Articles | Volume 14, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2673-2020
Research article
 | 
21 Aug 2020
Research article |  | 21 Aug 2020

Clouds damp the radiative impacts of polar sea ice loss

Ramdane Alkama, Patrick C. Taylor, Lorea Garcia-San Martin, Herve Douville, Gregory Duveiller, Giovanni Forzieri, Didier Swingedouw, and Alessandro Cescatti

Data sets

CERES EBAF 4.0 NASA https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/order_data.php

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Short summary
The amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth is believed to strongly depend on clouds. Here, we investigate this relationship using satellite data and 32 climate models, showing that this relationship holds everywhere except over polar seas, where an increased reflection by clouds corresponds to an increase in absorbed solar radiation at the surface. This interplay between clouds and sea ice reduces by half the increase of net radiation at the surface that follows the sea ice retreat.