scholarly journals The climate effects of increasing ocean albedo: An idealized representation of solar geoengineering

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Kravitz ◽  
Philip J. Rasch ◽  
Hailong Wang ◽  
Alan Robock ◽  
Corey Gabriel ◽  
...  

Abstract. Marine cloud brightening has been proposed as a means of geoengineering/climate intervention, or deliberately altering the climate system to offset anthropogenic climate change. As an idealized representation of marine cloud brightening, this paper discusses experiment G1ocean-albedo of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), involving an abrupt quadrupling of the CO2 concentration and an instantaneous increase in ocean albedo to maintain approximate net top-of-atmosphere radiative flux balance. Eleven Earth System Models are relatively consistent in their temperature, radiative flux, and hydrological cycle responses to this experiment. Due to the imposed forcing, air over the land surface warms by a model average of 1.14 K, while air over most of the ocean cools. Some parts of the near-surface air temperature over ocean warm due to heat transport from land to ocean. These changes generally resolve within a few years, indicating that changes in ocean heat content play at most a small role in the warming over the oceans. The hydrological cycle response is a general slowing down, with high heterogeneity in the response, particularly in the tropics. While idealized, these results have important implications for marine cloud brightening, or other methods of geoengineering involving spatially heterogeneous forcing, or other general forcings with a strong land/ocean contrast. It also reinforces previous findings that keeping top-of-atmosphere net radiative flux constant is not sufficient for preventing changes in global mean temperature.

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 13097-13113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Kravitz ◽  
Philip J. Rasch ◽  
Hailong Wang ◽  
Alan Robock ◽  
Corey Gabriel ◽  
...  

Abstract. Geoengineering, or climate intervention, describes methods of deliberately altering the climate system to offset anthropogenic climate change. As an idealized representation of near-surface solar geoengineering over the ocean, such as marine cloud brightening, this paper discusses experiment G1ocean-albedo of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), involving an abrupt quadrupling of the CO2 concentration and an instantaneous increase in ocean albedo to maintain approximate net top-of-atmosphere radiative flux balance. A total of 11 Earth system models are relatively consistent in their temperature, radiative flux, and hydrological cycle responses to this experiment. Due to the imposed forcing, air over the land surface warms by a model average of 1.14 K, while air over most of the ocean cools. Some parts of the near-surface air temperature over ocean warm due to heat transport from land to ocean. These changes generally resolve within a few years, indicating that changes in ocean heat content play at most a small role in the warming over the oceans. The hydrological cycle response is a general slowing down, with high heterogeneity in the response, particularly in the tropics. While idealized, these results have important implications for marine cloud brightening, or other methods of geoengineering involving spatially heterogeneous forcing, or other general forcings with a strong land–ocean contrast. It also reinforces previous findings that keeping top-of-atmosphere net radiative flux constant is not sufficient for preventing changes in global mean temperature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 7665-7687 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Pérez Díaz ◽  
T. Lakhankar ◽  
P. Romanov ◽  
J. Muñoz ◽  
R. Khanbilvardi ◽  
...  

Abstract. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key variable (commonly studied to understand the hydrological cycle) that helps drive the energy balance and water exchange between the Earth's surface and its atmosphere. One observable constituent of much importance in the land surface water balance model is snow. Snow cover plays a critical role in the regional to global scale hydrological cycle because rain-on-snow with warm air temperatures accelerates rapid snow-melt, which is responsible for the majority of the spring floods. Accurate information on near-surface air temperature (T-air) and snow skin temperature (T-skin) helps us comprehend the energy and water balances in the Earth's hydrological cycle. T-skin is critical in estimating latent and sensible heat fluxes over snow covered areas because incoming and outgoing radiation fluxes from the snow mass and the air temperature above make it different from the average snowpack temperature. This study investigates the correlation between MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data and observed T-air and T-skin data from NOAA-CREST-Snow Analysis and Field Experiment (CREST-SAFE) for the winters of 2013 and 2014. LST satellite validation is imperative because high-latitude regions are significantly affected by climate warming and there is a need to aid existing meteorological station networks with the spatially continuous measurements provided by satellites. Results indicate that near-surface air temperature correlates better than snow skin temperature with MODIS LST data. Additional findings show that there is a negative trend demonstrating that the air minus snow skin temperature difference is inversely proportional to cloud cover. To a lesser extent, it will be examined whether the surface properties at the site are representative for the LST properties within the instrument field of view.


2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (10) ◽  
pp. 1587-1605 ◽  
Author(s):  
J-F. Miao ◽  
D. Chen ◽  
K. Borne

Abstract In this study, the performance of two advanced land surface models (LSMs; Noah LSM and Pleim–Xiu LSM) coupled with the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5), version 3.7.2, in simulating the near-surface air temperature in the greater Göteborg area in Sweden is evaluated and compared using the GÖTE2001 field campaign data. Further, the effects of different planetary boundary layer schemes [Eta and Medium-Range Forecast (MRF) PBLs] for Noah LSM and soil moisture initialization approaches for Pleim–Xiu LSM are investigated. The investigation focuses on the evaluation and comparison of diurnal cycle intensity and maximum and minimum temperatures, as well as the urban heat island during the daytime and nighttime under the clear-sky and cloudy/rainy weather conditions for different experimental schemes. The results indicate that 1) there is an evident difference between Noah LSM and Pleim–Xiu LSM in simulating the near-surface air temperature, especially in the modeled urban heat island; 2) there is no evident difference in the model performance between the Eta PBL and MRF PBL coupled with the Noah LSM; and 3) soil moisture initialization is of crucial importance for model performance in the Pleim–Xiu LSM. In addition, owing to the recent release of MM5, version 3.7.3, some experiments done with version 3.7.2 were repeated to reveal the effects of the modifications in the Noah LSM and Pleim–Xiu LSM. The modification to longwave radiation parameterizations in Noah LSM significantly improves model performance while the adjustment of emissivity, one of the vegetation properties, affects Pleim–Xiu LSM performance to a larger extent. The study suggests that improvements both in Noah LSM physics and in Pleim–Xiu LSM initialization of soil moisture and parameterization of vegetation properties are important.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 2653-2671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Berg ◽  
Justin Sheffield

Abstract Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key process affecting terrestrial hydroclimate, as it modulates the land surface carbon, energy, and water budgets. Evapotranspiration mainly consists of the sum of three components: plant transpiration, soil evaporation, and canopy interception. Here we investigate how the partitioning of ET into these three main components is represented in CMIP5 model simulations of present and future climate. A large spread exists between models in the simulated mean present-day partitioning; even the ranking of the different components in the global mean differs between models. Differences in the simulation of the vegetation leaf area index appear to be an important cause of this spread. Although ET partitioning is not accurately known globally, existing global estimates suggest that CMIP5 models generally underestimate the relative contribution of transpiration. Differences in ET partitioning lead to differences in climate characteristics over land, such as land–atmosphere fluxes and near-surface air temperature. On the other hand, CMIP5 models simulate robust patterns of future changes in ET partitioning under global warming, notably a marked contrast between decreased transpiration and increased soil evaporation in the tropics, whereas transpiration and evaporation both increase at higher latitudes and both decrease in the dry subtropics. Idealized CMIP5 simulations from a subset of models show that the decrease in transpiration in the tropics largely reflects the stomatal closure effect of increased atmospheric CO2 on plants (despite increased vegetation from CO2 fertilization), whereas changes at higher latitudes are dominated by radiative CO2 effects, with warming and increased precipitation leading to vegetation increase and simultaneous (absolute) increases in all three ET components.


2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2995-3003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichiro Oku ◽  
Hirohiko Ishikawa ◽  
Shigenori Haginoya ◽  
Yaoming Ma

Abstract The diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations in land surface temperature (LST) on the Tibetan Plateau from 1996 to 2002 are analyzed using the hourly LST dataset obtained by Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5 (GMS-5) observations. Comparing LST retrieved from GMS-5 with independent precipitation amount data demonstrates the consistent and complementary relationship between them. The results indicate an increase in the LST over this period. The daily minimum has risen faster than the daily maximum, resulting in a narrowing of the diurnal range of LST. This is in agreement with the observed trends in both global and plateau near-surface air temperature. Since the near-surface air temperature is mainly controlled by LST, this result ensures a warming trend in near-surface air temperature.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Guo ◽  
Miaomiao Cheng

<p>Diurnal temperature range (includes land surface temperature diurnal range and near surface air temperature diurnal range) is an important meteorological parameter, which is a very important factor in the field of the urban thermal environmental. Nowadays, the research of urban thermal environment mainly focused on surface heat island and canopy heat island.</p><p>Based on analysis of the current status of city thermal environment. Firstly, a method was proposed to obtain near surface air temperature diurnal range in this study, difference of land surface temperature between day and night were introduced into the improved temperature vegetation index feature space based on remote sensing data. Secondly, compared with the district administrative division, we analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the diurnal range of land surface temperature and near surface air temperature.</p><p>The conclusions of this study are as follows:</p><p>1 During 2003-2012s, the land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range of Beijing were fluctuating upward. The rising trend of the near surface air temperature diurnal range was more significant than land surface temperature diurnal range. In addition, the rise and decline of land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range in different districts were different. In the six city districts, the land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range in the six areas of the city were mainly downward. The decline trend of near surface air temperature diurnal range was more significant than land surface temperature diurnal range.</p><p>2 During 2003-2012s, the land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range of Beijing with similar characteristics in spatial distribution, with higher distribution land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range in urban area and with lower distribution of land surface temperature and near surface air temperature diurnal range in the Northwest Mountainous area and the area of Miyun reservoir.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1849-1865
Author(s):  
Francisco Salamanca Palou ◽  
Alex Mahalov

Abstract This paper examines summer- and wintertime variations of the surface and near-surface urban heat island (UHI) for the Phoenix metropolitan area using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), near-surface meteorological observations, and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model during a 31-day summer- and a 31-day wintertime period. The surface UHI (defined based on the urban–rural land surface temperature difference) is found to be higher at night and during the warm season. On the other hand, the morning surface UHI is low and frequently exhibits an urban cool island that increases during the summertime period. Similarly, the near-surface UHI (defined based on the urban–rural 2-m air temperature difference) is higher at night and during summertime. On the other hand, the daytime near-surface UHI is low but rarely exhibits an urban cool island. To evaluate the WRF Model’s ability to reproduce the diurnal cycle of near-surface meteorology and surface skin temperature, two WRF Model experiments (one using the Bougeault and Lacarrere turbulent scheme and one with the Mellor–Yamada–Janjić turbulent parameterization) at high spatial resolution (1-km horizontal grid spacing) are conducted for each 31-day period. Modeled results show that the WRF Model (coupled to the Noah-MP land surface model) tends to underestimate to some extent surface skin temperature during daytime and overestimate nighttime values during the wintertime period. In the same way, the WRF Model tends to accurately reproduce the diurnal cycle of near-surface air temperature, including maximum and minimum temperatures, and wind speed during summertime, but notably overestimates nighttime near-surface air temperature during wintertime. This nighttime overestimation is especially remarkable with the Bougeault and Lacarrere turbulent scheme for both urban and rural areas.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 5268
Author(s):  
Praveena Krishnan ◽  
Tilden P. Meyers ◽  
Simon J. Hook ◽  
Mark Heuer ◽  
David Senn ◽  
...  

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key variable in the determination of land surface energy exchange processes from local to global scales. Accurate ground measurements of LST are necessary for a number of applications including validation of satellite LST products or improvement of both climate and numerical weather prediction models. With the objective of assessing the quality of in situ measurements of LST and to evaluate the quantitative uncertainties in the ground-based LST measurements, intensive field experiments were conducted at NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory (ARL)’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA, from October 2015 to January 2016. The results of the comparison of LSTs retrieved by three narrow angle broadband infrared temperature sensors (IRT), hemispherical longwave radiation (LWR) measurements by pyrgeometers, forward looking infrared camera with direct LSTs by multiple thermocouples (TC), and near surface air temperature (AT) are presented here. The brightness temperature (BT) measurements by the IRTs agreed well with a bias of <0.23 °C, and root mean square error (RMSE) of <0.36 °C. The daytime LST(TC) and LST(IRT) showed better agreement (bias = 0.26 °C and RMSE = 0.67 °C) than with LST(LWR) (bias > 1.1 and RMSE > 1.46 °C). In contrast, the difference between nighttime LSTs by IRTs, TCs, and LWR were <0.47 °C, whereas nighttime AT explained >81% of the variance in LST(IRT) with a bias of 2.64 °C and RMSE of 3.6 °C. To evaluate the annual and seasonal differences in LST(IRT), LST(LWR) and AT, the analysis was extended to four grassland sites in the USA. For the annual dataset of LST, the bias between LST (IRT) and LST (LWR) was <0.7 °C, except at the semiarid grassland (1.5 °C), whereas the absolute bias between AT and LST at the four sites were <2 °C. The monthly difference between LST (IRT) and LST (LWR) (or AT) reached up to 2 °C (5 °C), whereas half-hourly differences between LSTs and AT were several degrees in magnitude depending on the site characteristics, time of the day and the season.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Muñoz-Sabater ◽  
Emanuel Dutra ◽  
Anna Agustí-Panareda ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Gabriele Arduini ◽  
...  

Abstract. Framed within the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Commission, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is producing an enhanced global dataset for the land component of the 5th generation of European ReAnalysis (ERA5), hereafter named as ERA5-Land. Once completed, the period covered will span from 1950 to present, with continuous updates to support land monitoring applications. ERA5-Land describes the evolution of the water and energy cycles over land in a consistent manner over the production period, enabling the characterisation of trends and anomalies. This is achieved through global high resolution numerical integrations of the ECMWF land surface model driven by the downscaled meteorological forcing from the ERA5 climate reanalysis, including an elevation correction for the thermodynamic near-surface state. ERA5-Land shares with ERA5 most of the parametrizations that guarantees the use of the state-of-the-art land surface modeling applied to Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. A main advantage of ERA5-Land compared to ERA5 and the older ERA-Interim is the horizontal resolution, which is enhanced globally to 9 km compared to 31 km (ERA5) or 80 km (ERA-Interim), whereas the temporal resolution is hourly as in ERA5. Evaluation against independent in situ observations and global model or satellite-based reference datasets shows the added value of ERA5-Land in the description of the hydrological cycle, in particular with enhanced soil moisture and lake description, and an overall better agreement of river discharge estimations with available observations. However, ERA5-Land snow depth fields present a mixed behaviour when compared to those of ERA5, depending on geographical location and altitude. The description of the energy cycle shows comparable results with ERA5. Nevertheless, ERA5-Land reduces the global averaged root mean square error of the skin temperature, taking as reference MODIS data, mainly due to the contribution of coastal points where spatial resolution is important. Since January 2020, the ERA5-Land period available extends from January 1981 to near present, with 2 to 3 months delay with respect to real-time. The segment prior to 1981 is in production, aiming to a release of the whole dataset in summer 2021. The high spatial and temporal resolution of ERA5-Land, its extended period, and the consistency of the fields produced makes it a valuable dataset to support hydrological studies, to initialise NWP and climate models, and to support diverse applications dealing with water resource, land and environmental management. The full ERA5-Land hourly and monthly averaged dataset presented in this paper are available through the Climate Data Store, https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac and https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.68d2bb30, respectively.


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