Ice-Albedo Feedback Lab | mysimulator.uk

Ice-Albedo Feedback

Solar intensity 1.0×

Initial snow cover 70%

Soot / dust deposition 0.30

Mean albedo

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Absorbed energy

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Bright snow left

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Melt day

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How it works

Each surface patch absorbs solar energy as E = S·(1 − α), where S is incoming sunlight and α (albedo) is the fraction reflected. Fresh snow starts near α ≈ 0.85; as absorbed energy accumulates past a threshold, a patch steps down through bare ice (α ≈ 0.45) toward dark, soot-dusted ice and finally open meltwater (α ≈ 0.08). Because a darker patch absorbs more of the same sunlight, it melts faster and darkens sooner than its neighbors — a self-reinforcing loop, not a straight-line response to warming.

E_absorbed = S·(1 − α)
darker α → more E_absorbed → faster melt → darker α

Solar intensity — how much energy reaches the surface each "day"; higher values push every patch toward its next darker state sooner.
Initial snow cover — the starting fraction of the field still blanketed in bright snow versus already-exposed bare ice.
Soot / dust deposition — how much airborne dust and black carbon settle as snow melts; higher values skip patches straight to a darker, faster-melting state.

Real-world relevance: this is the same mechanism glaciologists track with satellites like MODIS — a melt season rarely proceeds smoothly because the ice itself keeps changing the rules as it melts.

Fresh snow (α≈0.85) Bare ice (α≈0.45) Dirty ice (α≈0.20) Meltwater (α≈0.08)

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