A Cloudier Picture of Ice-Albedo Feedback in CMIP6 Models

Entropy production and the ice-albedo feedback

Nonlinear feedbacks in the Earth System provide mechanisms that can prove very useful in understanding complex dynamics with relatively simple concepts. For example, the temperature and the ice cover of the planet are linked in a positive feedback which gives birth to multiple equilibria for some values of the solar constant: fully ice-covered 5 Earth, ice-free Earth and an intermediate unstabl...

On the nature of the sea ice albedo feedback in simple models

We examine the nature of the ice-albedo feedback in a long-standing approach used in the dynamic-thermodynamic modeling of sea ice. The central issue examined is how the evolution of the ice area is treated when modeling a partial ice cover using a two-category-thickness scheme; thin sea ice and open water in one category and "thick" sea ice in the second. The problem with the scheme is that th...

Ice-Albedo Feedback Process in the Arctic Ocean

Ice Caps and Ice Belts: the Effects of Obliquity on Ice-albedo Feedback

Planetary obliquity determines the meridional distribution of annual mean insolation. For obliquity exceeding 55◦, the weakest insolation occurs at the equator. Stable partial snow and ice cover on such a planet would be in the form of a belt about the equator rather than polar caps. An analytical model of planetary climate is used to investigate the stability of ice caps and ice belts over the...

A Paleoclimate Model of Ice-Albedo Feedback Forced by Variations in Earth's Orbit

For millions of years, glaciers have been a permanent feature on Earth’s surface. The climate has cycled through relatively warm periods, such as we are experiencing now with glaciers confined mostly to Antarctica and Greenland, to relatively cold periods with vast ice sheets extending over the continents. The Sun provides the energy powering the Earth’s weather and climate. The incoming solar ...