Articles | Volume 12, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1057-2021
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1057-2021
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

Related authors

Twenty-first century global glacier evolution under CMIP6 scenarios and the role of glacier-specific observations
Harry Zekollari, Matthias Huss, Lilian Schuster, Fabien Maussion, David R. Rounce, Rodrigo Aguayo, Nicolas Champollion, Loris Compagno, Romain Hugonnet, Ben Marzeion, Seyedhamidreza Mojtabavi, and Daniel Farinotti
The Cryosphere, 18, 5045–5066, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5045-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5045-2024, 2024
Short summary
Projecting the Response of Greenland's Peripheral Glaciers to Future Climate Change: Glacier Losses, Sea Level Impact, Freshwater Contributions, and Peak Water Timing
Muhammad Shafeeque, Jan-Hendrik Malles, Anouk Vlug, Marco Möller, and Ben Marzeion
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2184,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2184, 2024
Short summary
Freshwater input from glacier melt outside Greenland alters modeled northern high-latitude ocean circulation
Jan-Hendrik Malles, Ben Marzeion, and Paul G. Myers
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1425,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1425, 2024
Short summary
The atmosphere-land/ice-ocean system in the region near the 79N Glacier in Northeast Greenland: Synthesis and key findings from GROCE
Torsten Kanzow, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Mölg, Mirko Scheinert, Matthias Braun, Hans Burchard, Francesca Doglioni, Philipp Hochreuther, Martin Horwath, Oliver Huhn, Jürgen Kusche, Erik Loebel, Katrina Lutz, Ben Marzeion, Rebecca McPherson, Mahdi Mohammadi-Aragh, Marco Möller, Carolyne Pickler, Markus Reinert, Monika Rhein, Martin Rückamp, Janin Schaffer, Muhammad Shafeeque, Sophie Stolzenberger, Ralph Timmermann, Jenny Turton, Claudia Wekerle, and Ole Zeising
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-757,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-757, 2024
Short summary
Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?
Karina von Schuckmann, Audrey Minière, Flora Gues, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Gottfried Kirchengast, Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Michaël Ablain, Richard P. Allan, Paul M. Barker, Hugo Beltrami, Alejandro Blazquez, Tim Boyer, Lijing Cheng, John Church, Damien Desbruyeres, Han Dolman, Catia M. Domingues, Almudena García-García, Donata Giglio, John E. Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Maria Z. Hakuba, Stefan Hendricks, Shigeki Hosoda, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian King, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Anton Korosov, Gerhard Krinner, Mikael Kuusela, Felix W. Landerer, Moritz Langer, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Yuehua Li, John Lyman, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Andrew H. MacDougall, Trevor McDougall, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Jan Nitzbon, Inès Otosaka, Jian Peng, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Kanako Sato, Katsunari Sato, Abhishek Savita, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Leon Simons, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Toshio Suga, Tanguy Szekely, Wim Thiery, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Inne Vanderkelen, Susan E. Wjiffels, Tonghua Wu, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1675–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Dynamics of the Earth system: concepts
Rate-induced tipping in natural and human systems
Paul D. L. Ritchie, Hassan Alkhayuon, Peter M. Cox, and Sebastian Wieczorek
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 669–683, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-669-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-669-2023, 2023
Short summary
Tracing the Snowball bifurcation of aquaplanets through time reveals a fundamental shift in critical-state dynamics
Georg Feulner, Mona Bukenberger, and Stefan Petri
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 533–547, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-533-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-533-2023, 2023
Short summary
Multi-million-year cycles in modelled δ13C as a response to astronomical forcing of organic matter fluxes
Gaëlle Leloup and Didier Paillard
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 291–307, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-291-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-291-2023, 2023
Short summary
Reliability of resilience estimation based on multi-instrument time series
Taylor Smith, Ruxandra-Maria Zotta, Chris A. Boulton, Timothy M. Lenton, Wouter Dorigo, and Niklas Boers
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 173–183, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-173-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-173-2023, 2023
Short summary
The ExtremeX global climate model experiment: investigating thermodynamic and dynamic processes contributing to weather and climate extremes
Kathrin Wehrli, Fei Luo, Mathias Hauser, Hideo Shiogama, Daisuke Tokuda, Hyungjun Kim, Dim Coumou, Wilhelm May, Philippe Le Sager, Frank Selten, Olivia Martius, Robert Vautard, and Sonia I. Seneviratne
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 1167–1196, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-1167-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-1167-2022, 2022
Short summary

Cited articles

Amante, C. and Eakins, B. W.: ETOPO1: 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis, Tech. Rep., NESDIS NGDC-24, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [data set], https://doi.org/10.7289/V5C8276M, 2009. a, b, c
Barkstrom, B. R., Harrison, E. F., and Lee, R. B.: Earth radiation budget experiment, Eos, 71, 297–304, https://doi.org/10.1029/EO071i009p00297, 1990. a, b
Barron, E. J., Sloan II, J., and Harrison, C.: Potential significance of land–sea distribution and surface albedo variations as a climatic forcing factor; 180 my to the present, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 30, 17–40, https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(80)90047-4, 1980. a
Burrett, C. F.: Phanerozoic land–sea and albedo variations as climate controls, Nature, 296, 54–56, https://doi.org/10.1038/296054a0, 1982. a
DeConto, R. M. and Pollard, D.: Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise, Nature, 531, 591–597, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17145, 2016. a
Download
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.
Special issue
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint