Why are the reflectivities of the Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres so similar? or related to more storms
Now we are all familiar with the appearance of the earth, which is a uniform and beautiful sapphire . Considering that the earth’s surface is about 70% ocean and 30% land, and the northern hemisphere accounts for most of the land area, the vast and deep ocean in the southern hemisphere should make the southern hemisphere darker than the northern hemisphere, but this is not the case overall: the reflectivity of the northern and southern hemispheres does not Significant difference. The latest research by climatologists believes that this is related to more storms in the southern hemisphere, and this balance will begin to change as global warming begins.
Generally speaking, the color of land is lighter than that of ocean. This is not only a difference in color, but also shows the rate of sunlight absorption and reflection. Light-colored land represents higher albedo, and darker oceans represent lower albedo, which means it absorbs more sunlight and heat. However, the specific heat of seawater is greater than that of land, and the temperature rise and fall are not obvious. Therefore, the southern hemisphere, which has more ocean area in the world, will have smaller seasonal temperature differences.
Clouds play a key role in the Earth’s climate system. A new study by Or Hadas, a climatologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, pointed out that more oceans in the southern hemisphere reflect less sunlight, but absorb more heat energy and increase storm frequency, while the intensity of mid-latitude storms and cloud reflection There is a strong correlation between the albedo and reflectance differences between the northern and southern hemispheres.
The paper further discusses the impact of global warming on the albedo balance. The researchers believe that the number of southern hemisphere storms may decrease but increase in intensity, as predicted by other climate models. Perhaps more intense storms can have higher albedo, but fewer storms can depress albedo. The researchers said that at this stage, it is still uncertain whether the symmetry between the northern and southern hemispheres will be broken by global warming, and more research and observation are needed. Details can be found in the original paper .
