ESD Ideas: A weak positive feedback between  sea level and the planetary albedo

Marzeion, Ben

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1057-2021

Articles | Volume 12, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1057-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

ESD Ideas

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1057-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 4

ESD Ideas

|

25 Oct 2021

ESD Ideas |

| 25 Oct 2021

ESD Ideas: A weak positive feedback between sea level and the planetary albedo

Ben Marzeion

Data sets

ETOPO1: 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis C. Amante and B. W. Eakins https://doi.org/10.7289/V5C8276M

Short summary

The oceans are typically darker than land surfaces. Expanding oceans through sea-level rise may thus lead to a darker planet Earth, reflecting less sunlight. The additionally absorbed sunlight may heat planet Earth, leading to further sea-level rise. Here, we provide a rough estimate of the strength of this feedback: it turns out to be very weak, but clearly positive, thereby destabilizing the Earth system.