Satellite remote sensing of regional and seasonal Arctic cooling showing a multi-decadal trend towards brighter and more liquid clouds

Abstract

Two decades of measurements of spectral reflectance of solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere and a complementary record of cloud properties from satellite passive remote sensing have been analyzed for their pan-Arctic, regional, and seasonal changes. The pan-Arctic loss of brightness, which is explained by the retreat of sea ice during the current warming period, is not compensated by a corresponding increase in cloud cover. A systematic change in the thermodynamic phase of clouds has taken place, shifting towards the liquid phase at the expense of the ice phase. Without significantly changing the total cloud optical thickness or the mass of condensed water in the atmosphere, liquid water content has increased, resulting in positive trends in liquid cloud optical thickness and albedo. This leads to a cooling trend by clouds being superimposed on top of the pan-Arctic amplified warming, induced by the anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases, the ice–albedo feedback, and related effects. Except over the permanent and parts of the marginal sea ice zone around the Arctic Circle, the rate of surface cooling by clouds has increased, both in spring (−32 % in total radiative forcing for the whole Arctic) and in summer (−14 %). The magnitude of this effect depends on both the underlying surface type and changes in the regional Arctic climate.