Albedo Feedback

Albedo feedback is the climate loop in Taking the shine off: albedo and global temperatures where a less reflective Earth absorbs more sunlight and therefore warms further. Oliver Morton says warming contributes to fewer clouds and scarcer ice caps, while reduced sulphur pollution also means less sunlight is reflected back into space.

The concept extends the wiki’s climate branch beyond Wildfire Climate Feedback and Climate Adaptation. It treats reflectivity as both a consequence of warming and a driver of additional warming, making Earth Energy Imbalance a more direct measure than air temperature alone.

Key Claims

• Less cloud, less ice, and fewer reflective aerosols all lower planetary reflectivity.
• Reduced reflectivity means more solar energy is absorbed rather than reflected back into space.
• The feedback makes warming partly self-reinforcing because warming changes the surfaces and clouds that govern sunlight reflection.

Connections

• Earth Energy Imbalance, Aerosol Cooling Masking, Ocean Heat Monitoring, and Solar Geoengineering - climate mechanisms connected by the source.
• Oliver Morton, NASA, Argo floats, International Maritime Organization, and Paul Crutzen - source participants and institutions.
• Climate Adaptation and Wildfire Climate Feedback - adjacent climate-risk pages.