The impact of changing surface albedo in climate models

Abstract

A regional modelling study employing new and improved land surface albedos from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite measurements is presented as a sensitivity comparison. The "new" albedo dataset is compared to the "old" over an area covering approximately the eastern half of the Australian continent, which is dominated by midlatitude arid and semi-arid desert regions. As expected, there is a strong correlation between lower albedo values and increased monthly averaged maximum temperatures. There is little effect on monthly averaged minimum temperatures.