer and 3D laser vibrometer. Surface roughness parameters were measured using stylus surface profiler. The surface roughness model including cutting parameters (f z , D) and cutting force variations was also developed. The research revealed that in cylindrical milling process, cutting force variations have immediate influence on surface texture generation

Validation of response simulation methodology of Albedo dosemeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freitas, B.M.; Silva, A.X. da

2016-01-01

The Instituto de Radioprotecao e Dosimetria developed and runs a neutron TLD albedo individual monitoring service. To optimize the dose calculation algorithm and to infer new calibration factors, the response of this dosemeter was simulated. In order to validate this employed methodology, it was applied in the simulation of the problem of the QUADOS (Quality Assurance of Computational Tools for Dosimetry) intercomparison, aimed to evaluate dosimetric problems, one being to calculate the response of a generic albedo dosemeter. The obtained results were compared with those of other modeling and the reference one, with good agreements. (author)

The influence of inter-annually varying albedo on regional climate and drought

KAUST Repository

Meng, Xianhong; Evans, Jason P.; McCabe, Matthew

2013-01-01

Albedo plays an important role in land-atmosphere interactions and local climate. This study presents the impact on simulating regional climate, and the evolution of a drought, when using the default climatological albedo as is usually done

Antarctic surface temperature and sea ice biases in coupled climate models linked with cloud and land surface properties

Science.gov (United States)

Skiles, M.; Painter, T. H.; Marks, D. G.; Hedrick, A. R.

2014-12-01

Since 2013 the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) has been measuring spatial and temporal distribution of both snow water equivalent and snow albedo, the two most critical properties for understanding snowmelt runoff and timing, across key basins in the Western US. It is generally understood that net solar radiation (as controlled by variations in snow albedo and irradiance) provides the energy available for melt in almost all snow-covered environments. Until now, sparse measurements have restricted the ability to utilize measured net solar radiation in energy balance models, and current process simulations and model prediction of albedo evolution rely on oversimplifications of the processes. Data from ASO offers the unprecedented opportunity to utilize weekly measurements of spatially extensive spectral snow albedo to constrain and update snow albedo in a distributed snowmelt model for the first time. Here, we first investigate the sensitivity of the snow energy balance model SNOBAL to prescribed changes in snow albedo at two instrumented alpine catchments: at the point scale across 10 years at Senator Beck Basin Study Area in the San Juan Mountains, southwestern Colorado, and at the distributed scale across 25 years at Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, Idaho. We then compare distributed energy balance and snowmelt results across the ASO measurement record in the Tuolumne Basin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, for model runs with and without integrated snow albedo from ASO.

Refining surface net radiation estimates in arid and semi-arid climates of Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Golkar, Foroogh; Rossow, William B.; Sabziparvar, Ali Akbar

2018-06-01

Although the downwelling fluxes exhibit space-time scales of dependency on characteristic of atmospheric variations, especially clouds, the upward fluxes and, hence the net radiation, depends on the variation of surface properties, particularly surface skin temperature and albedo. Evapotranspiration at the land surface depends on the properties of that surface and is determined primarily by the net surface radiation, mostly absorbed solar radiation. Thus, relatively high spatial resolution net radiation data are needed for evapotranspiration studies. Moreover, in more arid environments, the diurnal variations of surface (air and skin) temperature can be large so relatively high (sub-daily) time resolution net radiation is also needed. There are a variety of radiation and surface property products available but they differ in accuracy, space-time resolution and information content. This situation motivated the current study to evaluate multiple sources of information to obtain the best net radiation estimate with the highest space-time resolution from ISCCP FD dataset. This study investigates the accuracy of the ISCCP FD and AIRS surface air and skin temperatures, as well as the ISCCP FD and MODIS surface albedos and aerosol optical depths as the leading source of uncertainty in ISCCP FD dataset. The surface air temperatures, 10-cm soil temperatures and surface solar insolation from a number of surface sites are used to judge the best combinations of data products, especially on clear days. The corresponding surface skin temperatures in ISCCP FD, although they are known to be biased somewhat high, disagreed more with AIRS measurements because of the mismatch of spatial resolutions. The effect of spatial resolution on the comparisons was confirmed using the even higher resolution MODIS surface skin temperature values. The agreement of ISCCP FD surface solar insolation with surface measurements is good (within 2.4-9.1%), but the use of MODIS aerosol optical depths as

Evaluation of the MODIS Albedo Product over a Heterogeneous Agricultural Area

Science.gov (United States)

Sobrino, Jose Antonio; Franch, B.; Oltra-Carrio, R.; Vermote, E. F.; Fedele, E.

2013-01-01

In this article, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/Albedo product (MCD43) is evaluated over a heterogeneous agricultural area in the framework of the Earth Observation: Optical Data Calibration and Information Extraction (EODIX) project campaign, which was developed in Barrax (Spain) in June 2011. In this method, two models, the RossThick-LiSparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR) (which corresponds to the MODIS BRDF algorithm) and the RossThick-Maignan-LiSparse-Reciprocal (RTLSR-HS), were tested over airborne data by processing high-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor. During the campaign, airborne images were retrieved with different view zenith angles along the principal and orthogonal planes. Comparing the results of applying the models to the airborne data with ground measurements, we obtained a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.018 with both RTLSR and RTLSR-HS models. The evaluation of the MODIS BRDF/Albedo product (MCD43) was performed by comparing satellite images with AHS estimations. The results reported an RMSE of 0.04 with both models. Additionally, taking advantage of a homogeneous barley pixel, we compared in situ albedo data to satellite albedo data. In this case, the MODIS albedo estimation was (0.210 +/- 0.003), while the in situ measurement was (0.204 +/- 0.003). This result shows good agreement in regard to a homogeneous pixel.

AN INVESTIGATION OF LOCAL EFFECTS ON SURFACE WARMING WITH GEOGRAPHICALLY WEIGHTED REGRESSION (GWR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Xue

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Urban warming is sensitive to the nature (thermal properties, including albedo, water content, heat capacity and thermal conductivity and the placement (surface geometry or urban topography of urban surface. In the literature the spatial dependence and heterogeneity of urban thermal landscape is widely observed based on thermal infrared remote sensing within the urban environment. Urban surface warming is conceived as a big contribution to urban warming, the study of urban surface warming possesses significant meaning for probing into the problem of urban warming.The urban thermal landscape study takes advantage of the continuous surface derived from thermal infrared remote sensing at the landscape scale, the detailed variation of local surface temperature can be measured and analyzed through the systematic investigation. At the same time urban environmental factors can be quantified with remote sensing and GIS techniques. This enables a systematic investigation of urban thermal landscape with a link to be established between local environmental setting and surface temperature variation. The goal of this research is utilizing Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR to analyze the spatial relationship between urban form and surface temperature variation in order to clarify the local effects on surface warming, moreover to reveal the possible dynamics in the local influences of environmental indicators on the variation of local surface temperature across space and time. In this research, GWR analysis proved that the spatial variation in relationships between environmental setting and surface temperature was significant with Monte Carlo significance test and distinctive in day-night change. Comparatively, GWR facilitated the site specific investigation based on local statistical technique. The inference based on GWR model provided enriched information regarding the spatial variation of local environment effect on surface temperature variation which

Pectins from the albedo of immature lemon fruitlets have high water binding capacity.

Science.gov (United States)

Schröder, Roswitha; Clark, Christopher J; Sharrock, Keith; Hallett, Ian C; MacRae, Elspeth A

2004-04-01

The white part of citrus peel, the albedo, has a special role in water relations of both fruit and leaves from early on in fruit development. In times of drought, this tissue acts as a water reservoir for juice sacs, seeds and leaves. When water was injected into the albedo, free water was undetectable using magnetic resonance imaging. Microscopy showed tightly packed cells with little intercellular space, and thick cell walls. Cell wall material comprised 21% of the fresh albedo weight, and contained 26.1% galacturonic acid, the main constituent of pectin. From this, we postulated that pectin of the cell wall was responsible for the high water-binding capacity of the immature lemon albedo. Cell wall material was extracted using mild procedures that keep polymers intact, and four pectic fractions were recovered. Of these fractions, the SDS and chelator-soluble fractions showed viscosities ten and twenty times higher than laboratory-grade citrus pectin or the other albedo-derived pectins. The yield of these two pectins represented 28% of the cell walls and 62% of the galacturonic acid content of immature lemon albedo. We concluded that, from viscosity and abundance, these types of pectin account for the high water-binding capacity of this tissue. Compositional analyses showed that the two highly viscous pectic fractions differ in galacturonic acid content, degree of branching and length of side chains from the less viscous albedo-derived pectins. The most striking feature of these highly viscous pectins, however, was their high molecular weight distribution compared to the other pectic fractions.

Variational reconstruction using subdivision surfaces with continuous sharpness control

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiaoqun Wu; Jianmin Zheng; Yiyu Cai; Haisheng Li

2017-01-01

We present a variational method for subdivision surface reconstruction from a noisy dense mesh.A new set of subdivision rules with continuous sharpness control is introduced into Loop subdivision for better modeling subdivision surface features such as semi-sharp creases,creases,and corners.The key idea is to assign a sharpness value to each edge of the control mesh to continuously control the surface features.Based on the new subdivision rules,a variational model with L1 norm is formulated to find the control mesh and the corresponding sharpness values of the subdivision surface that best fits the input mesh.An iterative solver based on the augmented Lagrangian method and particle swarm optimization is used to solve the resulting non-linear,non-differentiable optimization problem.Our experimental results show that our method can handle meshes well with sharp/semi-sharp features and noise.

Estimativas do albedo em três ecossistemas da floresta amazônica Estimation of albedo in three ecosystems of the Amazon forest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mário de M. V. B. R. Leitão

2002-01-01

the soil surface to measure the cited parameters. Four microloggers were used for acquiring the daily data from 5 h 51 min to 18 h at intervals of one second and the average values for each minute were obtained and stored. The results show that the albedos of the shortwave, infrared and photosynthetically active radiations for the three canopies can be estimated, as a function of the solar elevation angle, with good precision for anytime of the day.

A neutron Albedo system with time rejection for landmine and IED detection

Science.gov (United States)

Kovaltchouk, V. D.; Andrews, H. R.; Clifford, E. T. H.; Faust, A. A.; Ing, H.; McFee, J. E.

2011-10-01

A neutron Albedo system has been developed for imaging of buried landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It involves irradiating the ground with fast neutrons and subsequently detecting the thermalized neutrons that return. A scintillating 6Li loaded ZnS(Ag) screen with a sensitive area of 40 cm×40 cm is used as a thermal neutron detector. Scintillation light is captured by orthogonal arrays of wavelength-shifting fibers placed on either side of the scintillator surface and then transferred to X and Y multi-pixel PMTs. A timing circuit, used with pulsed neutron sources, records the time when a neutron detection takes place relative to an external synchronization pulse from the pulsed source. Experimental tests of the Albedo system performance have been done in a sand box with a 252Cf neutron source (no time gating) and with pulsed D-D (2.6 MeV) neutrons from the Defense R&D Ottawa Van de Graaff accelerator (with time gating). Information contained in the time evolution of the thermal neutron field provided improved detection capability and image reconstruction. The detector design is described and experimental results are discussed.

Tradeoffs between Three Forest Ecosystem Services across the State of New Hampshire, USA: Timber, Carbon, and Albedo

Science.gov (United States)

Lutz, D. A.; Burakowski, E. A.; Murphy, M. B.; Borsuk, M. E.; Niemiec, R. M.; Howarth, R. B.

2014-12-01

Albedo is an important physical property of the land surface which influences the total amount of incoming solar radiation that is reflected back into space. It is a critical ecosystem service that helps regulate the Earth's energy balance and, in the context of climate mitigation, has been shown to have a strong influence on the overall effectiveness of land management schemes designed to counteract climate change. Previously, we demonstrated that incorporating the physical effects of albedo into an ecological economic forest model of locations in the White Mountain National Forest, in New Hampshire, USA, leads to a substantially shorter optimal rotation period for forest harvest than under a carbon- and timber-only approach. In this study, we investigate similar tradeoffs at 565 sites across the entire state of New Hampshire in a variety of different forest types, latitudes, and elevations. Additionally, we use a regression tree approach to calculate the influence of biogeochemical and physical factors on the optimal rotation period. Our results suggest that in many instances, incorporating albedo may lead to optimal rotation times approaching zero, or, perpetual clear-cut. Overall, the difference between growing season and winter-time albedo for forested and harvested states was the most significant variable influencing the rotation period, followed by timber stumpage price, and biomass growth rate. These results provide an initial understanding of tradeoffs amongst these three ecosystem services and provide guidance for forest managers as to the relative important properties of their forests when these three services are incentivized economically.

An interactive ocean surface albedo scheme (OSAv1.0): formulation and evaluation in ARPEGE-Climat (V6.1) and LMDZ (V5A)

Science.gov (United States)

Séférian, Roland; Baek, Sunghye; Boucher, Olivier; Dufresne, Jean-Louis; Decharme, Bertrand; Saint-Martin, David; Roehrig, Romain

2018-01-01

Ocean surface represents roughly 70 % of the Earth's surface, playing a large role in the partitioning of the energy flow within the climate system. The ocean surface albedo (OSA) is an important parameter in this partitioning because it governs the amount of energy penetrating into the ocean or reflected towards space. The old OSA schemes in the ARPEGE-Climat and LMDZ models only resolve the latitudinal dependence in an ad hoc way without an accurate representation of the solar zenith angle dependence. Here, we propose a new interactive OSA scheme suited for Earth system models, which enables coupling between Earth system model components like surface ocean waves and marine biogeochemistry. This scheme resolves spectrally the various contributions of the surface for direct and diffuse solar radiation. The implementation of this scheme in two Earth system models leads to substantial improvements in simulated OSA. At the local scale, models using the interactive OSA scheme better replicate the day-to-day distribution of OSA derived from ground-based observations in contrast to old schemes. At global scale, the improved representation of OSA for diffuse radiation reduces model biases by up to 80 % over the tropical oceans, reducing annual-mean model-data error in surface upwelling shortwave radiation by up to 7 W m-2 over this domain. The spatial correlation coefficient between modeled and observed OSA at monthly resolution has been increased from 0.1 to 0.8. Despite its complexity, this interactive OSA scheme is computationally efficient for enabling precise OSA calculation without penalizing the elapsed model time.

Variational mesh segmentation via quadric surface fitting

KAUST Repository

Yan, Dongming; Wang, Wen Ping; Liu, Yang; Yang, Zhouwang

2012-01-01

We present a new variational method for mesh segmentation by fitting quadric surfaces. Each component of the resulting segmentation is represented by a general quadric surface (including plane as a special case). A novel energy function is defined to evaluate the quality of the segmentation, which combines both L2 and L2 ,1 metrics from a triangle to a quadric surface. The Lloyd iteration is used to minimize the energy function, which repeatedly interleaves between mesh partition and quadric surface fitting. We also integrate feature-based and simplification-based techniques in the segmentation framework, which greatly improve the performance. The advantages of our algorithm are demonstrated by comparing with the state-of-the-art methods. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Variational mesh segmentation via quadric surface fitting

KAUST Repository

Yan, Dongming

2012-11-01

We present a new variational method for mesh segmentation by fitting quadric surfaces. Each component of the resulting segmentation is represented by a general quadric surface (including plane as a special case). A novel energy function is defined to evaluate the quality of the segmentation, which combines both L2 and L2 ,1 metrics from a triangle to a quadric surface. The Lloyd iteration is used to minimize the energy function, which repeatedly interleaves between mesh partition and quadric surface fitting. We also integrate feature-based and simplification-based techniques in the segmentation framework, which greatly improve the performance. The advantages of our algorithm are demonstrated by comparing with the state-of-the-art methods. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Final report for the project "Improving the understanding of surface-atmosphere radiative interactions by mapping surface reflectance over the ARM CART site" (award DE-FG02-02ER63351)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alexander P. Trishchenko; Yi Luo; Konstantin V. Khlopenkov, William M. Park; Zhanqing Li; Maureen Cribb

2008-11-28

Surface spectral reflectance (albedo) is a fundamental variable affecting the transfer of solar radiation and the Earth’s climate. It determines the proportion of solar energy absorbed by the surface and reflected back to the atmosphere. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified surface albedo among key factors influencing climate radiative forcing. Accurate knowledge of surface reflective properties is important for advancing weather forecasting and climate change impact studies. It is also important for determining radiative impact and acceptable levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which makes this work strongly linked to major scientific objectives of the Climate Change Research Division (CCRD) and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. Most significant accomplishments of eth project are listed below. I) Surface albedo/BRDF datasets from 1995 to the end of 2004 have been produced. They were made available to the ARM community and other interested users through the CCRS public ftp site ftp://ftp.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ad/CCRS_ARM/ and ARM IOP data archive under “PI data Trishchenko”. II) Surface albedo properties over the ARM SGP area have been described for 10-year period. Comparison with ECMWF data product showed some deficiencies in the ECMWF surface scheme, such as missing some seasonal variability and no dependence on sky-conditions which biases surface energy budget and has some influence of the diurnal cycle of upward radiation and atmospheric absorption. III) Four surface albedo Intensive Observation Period (IOP) Field Campaigns have been conducted for every season (August, 2002, May 2003, February 2004 and October 2004). Data have been prepared, documented and transferred to ARM IOP archive. Nine peer-reviewed journal papers and 26 conference papers have been published.

Spatial variation in energy exchange across coastal environments in Greenland

Science.gov (United States)

Lund, M.; Abermann, J.; Citterio, M.; Hansen, B. U.; Larsen, S. H.; Stiegler, C.; Sørensen, L. L.; van As, D.

2015-12-01

The surface energy partitioning in Arctic terrestrial and marine areas is a crucial process, regulating snow, glacier ice and sea ice melt, and permafrost thaw, as well as modulating Earth's climate on both local, regional, and eventually, global scales. The Arctic region has warmed approximately twice as much as the global average, due to a number of feedback mechanisms related to energy partitioning, most importantly the snow and ice-albedo feedback. However, direct measurements of surface energy budgets in the Arctic are scarce, especially for the cold and dark winter period and over transects going from the ice sheet and glaciers to the sea. This study aims to describe annual cycles of the surface energy budget from various surface types in Arctic Greenland; e.g. glacier, snow, wet and dry tundra and sea ice, based on data from a number of measurement locations across coastal Greenland related to the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) program, including Station Nord/Kronprins Christians Land, Zackenberg/Daneborg, Disko, Qaanaq, Nuuk/Kobbefjord and Upernaviarsuk. Based on the available time series, we will analyze the sensitivity of the energy balance partitioning to variations in meteorological conditions (temperature, cloudiness, precipitation). Such analysis would allow for a quantification of the spatial variation in the energy exchange in aforementioned Arctic environments. Furthermore, this study will identify uncertainties and knowledge gaps in Arctic energy budgets and related climate feedback effects.

Evolution of Mars’ Northern Polar Seasonal CO2 deposits: variations in surface brightness and bulk density

Science.gov (United States)

Mount, Christopher P.; Titus, Timothy N.

2015-01-01

Small scale variations of seasonal ice are explored at different geomorphic units on the Northern Polar Seasonal Cap (NPSC). We use seasonal rock shadow measurements, combined with visible and thermal observations, to calculate density over time. The coupling of volume density and albedo allows us to determine the microphysical state of the seasonal CO2 ice. We find two distinct endmembers across the NPSC: 1) Snow deposits may anneal to form an overlying slab layer that fractures. These low density deposits maintain relatively constant densities over springtime. 2) Porous slab deposits likely anneal rapidly in early spring and fracture in late spring. These high density deposits dramatically increase in density over time. The endmembers appear to be correlated with latitude.

The AMMA-CATCH Gourma observatory site in Mali: Relating climatic variations to changes in vegetation, surface hydrology, fluxes and natural resources

Science.gov (United States)

Mougin, E.; Hiernaux, P.; Kergoat, L.; Grippa, M.; de Rosnay, P.; Timouk, F.; Le Dantec, V.; Demarez, V.; Lavenu, F.; Arjounin, M.; Lebel, T.; Soumaguel, N.; Ceschia, E.; Mougenot, B.; Baup, F.; Frappart, F.; Frison, P. L.; Gardelle, J.; Gruhier, C.; Jarlan, L.; Mangiarotti, S.; Sanou, B.; Tracol, Y.; Guichard, F.; Trichon, V.; Diarra, L.; Soumaré, A.; Koité, M.; Dembélé, F.; Lloyd, C.; Hanan, N. P.; Damesin, C.; Delon, C.; Serça, D.; Galy-Lacaux, C.; Seghieri, J.; Becerra, S.; Dia, H.; Gangneron, F.; Mazzega, P.

2009-08-01

SummaryThe Gourma site in Mali is one of the three instrumented meso-scale sites deployed in West-Africa as part of the African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project. Located both in the Sahelian zone sensu stricto, and in the Saharo-Sahelian transition zone, the Gourma meso-scale window is the northernmost site of the AMMA-CATCH observatory reached by the West African Monsoon. The experimental strategy includes deployment of a variety of instruments, from local to meso-scale, dedicated to monitoring and documentation of the major variables characterizing the climate forcing, and the spatio-temporal variability of surface processes and state variables such as vegetation mass, leaf area index (LAI), soil moisture and surface fluxes. This paper describes the Gourma site, its associated instrumental network and the research activities that have been carried out since 1984. In the AMMA project, emphasis is put on the relations between climate, vegetation and surface fluxes. However, the Gourma site is also important for development and validation of satellite products, mainly due to the existence of large and relatively homogeneous surfaces. The social dimension of the water resource uses and governance is also briefly analyzed, relying on field enquiry and interviews. The climate of the Gourma region is semi-arid, daytime air temperatures are always high and annual rainfall amounts exhibit strong inter-annual and seasonal variations. Measurements sites organized along a north-south transect reveal sharp gradients in surface albedo, net radiation, vegetation production, and distribution of plant functional types. However, at any point along the gradient, surface energy budget, soil moisture and vegetation growth contrast between two main types of soil surfaces and hydrologic systems. On the one hand, sandy soils with high water infiltration rates and limited run-off support almost continuous herbaceous vegetation with scattered woody plants. On the other

Simultaneous improvement in productivity, water use, and albedo through crop structural modification.

Science.gov (United States)

Drewry, Darren T; Kumar, Praveen; Long, Stephen P

2014-06-01

Spanning 15% of the global ice-free terrestrial surface, agricultural lands provide an immense and near-term opportunity to address climate change, food, and water security challenges. Through the computationally informed breeding of canopy structural traits away from those of modern cultivars, we show that solutions exist that increase productivity and water use efficiency, while increasing land-surface reflectivity to offset greenhouse gas warming. Plants have evolved to maximize capture of radiation in the upper leaves, thus shading competitors. While important for survival in the wild, this is suboptimal in monoculture crop fields for maximizing productivity and other biogeophysical services. Crop progenitors evolved over the last 25 million years in an atmosphere with less than half the [CO2] projected for 2050. By altering leaf photosynthetic rates, rising [CO2] and temperature may also alter the optimal canopy form. Here using soybean, the world's most important protein crop, as an example we show by applying optimization routines to a micrometeorological leaf canopy model linked to a steady-state model of photosynthesis, that significant gains in production, water use, and reflectivity are possible with no additional demand on resources. By modifying total canopy leaf area, its vertical profile and angular distribution, and shortwave radiation reflectivity, all traits available in most major crop germplasm collections, increases in productivity (7%) are possible with no change in water use or albedo. Alternatively, improvements in water use (13%) or albedo (34%) can likewise be made with no loss of productivity, under Corn Belt climate conditions. © 2014 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged.

Albedo boundary conditions for global calculations of thermal nuclear reactors with the model of discrete ordinates to two energy groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nunes, Carlos Eduardo de Araujo

2011-01-01

As neutron fission events do not take place in the non-multiplying regions of nuclear reactors, e.g., moderator, reflector, and structural core, these regions do not generate power and the computational efficiency of nuclear reactor global calculations can hence be improved by eliminating the explicit numerical calculations within the non-multiplying regions around the active domain. Discussed here is the computational efficiency of approximate discrete ordinates (SN) albedo boundary conditions for two-energy group eigenvalue problems in X, Y geometry. Albedo, the Latin word for w hiteness , was originally defined as the fraction of incident light reflected diffusely by a surface. This Latin word has remained the usual scientific term in astronomy and in this dissertation this concept is extended for the reflection of neutrons. The non-standard SN albedo substitutes approximately the reflector region around the active domain, as we neglect the transverse leakage terms within the non-multiplying reflector. Should the problem have no transverse leakage terms, i.e., one dimensional slab geometry, then the offered albedo boundary conditions are exact. By computational efficiency we mean analyzing the accuracy of the numerical results versus the CPU execution time of each run for a given model problem. Numerical results to two 1/4 symmetric test problems are shown to illustrate this efficiency analysis. (author)

Spectral albedo of seasonal snow during intensive melt period at Sodankylä, beyond the Arctic Circle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Meinander

2013-04-01

Full Text Available We have measured spectral albedo, as well as ancillary parameters, of seasonal European Arctic snow at Sodankylä, Finland (67°22' N, 26°39' E. The springtime intensive melt period was observed during the Snow Reflectance Transition Experiment (SNORTEX in April 2009. The upwelling and downwelling spectral irradiance, measured at 290–550 nm with a double monochromator spectroradiometer, revealed albedo values of ~0.5–0.7 for the ultraviolet and visible range, both under clear sky and variable cloudiness. During the most intensive snowmelt period of four days, albedo decreased from 0.65 to 0.45 at 330 nm, and from 0.72 to 0.53 at 450 nm. In the literature, the UV and VIS albedo for clean snow are ~0.97–0.99, consistent with the extremely small absorption coefficient of ice in this spectral region. Our low albedo values were supported by two independent simultaneous broadband albedo measurements, and simulated albedo data. We explain the low albedo values to be due to (i large snow grain sizes up to ~3 mm in diameter; (ii meltwater surrounding the grains and increasing the effective grain size; (iii absorption caused by impurities in the snow, with concentration of elemental carbon (black carbon in snow of 87 ppb, and organic carbon 2894 ppb, at the time of albedo measurements. The high concentrations of carbon, detected by the thermal–optical method, were due to air masses originating from the Kola Peninsula, Russia, where mining and refining industries are located.

Measurement of the North-South asymmetry in the solar proton albedo neutron flux

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ifedili, S.O.

1979-01-01

The solar proton albedo neutron flux in the range 10 -2 --10 7 eV measured by a neutron detector on board the Ogo 6 satellite was examined for north-south asymmetry. For the solar proton event of December 19, 1969, the S/N ratio of the solar proton albedo neutron rate at geomagnetic latitude lambda>70 0 was 1.61 +- 0.27 during the event, while for the November 2, 1969, event at 40 0 0 and altitudes ranging from 700 km to 800 km the solar proton albedo neutron rate was 0.40 +- 0.10 count/s in the north and 0.00 +- 0.10 count/s in the south. During the solar proton event of December 18, 1969, the N/S ratio of the solar proton albedo neutron rate at lambda>70 0 was 1.00 +- 0.26. The results are consistent with the expected N-S asymmetry in the solar proton flux. An interplanetary proton anisotropy with the interplanetary magnetic field polarity away from the sun corresponded to larger fluxes of solar proton albedo neutrons at the north polar cap than at the south, while an interplanetary proton anisotropy with the interplanetary magnetic field polarity toward the sun corresponded to larger fluxes of solar proton albedo neutrons at the south polar cap than at the north. This evidence favors the direct access of solar protons to the earth's polar caps via the merged interplanetary and geomagnetic field lines

Determination of the double angular and energy differential gamma-ray albedo by using the Monte Carlo method; Contribution a la determination de l`albedo doublement differentiel en angle et en energie des rayonnements gamma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miss, J

1998-06-01

The goal of this thesis was to study comprehensively photons energy and angular distributions of backscattered radiations. In general, this relation is described by the concept to the backscattered factor or doubly differential albedo. This concept is useful to study the particle propagation into the air space by simple or multiple reflections on materials There are two principal treatments to solve numerically this problem: the deterministic and probabilistic methods. We showed that deterministic methods furnish unsatisfactory results: that`s why we choice to develop a new gamma ray albedo estimator in the code TRIPOLI14 (three dimensional Monte Carlo code). So, we have been able to compute an important data base of doubly differential albedos. A physical analysis of these data showed that albedos can be simply described by parameter functions. These parameters were obtained by fitting the albedos of the data base over a complete range of incident and reflected energy and direction. So, we produced a very smaller data base of functions coefficients, instead of storing all the values of the doubly differential spectrum. It is so easy to make every albedo by linear interpolations on the coefficient of the new library. (author) 63 refs.

Evaluation of preindustrial to present-day black carbon and its albedo forcing from ACCMIP

Science.gov (United States)

LEE, Y.; Lamarque, J.; Flanner, M. G.; Jiao, C.; Shindell, D. T.; Berntsen, T.; Bisiaux, M. M.; Cao, J.; Collins, B.; Curran, M. A.; Edwards, R.; Faluvegi, G.; Ghan, S. J.; Horowitz, L. W.; McConnell, J. R.; Myhre, G.; Nagashima, T.; Naik, V.; Rumbold, S.; Skeie, R.; Sudo, K.; Takemura, T.; Thevenon, F.

2012-12-01

As part of the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP), we evaluate the historical black carbon (BC) aerosols simulated by 8 ACCMIP models against observations including 12 ice core records, long-term surface mass concentrations and recent Arctic BC snowpack measurements. We also estimate BC albedo forcing by performing additional simulations using offline models with prescribed meteorology from 1996-2000. We evaluated the vertical profile of BC snow concentrations from these offline simulations using the recent BC snowpack measurements. Despite using the same BC emissions, the global BC burden differs by approximately a factor of 3 among models due to differences in aerosol removal parameterizations and simulated meteorology: 34 Gg to 103 Gg in 1850 and 82 Gg to 315 Gg in 2000. However, the global BC burden from preindustrial to present-day increases by 2.5-3 times with little variation among models, roughly matching the 2.5-fold increase in total BC emissions during the same period. We find a large divergence among models at both Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH) high latitude regions for BC burden and at SH high latitude regions for deposition fluxes. The ACCMIP simulations match the observed BC surface mass concentrations well in Europe and North America except at Jungfraujoch and Ispra. However, the models fail to predict the Arctic BC seasonality due to severe underestimations during winter and spring. The simulated vertically resolved BC snow concentrations are, on average, within a factor of 2-3 of the BC snowpack measurements except for Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. For the ice core evaluation, models tend to capture both the observed temporal trends and the magnitudes well at Greenland sites. However, models fail to predict the decreasing trend of BC depositions/concentrations from the 1950s to the 1970s in most Tibetan Plateau ice cores and the overall temporal trends in the Alps ice core. The

Role of snow-albedo feedback in higher elevation warming over the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghatak, Debjani; Sinsky, Eric; Miller, James

2014-01-01

Recent literature has shown that surface air temperature (SAT) in many high elevation regions, including the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been increasing at a faster rate than at their lower elevation counterparts. We investigate projected future changes in SAT in the TP and the surrounding high elevation regions (between 25°–45°N and 50°–120°E) and the potential role snow-albedo feedback may have on amplified warming there. We use the Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4) and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) model which have different spatial resolutions as well as different climate sensitivities. We find that surface albedo (SA) decreases more at higher elevations than at lower elevations owing to the retreat of the 0 °C isotherm and the associated retreat of the snow line. Both models clearly show amplified warming over Central Asian mountains, the Himalayas, the Karakoram and Pamir during spring. Our results suggest that the decrease of SA and the associated increase in absorbed solar radiation (ASR) owing to the loss of snowpack play a significant role in triggering the warming over the same regions. Decreasing cloud cover in spring also contributes to an increase in ASR over some of these regions in CCSM4. Although the increase in SAT and the decrease in SA are greater in GFDL than CCSM4, the sensitivity of SAT to changes in SA is the same at the highest elevations for both models during spring; this suggests that the climate sensitivity between models may differ, in part, owing to their corresponding treatments of snow cover, snow melt and the associated snow/albedo feedback. (letter)

Solar flux incident on an orbiting surface after reflection from a planet

Science.gov (United States)

Modest, M. F.

1980-01-01

Algorithms describing the solar radiation impinging on an infinitesimal surface after reflection from a gray and diffuse planet are derived. The following conditions apply: only radiation from the sunny half of the planet is taken into account; the radiation must fall on the top of the orbiting surface, and radiation must come from that part of the planet that can be seen from the orbiting body. A simple approximate formula is presented which displays excellent accuracy for all significant situations, with an error which is always less than 5% of the maximum possible reflected flux. Attention is also given to solar albedo flux on a surface directly facing the planet, the influence of solar position on albedo flux, and to solar albedo flux as a function of the surface-planet tilt angle.

Application of Laplace transform for determination of albedo type boundary conditions for neutronic calculations; Aplicacao da transformada de Laplace para determinacao de condicoes de contorno tipo albedo para calculos neutronicos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Petersen, Claudio Zen

2008-07-01

In this dissertation we use the Laplace transform to derive expressions for nonstandard albedo boundary conditions for one and two non-multiplying regions at the ends of one dimensional domains. In practice, the fuel regions of reactor cores are surrounded by reflector regions that reduce neutron leakage. In order to exclude the reflector regions from the calculations, we introduce a reflection coefficient or albedo. We use the present albedo boundary conditions to solve numerically slab-geometry monoenergetic and multigroup diffusion equations using the conventional finite difference method. Numerical results are generated for fixed source and eigenvalue diffusion problems in slab geometry(author)

Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Kienert

2013-08-01

Full Text Available At the beginning of the Archean eon (ca. 3.8 billion years ago, the Earth's climate state was significantly different from today due to the lower solar luminosity, smaller continental fraction, higher rotation rate and, presumably, significantly larger greenhouse gas concentrations. All these aspects play a role in solutions to the "faint young Sun paradox" which must explain why the ocean surface was not fully frozen at that time. Here, we present 3-D model simulations of climate states that are consistent with early Archean boundary conditions and have different CO2 concentrations, aiming at an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of the early Archean climate system. In order to do so, we have appropriately modified an intermediate complexity climate model that couples a statistical-dynamical atmosphere model (involving parameterizations of the dynamics to an ocean general circulation model and a thermodynamic-dynamic sea-ice model. We focus on three states: one of them is ice-free, one has the same mean surface air temperature of 288 K as today's Earth and the third one is the coldest stable state in which there is still an area with liquid surface water (i.e. the critical state at the transition to a "snowball Earth". We find a reduction in meridional heat transport compared to today, which leads to a steeper latitudinal temperature profile and has atmospheric as well as oceanic contributions. Ocean surface velocities are largely zonal, and the strength of the atmospheric meridional circulation is significantly reduced in all three states. These aspects contribute to the observed relation between global mean temperature and albedo, which we suggest as a parameterization of the ice-albedo feedback for 1-D model simulations of the early Archean and thus the faint young Sun problem.

Performance verification of focus variation and confocal microscopes measuring tilted ultra-fine surfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quagliotti, Danilo; Baruffi, Federico; Tosello, Guido

2016-01-01

The behaviour of two optical instruments, scilicet a laser scanning confocal microscope and a focus-variation microscope, was investigated considering measurements of tilted surfaces. The measured samples were twelve steel artefacts for mould surface finish reference, covering Sa roughness...... parameter in the range (101—103) nm. The 3D surface texture parameters considered were Sa, Sq and Sdq. The small working distance of the confocal microscope objectives influenced the measurement setup, preventing from selecting a high tilting angle. The investigation was carried out comparing measurements...... of flat surfaces (0° tilt) with measurements of 12.5° tilted surfaces. The confocal microscope results showed a high sensitivity to tilting due to the laser beam reflection on the metal surfaces. The focus variation microscope results were more robust with respect to the considered angular variation...

Surface Freshwater Storage Variations in the Orinoco Floodplains Using Multi-Satellite Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric Frappart

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Variations in surface water extent and storage are poorly characterized from regional to global scales. In this study, a multi-satellite approach is proposed to estimate the water stored in the floodplains of the Orinoco Basin at a monthly time-scale using remotely-sensed observations of surface water from the Global Inundation Extent Multi-Satellite (GIEMS and stages from Envisat radar altimetry. Surface water storage variations over 2003–2007 exhibit large interannual variability and a strong seasonal signal, peaking during summer, and associated with the flood pulse. The volume of surface water storage in the Orinoco Basin was highly correlated with the river discharge at Ciudad Bolivar (R = 0.95, the closest station to the mouth where discharge was estimated, although discharge lagged one month behind storage. The correlation remained high (R = 0.73 after removing seasonal effects. Mean annual variations in surface water volume represented ~170 km3, contributing to ~45% of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE-derived total water storage variations and representing ~13% of the total volume of water that flowed out of the Orinoco Basin to the Atlantic Ocean.

NEOWISE REACTIVATION MISSION YEAR ONE: PRELIMINARY ASTEROID DIAMETERS AND ALBEDOS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nugent, C. R.; Cutri, R. M. [Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Mainzer, A.; Masiero, J.; Bauer, J.; Kramer, E.; Sonnett, S.; Stevenson, R. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States); Grav, T. [Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ (United States); Wright, E. L., E-mail: cnugent@ipac.caltech.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)

2015-12-01

We present preliminary diameters and albedos for 7956 asteroids detected in the first year of the NEOWISE Reactivation mission. Of those, 201 are near-Earth asteroids and 7755 are Main Belt or Mars-crossing asteroids. 17% of these objects have not been previously characterized using the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or “NEOWISE” thermal measurements. Diameters are determined to an accuracy of ∼20% or better. If good-quality H magnitudes are available, albedos can be determined to within ∼40% or better.

DUST, Albedo Monte-Carlo Simulation of Neutron Streaming in Multi-legged Square Concrete Ducts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: DUST simulates the thermal neutron streaming through multi-legged square concrete ducts. 2 - Method of solution: DUST uses the albedo Monte Carlo method. The albedo data used are in the form of empirical formulae based on the measured doubly differential albedo data. Sampling of the reflected polar and azimuthal angles is done by the rejection method. Variance reduction devices such as Russian Roulette are used. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: - The albedo data and the subroutines for sampling the reflected polar and azimuthal angles are specific for concrete ducts. The maximum number of legs (as specified by dimension statements) is 5 and the maximum number of dose points is 50. The dose points considered are only in the last leg of the multi-legged duct

Size, Albedo, and Taxonomy of the Don Quijote Space Mission Target

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Alan; Mueller, Michael; Fitzsimmons, Alan

2006-03-01

Rendezvous and lander missions are a very effective but very expensive way of investigating Solar-System bodies. The planning, optimization and success of space missions depends crucially on prior remotely-sensed knowledge of target bodies. Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), which are mainly fragments of main-belt asteroids, are seen as important goals for investigation by space missions, mainly due to the role their forebears played in planet formation and the evolution of the Solar System, but also for the pragmatic reason that these objects can collide with the Earth with potentially devastating consequences. The European Space Agency is currently planning the Don Quijote mission to a NEA, which includes a rendezvous (and perhaps a lander) spacecraft and an impactor vehicle. The aim is to study the physical properties of the target asteroid and the effects of the impact on its dynamical state, as a first step in considering realistic mitigation measures against an eventual hazardous NEA. Two potential targets have been selected for the mission, the preferred one being (10302) 1989 ML, which is energetically easier to reach and is possibly a scientifically interesting primitive asteroid. However, due to the ambiguity of available spectral data, it is currently not possible to confidently determine the taxonomic type and mineralogy of this object. Crucially, the albedo is uncertain by a factor of 10, which leads to large uncertainties in the size and mass and hence the planned near-surface operations of Don Quijote. Thermal-infrared observations are urgently required for accurate size and albedo determination. These observations, which can only be carried out by Spitzer and would require only a modest amount of observing time, would enable an accurate diameter to be derived for the first time and the resulting albedo would remove the taxonomic ambiguity. The proposed Spitzer observations are critical for effective mission planning and would greatly increase our

FLUKA Calculation of the Neutron Albedo Encountered at Low Earth Orbits

CERN Document Server

Claret, Arnaud; Combier, Natacha; Ferrari, Alfredo; Laurent, Philippe

2014-01-01

This paper presents Monte-Carlo simulations based on the Fluka code aiming to calculate the contribution of the neutron albedo at a given date and altitude above the Earth chosen by the user. The main input parameters of our model are the solar modulation affecting the spectra of cosmic rays, and the date of the Earth’s geomagnetic fi eld. The results consist in a two-parameter distribution, the neutron energy and the angle to the tangent plane of the sphere containing the orbi t of interest, and are provided by geographical position above the E arth at the chosen altitude. This model can be used to predict the te mporal variation of the neutron fl ux encountered along the orbit, and thus constrain the determination of the instrumental backg round noise of space experiments in low earth orbit.

Improved streaming analysis technique: spherical harmonics expansion of albedo data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albert, T.E.; Simmons, G.L.

1979-01-01

An improved albedo scattering technique was implemented with a three-dimensional Monte Carlo transport code for use in analyzing radiation streaming problems. The improvement was based on a shifted spherical Harmonics expansion of the doubly differential albedo data base. The result of the improvement was a factor of 3 to 10 reduction in data storage requirements and approximately a factor of 3 to 6 increase in computational speed. Comparisons of results obtained using the technique with measurements are shown for neutron streaming in one- and two-legged square concrete ducts

Satellite Remote Sensing of Snow/Ice Albedo over the Himalayas

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, N. Christina; Gautam, Ritesh

2012-01-01

The Himalayan glaciers and snowpacks play an important role in the hydrological cycle over Asia. The seasonal snow melt from the Himalayan glaciers and snowpacks is one of the key elements to the livelihood of the downstream densely populated regions of South Asia. During the pre-monsoon season (April-May-June), South Asia not only experiences the reversal of the regional meridional tropospheric temperature gradient (i.e., the onset of the summer monsoon), but also is being bombarded by dry westerly airmass that transports mineral dust from various Southwest Asian desert and arid regions into the Indo-Gangetic Plains in northern India. Mixed with heavy anthropogenic pollution, mineral dust constitutes the bulk of regional aerosol loading and forms an extensive and vertically extended brown haze lapping against the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Episodic dust plumes are advected over the Himalayas, and are discernible in satellite imagery, resulting in dust-capped snow surface. Motivated by the potential implications of accelerated snowmelt, we examine the changes in radiative energetics induced by aerosol transport over the Himalayan snow cover by utilizing space borne observations. Our objective lies in the investigation of potential impacts of aerosol solar absorption on the Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) spectral reflectivity and the broadband albedo, and hence the accelerated snowmelt, particularly in the western Himalayas. Lambertian Equivalent Reflectivity (LER) in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer radiances, is used to generate statistics for determining perturbation caused due to dust layer over snow surface in over ten years of continuous observations. Case studies indicate significant reduction of LER ranging from 5 to 8% in the 412-860nm spectra. Broadband flux observations, from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System, are also used to investigate changes in shortwave TOA flux over

Evaluation of a high-resolution regional climate simulation over Greenland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lefebre, Filip [Universite catholique de Louvain, Institut d' Astronomie et de Geophysique G. Lemaitre, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Vito - Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Integral Environmental Studies, Mol (Belgium); Fettweis, Xavier; Ypersele, Jean-Pascal van; Marbaix, Philippe [Universite catholique de Louvain, Institut d' Astronomie et de Geophysique G. Lemaitre, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Gallee, Hubert [Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Geophysique de l' Environnement, Grenoble (France); Greuell, Wouter [Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht (Netherlands); Calanca, Pierluigi [Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture, Zurich (Switzerland)

2005-07-01

A simulation of the 1991 summer has been performed over south Greenland with a coupled atmosphere-snow regional climate model (RCM) forced by the ECMWF re-analysis. The simulation is evaluated with in-situ coastal and ice-sheet atmospheric and glaciological observations. Modelled air temperature, specific humidity, wind speed and radiative fluxes are in good agreement with the available observations, although uncertainties in the radiative transfer scheme need further investigation to improve the model's performance. In the sub-surface snow-ice model, surface albedo is calculated from the simulated snow grain shape and size, snow depth, meltwater accumulation, cloudiness and ice albedo. The use of snow metamorphism processes allows a realistic modelling of the temporal variations in the surface albedo during both melting periods and accumulation events. Concerning the surface albedo, the main finding is that an accurate albedo simulation during the melting season strongly depends on a proper initialization of the surface conditions which mainly result from winter accumulation processes. Furthermore, in a sensitivity experiment with a constant 0.8 albedo over the whole ice sheet, the average amount of melt decreased by more than 60%, which highlights the importance of a correctly simulated surface albedo. The use of this coupled atmosphere-snow RCM offers new perspectives in the study of the Greenland surface mass balance due to the represented feedback between the surface climate and the surface albedo, which is the most sensitive parameter in energy-balance-based ablation calculations. (orig.)

Implementation of solar-reflective surfaces: Materials and utility programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bretz, S.; Akbari, H.; Rosenfeld, A.; Taha, H.

1992-06-01

This report focuses on implementation issues for using solar-reflective surfaces to cool urban heat islands, with specific examples for Sacramento, California. Advantages of solar-reflective surfaces for reducing energy use are: (1) they are cost-effective if albedo is increased during routine maintenance; (2) the energy savings coincide with peak demand for power; (3) there are positive effects on environmental quality; and (4) the white materials have a long service life. Important considerations when choosing materials for mitigating heat islands are identified as albedo, emissivity, durability, cost, pollution and appearance. There is a potential for increasing urban albedo in Sacramento by an additional 18%. Of residential roofs, we estimate that asphalt shingle and modified bitumen cover the largest area, and that built-up roofing and modified bitumen cover the largest area of commercial buildings. For all of these roof types, albedo may be increased at the time of re-roofing without any additional cost. When a roof is repaired, a solar-reflective roof coating may be applied to significantly increase albedo and extend the life of the root Although a coating may be cost-effective if applied to a new roof following installation or to an older roof following repair, it is not cost-effective if the coating is applied only to save energy. Solar-reflective pavement may be cost-effective if the albedo change is included in the routine resurfacing schedule. Cost-effective options for producing light-colored pavement may include: (1) asphalt concrete, if white aggregate is locally available; (2) concrete overlays; and (3) newly developed white binders and aggregate. Another option may be hot-rolled asphalt, with white chippings. Utilities could promote solar-reflective surfaces through advertisement, educational programs and cost-sharing of road resurfacing.

Impacto do desmatamento de uma área de mangue no albedo superficial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Alexandre Santos Querino

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Manguezais são ecossistemas peculiares encontrados nas regiões tropicais. A degradação dos manguezais altera o balanço superficial de radiação, e por consequência o albedo. Para avaliar e comparar o albedo, nesse ambiente foram instaladas duas plataformas de coletas de dados micrometeorológicos no município de Marechal Deodoro, Alagoas, Brasil, no período de outubro de 2004 a outubro de 2005. No mangue nativo (9º42' 18"S; 35º 48' 32" W foram instalados dois piranômetros acima da copa das árvores, e em outubro de 2005, um terceiro dentro do mangue. Na área degradada (9º 36' 38" S; 35º 46' 03" W, os sensores foram posicionados a uma altura de dois metros em relação ao solo. Observou-se que o albedo sobre a floresta de mangue, em geral, é maior em média, 5 pontos percentuais superior em relação à outras florestas tropicais, como por exemplo, a Amazônia. Internamente notou-se que o mesmo não ultrapassou os 13% e seu valor máximo ocorre no horário de menor albedo da copa ≈ 20%, evidenciando a influência da maré. Já na área degradada, o albedo médio foi de 35%, o que implica em uma elevação aproximada de 49% quando substituída a cobertura de floresta natural.

Impact of Grain Shape and Multiple Black Carbon Internal Mixing on Snow Albedo: Parameterization and Radiative Effect Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

He, Cenlin; Liou, Kuo-Nan; Takano, Yoshi; Yang, Ping; Qi, Ling; Chen, Fei

2018-01-01

We quantify the effects of grain shape and multiple black carbon (BC)-snow internal mixing on snow albedo by explicitly resolving shape and mixing structures. Nonspherical snow grains tend to have higher albedos than spheres with the same effective sizes, while the albedo difference due to shape effects increases with grain size, with up to 0.013 and 0.055 for effective radii of 1,000 μm at visible and near-infrared bands, respectively. BC-snow internal mixing reduces snow albedo at wavelengths external mixing, internal mixing enhances snow albedo reduction by a factor of 1.2-2.0 at visible wavelengths depending on BC concentration and snow shape. The opposite effects on albedo reductions due to snow grain nonsphericity and BC-snow internal mixing point toward a careful investigation of these two factors simultaneously in climate modeling. We further develop parameterizations for snow albedo and its reduction by accounting for grain shape and BC-snow internal/external mixing. Combining the parameterizations with BC-in-snow measurements in China, North America, and the Arctic, we estimate that nonspherical snow grains reduce BC-induced albedo radiative effects by up to 50% compared with spherical grains. Moreover, BC-snow internal mixing enhances the albedo effects by up to 30% (130%) for spherical (nonspherical) grains relative to external mixing. The overall uncertainty induced by snow shape and BC-snow mixing state is about 21-32%.

Ida and Dactyl: Spectral Reflectance and Color Variations

Science.gov (United States)

Veverka, J.; Helfenstein, P.; Lee, P.; Thomas, P.; McEwen, A.; Belton, M.; Klaasen, K.; Johnson, T. V.; Granahan, J.; Fanale, F.; Geissler, P.; Head, J. W., III

1996-03-01

Galileo SSI color data between 0.4 and 1.0 μm demonstrate that both Ida and Dactyl are S-type asteroids with similar, but distinct spectra. Small but definite color variations are also observed on Ida itself and involve both the blue part of the spectrum and the depth of the 1-μm pyroxene-olivine band. Ida's surface can be classified into two color terrains: Terrain A has a shallower 1-μm absorption and a steeper visible red slope than does Terrain B. Qualitatively, the color-albedo systematics of these two terrains follow those noted for color units on Gaspra and the variations in 1-μm band depth with weathering described by Gaffeyet al.(Gaffey, M. J., J. F. Bell, R. H. Brown, T. H. Burbine, J. Piatek, K. L. Reed, and D. A. Chaky 1993.Icarus106, 573-602). Terrain A, with its slightly lower albedo, its shallower 1-μm band, and its slightly steeper visible red slope relative to Terrain B could be interpreted as the “more processed,” “more mature,” or the “more weathered” of the two terrains. Consistent with this interpretation is that Terrain A appears to be the ubiquitous background on most of Ida, while Terrain B is correlated with some small craters as well as with possible ejecta from the 10-km Azzurra impact structure. Because of these trends, it is less likely that differences between Terrains A and B are caused by an original compositional inhomogeneity within the body of Ida, although they do fall within the range known to occur within the Koronis family. The spectrum of Dactyl is similar to, but definitely different from, that of Terrain B on Ida. It does not conform to the pattern that obtains between the colors and albedos of Terrains A and B: the satellite's 1-μm band is deeper than that of Terrain B, but its albedo is lower, rather than higher. By itself, the deeper band depth could be interpreted, following Gaffeyet al., to mean that Dactyl is a less weathered version of Terrain B on Ida, but such an interpretation is at odds with

Calculation of neutron albedo from laminated semiinfinite media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dobrynin, Yu.L.; Mikaehlyan, L.A.; Skorokhvatov, M.D.

1978-01-01

A version of a laminated neutron detector with increased efficiency for recording external neutron fluxes by gamma-quanta from neutron capture is considered. The detector comprises two zones. The first zone constitutes an absorbent layer (europium oxide) 0.5 cm thick, and the second one is a moderator (water with gadolinium salt at the concentration of 0.8 g/l). Mono-energetic neutrons fall normally onto the detector surface. Neutron energy varied from 0.1 eV to MeV. The results of calculations of the integral numerical current albedo (INCA) of neutrons by the Monte Carlo method are presented. The INCA dependences on neutron energy are obtained for one moderator with different gadolinium contents; for the absorbent with the moderator containing and lacking the gadolinium. The resultant dependences are indicative of preferential capture of neutrons by the gadolinium in the moderator, this being more desirable for recording neutrons in the (n, γ) reaction

Imaging spectroscopy to assess the composition of ice surface materials and their impact on glacier mass balance

Science.gov (United States)

Naegeli, Kathrin; Huss, Matthias; Damm, Alexander; de Jong, Rogier; Schaepman, Michael; Hoelzle, Martin

2014-05-01

The ice-albedo feedback plays a crucial role in various glaciological processes, but especially influences ice melt. Glacier surface albedo is one of the most important variables in the energy balance of snow and ice, but depends in a complicated way on many factors, such as cryoconite concentration, impurities due to mineral dust, soot or organic matter, grain size or ice surface morphology. Our understanding on how these various factors influence glacier albedo is still limited hindering a spatially and temporally explicit parameterization of energy balance models and requiring strongly simplified assumptions on actual albedo values. Over the last two decades, several studies have focused on glacier surface albedo using automatic in-situ weather stations in combination with radiation measurement setups or satellite images. Due to limitations of both approaches in matching either the spatial or the temporal length scale of glacier albedo, still fairly little is known about the state, changes and impact of glacier surface albedo in the Swiss Alps, although there are obvious changes in surface characteristics on most alpine glaciers over the last years. With use of the APEX (Airborne Prism EXperiment) image spectrometer, measurements of reflected radiation were acquired in high spatial and spectral resolution on Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland, to explicitly analyse the ice surface. In-situ radiometric measurements were acquired with an ASD field spectrometer in parallel to APEX overflights. These data are intended to be used for validation purposes as well as input data for the linear spectral unmixing analysis of the APEX data. Seasonal glacier mass balance is monitored since five years using the direct glaciological method. This contribution presents a first evaluation of the data collected in summer 2013. The obtained in-situ and airborne reflectance measurements were used in combination with a spectral mixture analysis (SMA) approach to assess the

THE STATISTICS OF ALBEDO AND HEAT RECIRCULATION ON HOT EXOPLANETS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cowan, Nicolas B.; Agol, Eric

2011-01-01

If both the day-side and night-side effective temperatures of a planet can be measured, it is possible to estimate its Bond albedo, 0 B 0 , and associated uncertainty. We then use a simple model-independent technique to estimate a planet's effective temperature from planet/star flux ratios. We use thermal secondary eclipse measurements-those obtained at λ>0.8 μm-to estimate day-side effective temperatures, T d , and thermal phase variations-when available-to estimate night-side effective temperature. We strongly rule out the 'null hypothesis' of a single A B and ε for all 24 planets. If we allow each planet to have different parameters, we find that low Bond albedos are favored (A B 0 , the day-side effective temperatures of the 24 planets describe a uni-modal distribution. The two biggest outliers are GJ 436b (abnormally hot) and HD 80606b (abnormally cool), and these are the only eccentric planets in our sample. The dimensionless quantity T d /T 0 exhibits no trend with the presence or absence of stratospheric inversions. There is also no clear trend between T d /T 0 and T 0 . That said, the six planets with the greatest sub-stellar equilibrium temperatures (T > 2400 K) have low ε, as opposed to the 18 cooler planets, which show a variety of recirculation efficiencies. This hints that the very hottest transiting giant planets are qualitatively different from the merely hot Jupiters. We propose an explanation of this trend based on how a planet's radiative and advective times scale with temperature: both timescales are expected to be shorter for hotter planets, but the temperature dependence of the radiative timescale is stronger, leading to decreased heat recirculation efficiency.

Albedo neutron dosimetry in Germany: regulations and performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luszik-Bhadra, M.; Zimbal, A.; Busch, F.; Jordan, M.; Eichelberger, A.; Engelhardt, J.; Martini, E.; Figel, M.; Haninger, T.; Frasch, G.; Guenther, K.; Seifert, R.; Rimpler, A.

2014-01-01

Personal neutron dosimetry has been performed in Germany using albedo dosemeters for >20 y. This paper describes the main principles, the national standards, regulations and recommendations, the quality management and the overall performance, giving some examples. (authors)

The high albedo of the hot Jupiter Kepler-7b

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demory, B.-O.; Seager, S.; Madhusudhan, N.

2011-01-01

Hot Jupiters are expected to be dark from both observations (albedo upper limits) and theory (alkali metals and/or TiO and VO absorption). However, only a handful of hot Jupiters have been observed with high enough photometric precision at visible wavelengths to investigate these expectations....... The NASA Kepler mission provides a means to widen the sample and to assess the extent to which hot Jupiter albedos are low. We present a global analysis of Kepler-7 b based on Q0-Q4 data, published radial velocities, and asteroseismology constraints. We measure an occultation depth in the Kepler bandpass...

Variations in sea surface roughness induced by the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. A. Godin

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Observations of tsunamis away from shore are critically important for improving early warning systems and understanding of tsunami generation and propagation. Tsunamis are difficult to detect and measure in the open ocean because the wave amplitude there is much smaller than it is close to shore. Currently, tsunami observations in deep water rely on measurements of variations in the sea surface height or bottom pressure. Here we demonstrate that there exists a different observable, specifically, ocean surface roughness, which can be used to reveal tsunamis away from shore. The first detailed measurements of the tsunami effect on sea surface height and radar backscattering strength in the open ocean were obtained from satellite altimeters during passage of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami. Through statistical analyses of satellite altimeter observations, we show that the Sumatra-Andaman tsunami effected distinct, detectable changes in sea surface roughness. The magnitude and spatial structure of the observed variations in radar backscattering strength are consistent with hydrodynamic models predicting variations in the near-surface wind across the tsunami wave front. Tsunami-induced changes in sea surface roughness can be potentially used for early tsunami detection by orbiting microwave radars and radiometers, which have broad surface coverage across the satellite ground track.

Three-group albedo method applied to the diffusion phenomenon with up-scattering of neutrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terra, Andre M. Barge Pontes Torres; Silva, Jorge A. Valle da; Cabral, Ronaldo G.

2007-01-01

The main objective of this research is to develop a three-group neutron Albedo algorithm considering the up-scattering of neutrons in order to analyse the diffusion phenomenon in nonmultiplying media. The neutron Albedo method is an analytical method that does not try to solve describing explicit equations for the neutron fluxes. Thus the neutron Albedo methodology is very different from the conventional methodology, as the neutron diffusion theory model. Graphite is analyzed as a model case. One major application is in the determination of the nonleakage probabilities with more understandable results in physical terms than conventional radiation transport method calculations. (author)

Evaluation of preindustrial to present-day black carbon and its albedo forcing from Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. H. Lee

2013-03-01

Full Text Available As part of the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP, we evaluate the historical black carbon (BC aerosols simulated by 8 ACCMIP models against observations including 12 ice core records, long-term surface mass concentrations, and recent Arctic BC snowpack measurements. We also estimate BC albedo forcing by performing additional simulations using offline models with prescribed meteorology from 1996–2000. We evaluate the vertical profile of BC snow concentrations from these offline simulations using the recent BC snowpack measurements. Despite using the same BC emissions, the global BC burden differs by approximately a factor of 3 among models due to differences in aerosol removal parameterizations and simulated meteorology: 34 Gg to 103 Gg in 1850 and 82 Gg to 315 Gg in 2000. However, the global BC burden from preindustrial to present-day increases by 2.5–3 times with little variation among models, roughly matching the 2.5-fold increase in total BC emissions during the same period. We find a large divergence among models at both Northern Hemisphere (NH and Southern Hemisphere (SH high latitude regions for BC burden and at SH high latitude regions for deposition fluxes. The ACCMIP simulations match the observed BC surface mass concentrations well in Europe and North America except at Ispra. However, the models fail to predict the Arctic BC seasonality due to severe underestimations during winter and spring. The simulated vertically resolved BC snow concentrations are, on average, within a factor of 2–3 of the BC snowpack measurements except for Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. For the ice core evaluation, models tend to adequately capture both the observed temporal trends and the magnitudes at Greenland sites. However, models fail to predict the decreasing trend of BC depositions/ice core concentrations from the 1950s to the 1970s in most Tibetan Plateau ice cores. The distinct temporal trend at the Tibetan

Evaluation of preindustrial to present-day black carbon and its albedo forcing from Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP)

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Y. H.; Lamarque, J.-F.; Flanner, M. G.; Jiao, C.; Shindell, D. T.; Bernsten, T.; Bisiaux, M. M.; Cao, J.; Collins, W. J.; Curran, M.;

Albedo Neutron Dosimetry in a Deep Geological Disposal Repository for High-Level Nuclear Waste.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Bo; Becker, Frank

2017-04-28

Albedo neutron dosemeter is the German official personal neutron dosemeter in mixed radiation fields where neutrons contribute to personal dose. In deep geological repositories for high-level nuclear waste, where neutrons can dominate the radiation field, it is of interest to investigate the performance of albedo neutron dosemeter in such facilities. In this study, the deep geological repository is represented by a shielding cask loaded with spent nuclear fuel placed inside a rock salt emplacement drift. Due to the backscattering of neutrons in the drift, issues concerning calibration of the dosemeter arise. Field-specific calibration of the albedo neutron dosemeter was hence performed with Monte Carlo simulations. In order to assess the applicability of the albedo neutron dosemeter in a deep geological repository over a long time scale, spent nuclear fuel with different ages of 50, 100 and 500 years were investigated. It was found out, that the neutron radiation field in a deep geological repository can be assigned to the application area 'N1' of the albedo neutron dosemeter, which is typical in reactors and accelerators with heavy shielding. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Cloud albedo increase from carbonaceous aerosol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. R. Leaitch

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Airborne measurements from two consecutive days, analysed with the aid of an aerosol-adiabatic cloud parcel model, are used to study the effect of carbonaceous aerosol particles on the reflectivity of sunlight by water clouds. The measurements, including aerosol chemistry, aerosol microphysics, cloud microphysics, cloud gust velocities and cloud light extinction, were made below, in and above stratocumulus over the northwest Atlantic Ocean. On the first day, the history of the below-cloud fine particle aerosol was marine and the fine particle sulphate and organic carbon mass concentrations measured at cloud base were 2.4 μg m⁻³ and 0.9 μg m⁻³ respectively. On the second day, the below-cloud aerosol was continentally influenced and the fine particle sulphate and organic carbon mass concentrations were 2.3 μg m⁻³ and 2.6 μg m⁻³ respectively. Over the range 0.06–0.8 μm diameter, the shapes of the below-cloud size distributions were similar on both days and the number concentrations were approximately a factor of two higher on the second day. The cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC on the second day were approximately three times higher than the CDNC measured on the first day. Using the parcel model to separate the influence of the differences in gust velocities, we estimate from the vertically integrated cloud light scattering measurements a 6% increase in the cloud albedo principally due to the increase in the carbonaceous components on the second day. Assuming no additional absorption by this aerosol, a 6% albedo increase translates to a local daytime radiative cooling of ∼12 W m⁻². This result provides observational evidence that the role of anthropogenic carbonaceous components in the cloud albedo effect can be much larger than that of anthropogenic sulphate, as some global simulations have indicated.

Arecibo Radar Observation of Near-Earth Asteroids: Expanded Sample Size, Determination of Radar Albedos, and Measurements of Polarization Ratios

Science.gov (United States)

Lejoly, Cassandra; Howell, Ellen S.; Taylor, Patrick A.; Springmann, Alessondra; Virkki, Anne; Nolan, Michael C.; Rivera-Valentin, Edgard G.; Benner, Lance A. M.; Brozovic, Marina; Giorgini, Jon D.

2017-10-01

The Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) population ranges in size from a few meters to more than 10 kilometers. NEAs have a wide variety of taxonomic classes, surface features, and shapes, including spheroids, binary objects, contact binaries, elongated, as well as irregular bodies. Using the Arecibo Observatory planetary radar system, we have measured apparent rotation rate, radar reflectivity, apparent diameter, and radar albedos for over 350 NEAs. The radar albedo is defined as the radar cross-section divided by the geometric cross-section. If a shape model is available, the actual cross-section is known at the time of the observation. Otherwise we derive a geometric cross-section from a measured diameter. When radar imaging is available, the diameter was measured from the apparent range depth. However, when radar imaging was not available, we used the continuous wave (CW) bandwidth radar measurements in conjunction with the period of the object. The CW bandwidth provides apparent rotation rate, which, given an independent rotation measurement, such as from lightcurves, constrains the size of the object. We assumed an equatorial view unless we knew the pole orientation, which gives a lower limit on the diameter. The CW also provides the polarization ratio, which is the ratio of the SC and OC cross-sections.We confirm the trend found by Benner et al. (2008) that taxonomic types E and V have very high polarization ratios. We have obtained a larger sample and can analyze additional trends with spin, size, rotation rate, taxonomic class, polarization ratio, and radar albedo to interpret the origin of the NEAs and their dynamical processes. The distribution of radar albedo and polarization ratio at the smallest diameters (≤50 m) differs from the distribution of larger objects (>50 m), although the sample size is limited. Additionally, we find more moderate radar albedos for the smallest NEAs when compared to those with diameters 50-150 m. We will present additional trends we

The Atmospheric Aerosols And Their Effects On Cloud Albedo And Radiative Forcing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stefan, S.; Iorga, G.; Zoran, M.

2007-01-01

The aim of this study is to provide results of the theoretical experiments in order to improve the estimates of indirect effect of aerosol on the cloud albedo and consequently on the radiative forcing. The cloud properties could be changed primarily because of changing of both the aerosol type and concentration in the atmosphere. Only a part of aerosol interacts effectively with water and will, in turn, determine the number concentration of cloud droplets (CDNC). We calculated the CDNC, droplet effective radius (reff), cloud optical thickness (or), cloud albedo and radiative forcing, for various types of aerosol. Our results show into what extent the change of aerosol characteristics (number concentration and chemical composition) on a regional scale can modify the cloud reflectivity. Higher values for cloud albedo in the case of the continental (urban) clouds were obtained

Comparisons of solar radiation interception, albedo and net radiation as influenced by row orientations of crops

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baten, Md.A.; Kon, H.

1997-01-01

Field experiments were conducted on soybean (Glycin max L.) in summer and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in autumn to evaluate the effect of row orientations of crops on some selected micro meteorological factors during 1994 and 1995. The intercepted solar radiation was the largest in the plants growing in bidirection in summer and it exhibited intermediate trend in autumn as compared to E-W or N-S row orientations. In summer, penetrated solar radiation between two plants and near the stem base of a N-S row was larger than that of E-W row. While in autumn, the observed solar radiation between two plants and near the stem base of a E-W row was markedly larger than that of N-S row. The area weighted mean of penetrated solar radiation was larger in E-W soybean rows but lower in potato rows as compared to N-S row orientations. Soil surface temperature between N-S potato rows was larger than that of E-W potato rows and the upper canopy surface temperature of potato was larger in E-W rows as compared to N-S rows. Net radiation observed over E-W potato rows was larger as compared to N-S potato rows but net radiation measured under canopy of E-W potato rows was smaller than that of in N-S rows. Net radiation measured over N-S soybean rows was larger than that of E-W soybean rows and it was smaller between N-S soybean rows when measured under canopy as compared to E-W rows. The albedo observed over potato was larger over E-W rows as compared to N-S rows. Albedos over soybean canopy showed opposite trend with the albedos observed over potato canopy. It was larger over N-S rows as compared to E-W rows. High harvest index was associated with larger interception of radiation. (author)

Field calibration of a TLD albedo dosemeter in the high-energy neutron field of CERF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haninger, T.; Kleinau, P.; Haninger, S.

2017-01-01

The new albedo dosemeter-type AWST-TL-GD 04 has been calibrated in the CERF neutron field (CERN-EU high-energy Reference Field). This type of albedo dosemeter is based on thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs) and used by the individual monitoring service of the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen (AWST) since 2015 for monitoring persons, who are exposed occupationally against photon and neutron radiation. The motivation for this experiment was to gain a field specific neutron correction factor N n for workplaces at high-energy particle accelerators. N n is a dimensionless factor relative to a basic detector calibration with 137 Cs and is used to calculate the personal neutron dose in terms of H p (10) from the neutron albedo signal. The results show that the sensitivity of the albedo dosemeter for this specific neutron field is not significantly lower as for fast neutrons of a radionuclide source like 252 Cf. The neutron correction factor varies between 0.73 and 1.16 with a midrange value of 0.94. The albedo dosemeter is therefore appropriate to monitor persons, which are exposed at high-energy particle accelerators. (authors)

Albedo and estimates of net radiation for green beans under polyethylene cover and field conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souza, J.L. de; Escobedo, J.F.; Tornero, M.T.T.

1999-01-01

This paper describes the albedo (r) and estimates of net radiation and global solar irradiance for green beans crop (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), cultivated in greenhouse with cover of polyethylene and field conditions, in Botucatu, SP, Brazil (22° 54' S; 48° 27' W; 850 m). The solar global irradiance (R g ) and solar reflected radiation (R r ) were used to estimate the albedo through the ratio between R r and R g . The diurnal curves of albedo were obtained for days with clear sky and partially cloudy conditions, for different phenological stages of the crop. The albedo ranged with the solar elevation, the environment and the phenological stages. The cloudiness range have almost no influence on the albedo diurnal amount. The estimation of radiation were made by linear regression, using the global solar irradiance (R g ) and net short-waves radiation (R c ) as independent variables. All estimates of radiation showed better adjustment for specific phenological periods compared to the entire crop growing cycle. The net radiation in the greenhouse has been estimated by the global solar irradiance measured at field conditions. (author) [pt

Modulation of ice ages via precession and dust-albedo feedbacks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralph Ellis

2016-11-01

Full Text Available We present here a simple and novel proposal for the modulation and rhythm of ice-ages and interglacials during the late Pleistocene. While the standard Milankovitch-precession theory fails to explain the long intervals between interglacials, these can be accounted for by a novel forcing and feedback system involving CO2, dust and albedo. During the glacial period, the high albedo of the northern ice sheets drives down global temperatures and CO2 concentrations, despite subsequent precessional forcing maxima. Over the following millennia more CO2 is sequestered in the oceans and atmospheric concentrations eventually reach a critical minima of about 200 ppm, which combined with arid conditions, causes a die-back of temperate and boreal forests and grasslands, especially at high altitude. The ensuing soil erosion generates dust storms, resulting in increased dust deposition and lower albedo on the northern ice sheets. As northern hemisphere insolation increases during the next Milankovitch cycle, the dust-laden ice-sheets absorb considerably more insolation and undergo rapid melting, which forces the climate into an interglacial period. The proposed mechanism is simple, robust, and comprehensive in its scope, and its key elements are well supported by empirical evidence.

Albedo of X-ray through the region of rarefaction wave

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Jun

2001-01-01

In the process of implosion indirectly driven by laser, the high temperature and low density plasma produced by X-ray ablation is in the state of non-local thermodynamic equilibrium. And the propagation of X-ray needs to be treated by transportation method. X-ray energy flow reflected by plasma depends on the density, temperature of radiation and electrons, and their space profiles if the plasma produced by ablation is fully ionized. In addition, the plasma parameters in the region of rarefaction wave is determined by means of a simplified model. The approach to compute X-ray albedo is presented and the analytical formulae of the albedo are given

Determination of the double angular and energy differential gamma-ray albedo by using the Monte Carlo method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miss, J.

1998-06-01

The goal of this thesis was to study comprehensively photons energy and angular distributions of backscattered radiations. In general, this relation is described by the concept to the backscattered factor or doubly differential albedo. This concept is useful to study the particle propagation into the air space by simple or multiple reflections on materials There are two principal treatments to solve numerically this problem: the deterministic and probabilistic methods. We showed that deterministic methods furnish unsatisfactory results: that's why we choice to develop a new gamma ray albedo estimator in the code TRIPOLI14 (three dimensional Monte Carlo code). So, we have been able to compute an important data base of doubly differential albedos. A physical analysis of these data showed that albedos can be simply described by parameter functions. These parameters were obtained by fitting the albedos of the data base over a complete range of incident and reflected energy and direction. So, we produced a very smaller data base of functions coefficients, instead of storing all the values of the doubly differential spectrum. It is so easy to make every albedo by linear interpolations on the coefficient of the new library. (author)

Thermal-Infrared Surveys of Near-Earth Object Diameters and Albedos with Spitzer and IRTF/MIRSI

Science.gov (United States)

Mommert, Michael; Trilling, David; Hora, Joseph L.; Chesley, Steven; Emery, Josh; Fazio, Giovanni; Harris, Alan W.; Moskovitz, Nick; Mueller, Michael; Smith, Howard

2015-08-01

More than 12000 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) have been discovered over the past few decades and current discovery surveys find on average 4 new NEOs every night. In comparison to asteroid discovery, the physical characterization of NEOs lags far behind: measured diameters and albedos exist only for roughly 10% of all known NEOs. We describe a current and a future observing program that provide diameter and albedo measurements of a large number of NEOs.In our Spitzer Space Telescope Exploration Science program 'NEOSurvey', we are performing a fast and efficient flux-limited survey in which we measure the diameters and albedos of ~600 NEOs in a total of 710 hrs of observing time. We measure the thermal emission of our targets at 4.5 micron and combine these measurements with optical data in a thermal model. Our diameters and albedos come with highly realistic uncertainties that account for a wide range of potential asteroid properties. Our primary goal is to create a large and uniform catalog of NEO properties, including diameters, albedos, and flux density data. This catalog is publicly accessible and provides the latest results usually within 2 weeks after the observation.Starting in 2016, we will also make use of the refurbished and recommissioned MIRSI mid-infrared imaging camera on NASA's InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF) to derive the diameters and albedos of up to 750 NEOs over a period of 3 yrs. MIRSI will be equipped with an optical camera that will allow for simultaneous optical imaging, which will improve our thermal modeling results. With MIRSI, we will focus on newly discovered NEOs that are close to Earth and hence relatively bright.The results from both programs, together with already exisiting diameter and albedo results from the literature, will form the largest database of NEO physical properties available to date. With this data set, we will be able to refine the size distribution of small NEOs and the corresponding impact frequency, and compare the

A variational model of disjoining pressure: Liquid film on a nonplanar surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silin, D.; Virnovsky, G.

2009-06-01

Variational methods have been successfully used in modelling thin liquid films in numerous theoretical studies of wettability. In this paper, the variational model of the disjoining pressure is extended to the general case of a two-dimensional solid surface. The Helmgoltz free energy functional depends both on the disjoining pressure isotherm and the shape of the solid surface. The augmented Young-Laplace equation (AYLE) is a nonlinear second-order partial differential equation. A number of solutions describing wetting films on spherical grains have been obtained. In the case of cylindrical films, the phase portrait technique describes the entire variety of mathematically feasible solutions. It turns out that a periodic solution, which would describe wave-like wetting films, does not satisfy the Jacobi's condition of the classical calculus of variations. Therefore, such a solution is nonphysical. The roughness of the solid surface significantly affects liquid film stability. AYLE solutions suggest that film rupture is more likely at a location where the pore-wall surface is most exposed into the pore space and the curvature is positive.

The price of snow: albedo valuation and a case study for forest management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lutz, David A; Howarth, Richard B

2015-01-01

Several climate frameworks have included the role of carbon storage in natural landscapes as a potential mechanism for climate change mitigation. This has resulted in an incentive to grow and maintain intact long-lived forest ecosystems. However, recent research has suggested that the influence of albedo-related radiative forcing can impart equal and in some cases greater magnitudes of climate mitigation compared to carbon storage in forests where snowfall is common and biomass is slow-growing. While several methodologies exist for relating albedo-associated radiative forcing to carbon storage for the analysis of the tradeoffs of these ecosystem services, they are varied, and they have yet to be contrasted in a case study with implications for future forest management. Here we utilize four methodologies for calculating a shadow price for albedo radiative forcing and apply the resulting eight prices to an ecological and economic forest model to examine the effects on optimal rotation periods on two different forest stands in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, USA. These pricing methodologies produce distinctly different shadow prices of albedo, varying from a high of 9.36 × 10 −4 and a low of 1.75 × 10 −5 $w −1 yr −1 in the initial year, to a high of 0.019 and a low of 3.55 × 10 −4 $w −1 yr −1 in year 200 of the simulation. When implemented in the forest model, optimal rotation periods also varied considerably, from a low of 2 to a high of 107 years for a spruce-fir stand and from 35 to 80 years for a maple-beech-birch stand. Our results suggest that the choice of climate metrics and pricing methodologies for use with forest albedo alter albedo prices considerably, may substantially adjust optimal rotation period length, and therefore may have consequences with respect to forest land cover change. (letter)

Electron energy and charge albedos - calorimetric measurement vs Monte Carlo theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)