• zogrewaste_@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago

    It is my understanding that Albedo represents how much energy the earth is reflecting back out into space. Low albedo means that the atmosphere is absorbing a lot of solar heat energy. We have an abundance of greenhouse gases and the temperature is going up.

    • Thorry@feddit.org
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      10 days ago

      Correct.

      However albedo is usually over a broad range of wavelengths, not just in the infrared.

      One of the main drivers of albedo is the amount of ice and snow on the surface. As we know, ice and snow is (usually) white and thus reflects a whole lot of light coming in. This includes all the sea ice on the north pole and fresh snow. With temperatures going up, the amount of sea ice is reducing and the amount of snow being deposited is decreasing (on average, snow is part of the weather and thus very chaotic, but we can see trends). The biggest factor is the white sea ice being replaced with dark ocean water, which absorbs light very efficiently.

      Another big factor is clouds, clouds are more complicated however. Clouds usually reflect a lot of light and are thus a factor in albedo. However they also reflect light on the bottom and thus also play a role in temperature. This makes it hard to factor in how much they matter.

      The Earth heats up mostly because of light received from the sun during the day, this can be all sorts of wavelength. It’s partly reflected directly and partly absorbed. Then at night, the hot surfaces radiate away infrared energy into space. This is where the greenhouse gasses come in, they trap that infrared light and reflect it back to the surface (like the glass of a greenhouse would, hence the name). Clouds also play a role where more clouds mean more of the energy is reflected back when receiving, but at the same time blocking the release of that energy at night. So albedo and temperatures are related, but in a complex way.

      In general however, the less energy gets reflected, the hotter the surface will be.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    10 days ago

    Im wondering about this years sea ice thickness. its been colder which generally now requires shifting such that warmer temps are seen in the artic where the cold air was pushed from.