Cover Candidate for PNAS:

Albedo Decrease Linked to Arctic Sea Ice

  • Released Tuesday, March 11, 2014
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These still images were generated to be cover candidates for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The images display data from the paper "Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice". Average September Arctic sea ice from 1979 is shown on the top globe of each image. Average September Arctic sea ice from 2012 with change in albedo overlaid is shown in the bottom globe of each image. Two images are provided which use different color tables.

This is the first study to document Arctic-wide decrease in planetary albedo using satellite radiation budget measurements and sea ice data. The study finds a very strong correlation between sea ice cover and planetary albedo.

Here are links to the related NASA press release and the article.


Print resolution still: top globe shows 1979 September sea ice cover; bottom globe shows 2012 September sea ice cover with albedo change overlaid using a red color bar. Versions are provided with and without labels.

Print resolution still: top globe shows 1979 September sea ice cover; bottom globe shows 2012 September sea ice cover with albedo change overlaid using a red color bar. Versions are provided with and without labels.

Red color bar: dark red indicates darker areas (i.e., more absorbent to radiation than in previous years) , lighter reds, orange and into blue indicate no change (i.e., similar to previous years).

Red color bar: dark red indicates darker areas (i.e., more absorbent to radiation than in previous years) , lighter reds, orange and into blue indicate no change (i.e., similar to previous years).

Print resolution still: top globe shows 1979 September sea ice cover; bottom globe shows 2012 September sea ice cover with albedo change overlaid using a blue color bar. Versions are provided with and without labels.

Print resolution still: top globe shows 1979 September sea ice cover; bottom globe shows 2012 September sea ice cover with albedo change overlaid using a blue color bar. Versions are provided with and without labels.

Blue color bar: dark blue indicates darker areas (i.e., more absorbent to radiation than in previous years) , lighter blues and into white indicate no change (i.e., similar to previous years).

Blue color bar: dark blue indicates darker areas (i.e., more absorbent to radiation than in previous years) , lighter blues and into white indicate no change (i.e., similar to previous years).

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio and
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

This page was originally published on Tuesday, March 11, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Related papers

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/9/3322.abstract

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/9/3322.abstract

Datasets used

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.