Sentences with phrase «reflective ice surface»

This change — reducing the amount of white, reflective ice surface — led to further warmth, in a feedback effect.

Not exact matches

Last year the Herschel Space Observatory detected wisps of water vapor around the dwarf planet, and since its arrival at Ceres, Dawn has imaged oodles of highly reflective bright spots on the Cereian surface that may be sites of exposed water ice.

The ice sheet reflects energy into space, and as that bright reflective surface is lost, more heat is trapped in the ocean.

Sunlight tends to bounce off the white, reflective surfaces of glaciers and ice sheets, but the darker surfaces of dirty ground ice can absorb greater amounts of solar radiation.

As the sea ice melts, its white reflective surface is replaced by a relatively dark ocean surface.

«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 Pistone.

Sea ice and snow cover loss create a feedback look that can accelerate global warming; with fewer reflective surfaces on the planet, more sunlight can thereby be absorbed, driving surface temperatures even higher, the scientists explained.

Examples of reflective objects include a mirror, a smooth metal can, a car window, a glass bottle, ice, snow or the watery surface of a lake.

«Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice,» Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles, and principal investigator for the Dawn mission, said in a statement.

Well, almost encloses: Enceladus sprays geysers of water ice out into space, some of which settles back down to the moon's surface in the form of snow, making it the most reflective planetary object in the solar system.

Geoengineering proposals fall into at least three broad categories: 1) managing atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g., ocean fertilization and atmospheric carbon capture and sequestration), 2) cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight (e.g., putting reflective particles into the atmosphere, putting mirrors in space to reflect the sun's energy, increasing surface reflectivity and altering the amount or characteristics of clouds), and 3) moderating specific impacts of global warming (e.g., efforts to limit sea level rise by increasing land storage of water, protecting ice sheets or artificially enhancing mountain glaciers).

For example, if ice extent increases, the increase in reflective surface will mean that more sunlight is reflected back into space without ever having its energy absorbed into the Earth system.

Dave Cooke (# 303), +4 C per doubling is a somewhat higher than usual (but still reasonable) number that includes feedbacks such as an increasing amount of atmospheric H2O but also non-greenhouse effects such as a diminshed reflective ice cover on the surface of the planet.

Global average temperature is lower during glacial periods for two primary reasons: 1) there was only about 190 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, and other major greenhouse gases (CH4 and N2O) were also lower 2) the earth surface was more reflective, due to the presence of lots of ice and snow on land, and lots more sea ice than today (that is, the albedo was higher).

As reflective ice melts, the ocean surface may absorb more solar energy, raising ocean temperatures and starting a feedback loop the melts the remaining ice faster.

This pollution darkens the bright, reflective surfaces of ice and snow, accelerating warming and melting.

Ice is highly reflective, while the underlying ocean surface is far less reflective.

They develop when piles of wind - blown debris settle on the white, reflective surface of a glacier or ice sheet.

Because darker surfaces absorb more heat than lighter, more reflective ones, if enough soot is deposited on snow and ice it can accelerate melting.

The reason, Werner said, is because the loss of snow and ice makes the earth's surface less reflective, meaning solar radiation — or heat — is absorbed in greater amounts by the exposed dark ocean or tundra.

Pay special attention to how the direction of the relationship changes around 0C as ice melts and the surface becomes less reflective.

In one of the troubling feedback loops of the changing climate, dark ice is partially caused by the warmer Arctic summers climate change has brought us: More warmth means less fresh snowfall to cover areas of accumulated sediment, changes to the shape and size of ice grains that make them less reflective, and more liquid near the surface.

About 30 percent of the radiation striking Earth's atmosphere is immediately reflected back out to space by clouds, ice, snow, sand and other reflective surfaces, according to NASA.

When black carbon falls on ice and snow, it smudges their bright white reflective surfaces.

When soot falls on snow and ice it increases the amount of light and heat that is absorbed, just like any reflective surface.

I believe that our presence here, on earth, in the numbers that we have managed to achieve, coupled with the fact that we have destroyed millions upon millions of oxygen producers (Trees) and have a penchant for asphalt and tarmac, which are very heat absorbing, and purposely keep reflective surfaces to a minimum (they're blinding) AND have created a civilization based on burning fossil fuels and using other things which are detrimental to our ecology, that, yes, we are probably responsible in large for the exelerated melting of the global ice... but, we have been in a state of warming since the last ice age ended... we just speeded up the process.

Melting sea ice reduces reflective ice and increases exposure of the sea surface, which absorbs more heat thus exacerbating the warming affect.

Because meltwater is less reflective than ice, the surface of the ice sheet is already absorbing more sunlight — previous research found that the reflectivity of the Greenland ice has dropped by 6 percent in the last decade, according to an Ohio State University release on the new research.