Search Here

The Arctic is not white and bright anymore as it used to be because of the reason that more ice is melting in the ocean leading to a major global problem, a new study has found. 

As it gets darker, open water in the summer reflect less of the sun's heat. As a result Earth is absorbing more heat than expected, the study noted. 

The team of researchers have used the data from Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) to calculate the changes in Arctic albedo that relates to changes in sea ice cover.

"It's fairly intuitive to expect that replacing white, reflective sea ice with a dark ocean surface would increase the amount of solar heating," said a co-author and graduate student Kristina Pistone in the press release. "We used actual satellite measurements of both albedo and sea ice in the region to verify this and to quantify how much extra heat the region has absorbed due to the ice loss. It was quite encouraging to see how well the two datasets - which come from two independent satellite instruments - agreed with each other."

In the previous studies, with a combination of computer models and observation, total energy absorbed by Earth was calculated. However, this time researchers took a different route. 

"Scientists have talked about Arctic melting and albedo decrease for nearly 50 years," said co-author and climate scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan, who has previously conducted similar research on the global dimming effects of aerosols. "This is the first time this darkening effect has been documented on the scale of the entire Arctic."

The results obtained from the study has clearly hinted that heating resulting from albedo changes caused by retreating sea ice in the Arctic is "quite large." 

"By exploiting the unique capabilities of simultaneous CERES and MODIS measurements, the NASA satellite data enable studies on how albedo is changing with unprecedented detail and accuracy," said Norman Loeb, CERES principal investigator, according to redOrbit. 

The study is published in the journal PNAS.