Scientists use computer models to project how hot earth will get as humans burn more oil and gas.
But it turns out those models have a bit of a blind-spot: exactly how much of the sun’s energy gets reflected back to space from the snow and ice at our poles.
As a result, scientists may have been underestimating global warming.
National climate reporter Chase Cain traveled to Antarctica to see how tiny changes in color there can lead to big changes in temperature for the entire planet.
Seaweed, a type of algae that has been around since before the dinosaurs, grows along Antarctica and could hold insight about the future because of its past.
Freya Alldred, a research student at Durham University in the United Kingdom, hopes to use the ancient organism — and its response to today’s climate — to better understand the impact of global warming.
“No one’s really looked at [seaweed] at that kind of level of detail,” Alldred said. “We don’t really know how much carbon is stored in these things … and does it change across the [seasons].”
Climate Change 9 hours ago‘Ocean engineers': Why hotter temperatures threaten whales
Apr 9It's raining more in the coldest place on Earth — that's bad for penguins
Alia Khan, a researcher and associate professor at Western Washington University, also studies algae, but she’s focused on how it cranks up the heat by absorbing more energy from the sun.
“What happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica,” Khan said.
Bright snow and ice reflects the sun’s energy back to space, helping earth stay a little cooler. Even though it’s a tiny change, the algae that grows on patches of ice in Antarctica alters the albedo — or the ice’s reflectivity — enough to make the planet warm even faster.
“When [the algae] are actively photosynthesizing, they have a larger impact on the surface albedo because they’re bringing extra energy into the snowpack, which dissipates as heat and causes it to melt faster,” Khan explained.
Khan found that red algae absorbs 20% more solar energy than clean snow, while green algae absorbs 40% more. Now, she wants to calculate whether or not pollution has a similar impact.
Everything from wildfires to diesel engines and coal power plants produce soot, and that can travel thousands of miles in the air, eventually landing on top of snow, she said.
“This process of the impacts of light-absorbing particles is one of these feedback loops that is not currently represented in global climate models,” Khan said. “Ultimately, our goal is to collect enough data to reduce the uncertainty in our future climate projections.”
For both of these scientists, it’s a team effort.
“Not everyone can get down here,” Alldred said. “But the people that can, we try to get a lot of data that a lot of people can use.”
Because at its heart, this work will paint a clearer picture of the future we all share.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Earth Week: How community solar is bringing clean energy to more Chicagoans )
Also on site :
- Glenview man, woman returning home from night out robbed at gunpoint: Police
- Over 20 feared dead in terror attack targeting tourists in India’s Kashmir
- Iran sanctions state TV channel for mocking Saudi Foreign Minister