Comparison of surface albedo feedback in climate models and observations

Snow and ice albedo feedback plays an important role in the greater warming of the Arctic compared to the tropics. Previous work has estimated the observed Northern Hemisphere cryosphere feedback, but there have been no estimates of surface albedo feedback from observations globally. Here we compare the zonal mean surface albedo feedback from satellite data sets with that from eleven ocean-atmosphere coupled climate models for both climate change and the seasonal cycle. Differences between observed data sets make it difficult to constrain models. Nevertheless, we find that climate change Northern Hemisphere extratropical feedback is considerably higher for observations (potentially 3.1±1.3Wm-2K-1) than models (0.4-1.2Wm-2K-1), whereas the seasonal cycle feedback is similar in observations and models, casting doubt on the ability of the seasonal cycle to accurately predict the climate change feedback. Observed Antarctic sea ice feedback is strongly positive in the seasonal cycle and similar to models.