Snowpack radiative heating: Influence on Tibetan Plateau climate

Flanner, M.; Zender, Charles S.

doi:10.1029/2004gl022076

Cited by 171 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…CLM3 simulates land surface processes including heat and water transfer in soils, photosynthesis, interactions between vegetation and atmospheric radiation, urbanized land impacts, and snow pack dynamics (Decker and Zeng, 2009;Sakaguchi and Zeng, 2009;Niu and Yang, 2007;Flanner and Zender, 2005;Flanner et al, 2007;Wang and Zeng, 2009;Slater, 2008, 2009;Oleson et al, 2008b). These simulations used the carbon-nitrogen biogeochemical cycling extension of CLM3 (CN) (Thornton et al, 2007;Thornton et al, 2009).…”

Section: Simulation Of Fire Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The role of BC is particularly important because of its light-absorbing properties (Stohl, 2007). The Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiative (SNICAR) model (Flanner and Zender, 2005; was run online in CAM5 to simulate changes in the RF of the snow surface due to fire aerosol deposition. Note that this analysis considers deposition of aerosols onto snow and ice surfaces over land but not over sea.…”

Section: Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

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The changing radiative forcing of fires: global model estimates for past, present and future

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Fires are a global phenomenon that impact climate and biogeochemical cycles, and interact with the biosphere, atmosphere and cryosphere. These impacts occur on a range of temporal and spatial scales and are difficult to quantify globally based solely on observations. Here we assess the role of fires in the climate system using model estimates of radiative forcing (RF) from global fires in preindustrial, present day, and future time periods. Fire emissions of trace gases and aerosols are derived from Community Land Model simulations and then used in a series of Community Atmosphere Model simulations with representative emissions from the years 1850, 2000, and 2100. Additional simulations are carried out with fire emissions from the Global Fire Emission Database for a present-day comparison. These results are compared against the results of simulations with no fire emissions to compute the contribution from fires. We consider the impacts of fire on greenhouse gas concentrations, aerosol effects (including aerosol effects on biogeochemical cycles), and land and snow surface albedo. Overall, we estimate that pre-industrial fires were responsible for a RF of −1 W m −2 with respect to a pre-industrial climate without fires. The largest magnitude pre-industrial forcing from fires was the indirect aerosol effect on clouds (−1.6 W m −2 ). This was balanced in part by an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations due to fires (+0.83 W m −2 ). The RF of fires increases by 0.5 W m −2 from 1850 to 2000 and 0.2 W m −2 from 1850 to 2100 in the model representation from a combination of changes in fire activity and changes in the background environment in which fires occur, especially increases and decreases in the anthropogenic aerosol burden. Thus, fires play an important role in both the natural equilibrium climate and the climate perturbed by anthropogenic activity and need to be considered in future climate projections.

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Section: Simulation Of Fire Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing radiative forcing of fires: global model estimates for past, present and future

et al. 2012

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“…These snow aging and grain size processes, and melt consolidation of BC, are represented in the Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiative (SNICAR) model (Flanner and Zender, 2005), which is used in the Community Land Model version 4 (CLM4), in CESM1. Although all of the same processes occur in nature in snow on top of sea ice, the sea ice model in CESM1 is more simplistic in its representation of the snow pack, due to constraints of computational efficiency (see Sect.…”

Section: Land Surface Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic climate response to forcing from light-absorbing particles in snow and sea ice in CESM

Goldenson

Doherty²,

Bitz

et al. 2012

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. The presence of light-absorbing aerosol particles deposited on arctic snow and sea ice influences the surface albedo, causing greater shortwave absorption, warming, and loss of snow and sea ice, lowering the albedo further. The Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) now includes the radiative effects of light-absorbing particles in snow on land and sea ice and in sea ice itself. We investigate the model response to the deposition of black carbon and dust to both snow and sea ice. For these purposes we employ a slab ocean version of CESM1, using the Community Atmosphere Model version 4 (CAM4), run to equilibrium for year 2000 levels of CO 2 and fixed aerosol deposition. We construct experiments with and without aerosol deposition, with dust or black carbon deposition alone, and with varying quantities of black carbon and dust to approximate year 1850 and 2000 deposition fluxes. The year 2000 deposition fluxes of both dust and black carbon cause 1-2 • C of surface warming over large areas of the Arctic Ocean and subArctic seas in autumn and winter and in patches of Northern land in every season. Atmospheric circulation changes are a key component of the surface-warming pattern. Arctic sea ice thins by on average about 30 cm. Simulations with year 1850 aerosol deposition are not substantially different from those with year 2000 deposition, given constant levels of CO 2 . The climatic impact of particulate impurities deposited over land exceeds that of particles deposited over sea ice. Even the surface warming over the sea ice and sea ice thinning depends more upon light-absorbing particles deposited over land. For CO 2 doubled relative to year 2000 levels, the climate impact of particulate impurities in snow and sea ice is substantially lower than for the year 2000 equilibrium simulation.

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“…Slight initial changes in snow albedo due to BC, in conjunction with the rapid adjustments and feedbacks that ensue, can cause significant climate effects (Bond et al, 2013). The local radiative forcing (RF) may reach 4e25 W m À2 during spring in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) snowpack (Bond et al, 2013;Flanner and Zender, 2005;Flanner et al, 2007). Increased net radiation fosters earlier snow and glacier melt (Qian et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

Song

Cao

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

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h i g h l i g h t sWe sampled surface snow and snow pits in the snowmelt season in a Tibetan glacier. We depicted the variability of BC, OC, and dust concentrations. Scavenging efficiency and enrichment for BC and OC were derived. We evaluated BC radiative forcing in snow using SNICAR. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tIn the Tibetan Plateau, the black carbon (BC) concentration in surface snow and snow pits has received much attention, whereas the seasonal behavior of aerosol-in-snow concentration, vertical profile, meltscavenging, and enrichment have received relatively little attention. Here we investigate these processes and their impacts on radiative forcing on the Muji glacier in the westernmost Tibetan Plateau during the 2012 snowmelt season. Increasing impurity concentrations were mostly due to post-deposition effects rather than new deposition. On 5 July, BC concentrations in the surface snow were higher than those of fresh snow, implying enrichment via sublimation and/or melting of previous snow. Fresh snow contained 25 ng g À1 BC on 27 July; afterward, BC gradually increased, reaching 730.6 ng g À1 in September. BC, organic carbon (OC), and dust concentrations co-varied but differed in magnitude. Melt-scavenging efficiencies were estimated at 0.19 ± 0.05 and 0.04 ± 0.01 for OC and BC, respectively, and the BC in surface snow increased by 20e25 times depending on melt intensity. BC-in-snow radiative forcing (RF) was approximately 2.2 W m À2 for fresh snow and 18.1e20.4 W m À2 for aged snow, and was sometimes reduced by the presence of dust.

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Snowpack radiative heating: Influence on Tibetan Plateau climate

Cited by 171 publications

References 20 publications

The changing radiative forcing of fires: global model estimates for past, present and future

The changing radiative forcing of fires: global model estimates for past, present and future

Arctic climate response to forcing from light-absorbing particles in snow and sea ice in CESM

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

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