ArticleCommunications earth & environment2022
Anthropogenic aerosol and cryosphere changes drive Earth's strong but transient clear-sky hemispheric albedo asymmetry.
Article in Communications earth & environment, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Earth's east-west albedo symmetry.Nature · 2026Article
- Aerosol effective radiative forcing increases Earth's energy imbalance in recent decades.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Emerging hemispheric asymmetry of Earth's radiation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Weakened snow and ice melting by enhanced cloud short-wave cooling effect in the Arctic.National science review · 2025Article
- Surface albedo regulates aerosol direct climate effect.Nature communications · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A striking feature of the Earth system is that the Northern and Southern Hemispheres reflect identical amounts of sunlight. This hemispheric albedo symmetry comprises two asymmetries: The Northern Hemisphere is more reflective in clear skies, whereas the Southern Hemisphere is cloudier. Here we show that the hemispheric reflection contrast from differences in continental coverage is offset by greater reflection from the Antarctic than the Arctic, allowing the net clear-sky asymmetry to be dominated by aerosol. Climate model simulations suggest that historical anthropogenic aerosol emissions drove a large increase in the clear-sky asymmetry that would reverse in future low-emission scenarios. High-emission scenarios also show decreasing asymmetry, instead driven by declines in Northern Hemisphere ice and snow cover. Strong clear-sky hemispheric albedo asymmetry is therefore a transient feature of Earth's climate. If all-sky symmetry is maintained, compensating cloud changes would have uncertain but important implications for Earth's energy balance and hydrological cycle.
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