NASA Satellites Reveal the Arctic is Absorbing More Solar Radiation as Ice Disappears

It turns out that there's been a steady increase in the absorption of solar radiation by the Arctic. Now, NASA satellite instruments are revealing a bit more about this absorption, which corresponds to the steady decrease in Arctic sea ice since the year 2000.

Sea ice mostly reflects the sun's rays. However, ocean water is darker, which means that it's prone to absorb the sun's energy at a higher rate. As sea ice retreats, the Arctic absorbs more and more solar energy. Now, satellites are revealing exactly how far that trend has gone.

In this case, NASA's CERES instruments, which fly on multiple satellites, revealed that since the year 2000, the rate of absorbed solar radiation in the Arctic has increased by five percent. While this five percent increase may not seem like much, though, the global rate has remained essentially flat during the same time period. This means that the Arctic is absorbing far more solar radiation than the rest of the world. In fact, a recent report from NOAA has shown that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else in the world.

Currently, the scientists hope to continue observations with CERES. While they have the minimum amount of data-over 15 years-to show what sort of trends are occurring in the Arctic, further observations will only improve trend monitoring.

"We need long time series to detect climate change signals over the internal variability," said Jennifer Kay, an atmospheric scientist, in a news release. "For example, observed sea ice loss over the last 30 years cannot be explained by natural variability alone. Fifteen years is long, but climate is often defined as an average over 30 years-so we are only halfway there with the CERES observations."

The findings reveal a bit more about the trends occurring in the Arctic. More specifically, they show that CERES has the potential to be a huge contributor to Arctic climate data in the future.

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