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Title: Global albedo change and radiative cooling from anthropogenic land-cover change, 1700 to 2005 based on MODIS, land-use harmonization and radiative kernels

Author
item GHIMIRE, BARDAN - Clark University
item WILLIAMS, CHRISTOPHER - Clark University
item MASEK, JEFFREY - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item Gao, Feng
item WANG, ZHUOSEN - Collaborator
item SCHAAF, CRYSTAL - Collaborator
item HE, TAO - University Of Maryland

Submitted to: Geophysical Research Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/24/2014
Publication Date: 12/26/2014
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/59891
Citation: Ghimire, B., Williams, C., Masek, J., Gao, F.N., Wang, Z., Schaaf, C., He, T. 2014. Global albedo change and radiative cooling from anthropogenic land-cover change, 1700 to 2005 based on MODIS, land-use harmonization and radiative kernels. Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061671.

Interpretive Summary: Land cover and land use change can alter radiative forcing via the change in surface albedo, and thus influences the global climate system. There are considerable uncertainties in the estimation of the albedo-induced effect globally. This study provides a more precise estimate of surface albedo and changes based on the historical (1700-2005) land cover change and a new albedo look-up map. Our estimate of radiative forcing from land cover change is slightly higher than other recent estimates, and at the higher end of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report (IPCC AR5). Understanding the impacts of land cover and land use change is critical for the USDA in order to develop mitigation strategies for sustainable agricultural production.

Technical Abstract: Widespread anthropogenic land-cover change over the last five centuries has influenced the global climate system through both biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Models indicate that warming from carbon emissions associated with land cover conversion have been partially offset if not outweighed by cooling from elevated albedo, but considerable uncertainty remains partly because of uncertainty in model treatments of albedo. This study incorporates a new spatially and temporally explicit, land-cover specific albedo product derived from MODIS with historical land use dataset (Land Use Harmonization product; Hurtt et al., 2006) to provide more precise, observationally-derived estimates of albedo impacts from anthropogenic land-cover change. The mean annual global albedo increase due to land-cover change during 1700-2005 was estimated as 0.0012, mainly driven by snow exposure due to land-cover transitions from natural vegetation to agriculture. This translates to a top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiative cooling of -0.23 W m-2. Our estimate of radiative forcing from land cover change is slightly higher than other recent estimates based on MODIS albedo products, and at the higher end of the IPCC AR5 range of -0.25 to -0.05 W/m2.