Barry, 1996
Barry,Roger G., The parameterization of surface albedo for sea ice and its snow cover, Progress in Physical Geography ,
Volume 20 (1): 63, 1996.
The factors determining the albedo of sea ice and its snow cover, including spectral characteristics, are
reviewed. The thickness, properties and fractional cover of snow are of general importance. During
freeze-up, ice thickness is a major determinant and, in summer, the extent and depth of melt ponds.
The effects of sky conditions and surface impurities are also examined. In situ and remote-sensing data
to validate theoretical and model results are discussed. The current parameterizations adopted in
atmospheric GCMs are compared and new directions described.
Domine et al., 2007
Domine, F., A.-S. Taillandier, and W. R. Simpson (2007), A parameterization of the specific surface area of seasonal snow
for field use and for models of snowpack evolution, J. Geophys. Res., 112, F02031, doi:10.1029/2006JF000512.
Snow microphysical parameterization: the paper proposes three parameterizations of snow SSA with
increasing sophistication, by correlating SSA to snow type, then to snow type and density, and finally
to snow type, density, and snowpack type.
Koltzow, 2007
Køltzow, M. (2007), The effect of a new snow and sea ice albedo scheme on regional climate model simulations,
J. Geophys. Res., 112, D07110, doi:10.1029/2006JD007693.
The HIRHAM snow and sea ice albedo scheme and several other existing snow and sea ice albedo
parameterizations forced with observed input parameters are compared with observed albedo. For
snow on land in non-forested areas, the original linear temperature-dependent snow albedo is
suggested to be replaced with a polynomial temperature-dependent scheme. For sea ice albedo none of
the evaluated schemes manage to simulate the annual cycle successfully. A suggestion of a new sea
ice albedo including the effects of melt ponds, snow on the sea ice and the surface temperature is
presented.
Perovich et al., 2011
Perovich, D., Jones, K., Light, B., Eicken, H., Markus, T., Stroeve, J., Lindsay, R.:Solar partitioning in a changing Arctic seaice cover, Annals of Glaciology 52(57) 2011.
The summer extent of the Arctic sea-ice cover has decreased in recent decades and there have been
alterations in the timing and duration of the summer melt season. These changes in ice conditions have
affected the partitioning of solar radiation in the Arctic atmosphere–ice–ocean system. The impact of
sea-ice changes on solar partitioning is examined on a pan-Arctic scale using a 25km_25km EqualArea Scalable Earth Grid for the years 1979–2007. Daily values of incident solar irradiance are
obtained from NCEP reanalysis products adjusted by ERA-40, and ice concentrations are determined
from passive microwave satellite data. The albedo of the ice is parameterized by a five-stage
process that includes dry snow, melting snow, melt pond formation, melt pond evolution, and
freeze-up. The timing of these stages is governed by the onset dates of summer melt and fall freezeup, which are determined from satellite observations. Trends of solar heat input to the ice were mixed,
with increases due to longer melt seasons and decreases due to reduced ice concentration. Results
indicate a general trend of increasing solar heat input to the Arctic ice–ocean system due to declines in
albedo induced by decreases in ice concentration and longer melt seasons. The evolution of sea-ice
albedo, and hence the total solar heating of the ice–ocean system, is more sensitive to the date of melt
onset than the date of fall freeze-up. The largest increases in total annual solar heat input from 1979 to
2007, averaging as much as 4%a–1, occurred in the Chukchi Sea region. The contribution of solar heat
to the ocean is increasing faster than the contribution to the ice due to the loss of sea ice.
Piazzini & Raisanen, 2008
Pirazzini, R., and P. Ra¨isa¨nen (2008), A method to account for surface albedo heterogeneity in single-column radiative
transfer calculations under overcast conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D20108, doi:10.1029/2008JD009815.
A simple parameterization to derive the broadband effective albedo over highly reflecting surfaces
under overcast conditions is presented. High spatial variability in the surface albedo affects the
downwelling solar irradiance in neighboring regions via the multiple reflections of light between the
surface and the cloud base. The effective albedo is defined as the albedo of a homogeneous surface
that would result in the same downwelling irradiance as observed at the observation point in the
presence of a heterogeneous surface. The proposed method parameterizes the effective albedo using
the cloud base height and a surface albedo map as inputs. The parameterization is based on the spatial
distribution of surface reflections contributing to the downwelling irradiance at the observation site,
which is approximated with a gamma distribution. The parameterization was validated against
reference values of effective albedo derived from three-dimensional backward Monte Carlo and onedimensional DISORT radiative transfer calculations for four idealized surface albedo maps and
various specifications of cloud properties. It gave values of effective albedo very close to the reference
calculations, performing substantially better than any other approach tested, also when applied to the
retrieval of cloud optical depth. The method can be implemented into one-dimensional radiative
transfer models or used to interpret broadband irradiance measurements in Polar coastal regions, in the
marginal sea ice zones, or in patchy terrain with forests and snow-covered fields.
Sterl & Drakkar, 2011
A presentation of A. Sterl at DRAKKAR meeting, 24.02.2011, among other things features Melt pond
parametrization for sea ice albedo (slide 13).