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Radiative Forcing Over Ocean by Ship WakesChanges in surface albedo represent one of the main forcing agents that can counteract, to some extent, the positive forcing from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Here, we report on enhanced ocean reflectance from ship wakes over the Pacific Ocean near the California coast, where we determined, based on airborne radiation measurements that ship wakes can increase reflected sunlight by more than 100%. We assessed the importance of this increase to climate forcing, where we estimated the global radiative forcing of ship wakes to be -0.00014 plus or minus 53% Watts per square meter assuming a global distribution of 32331 ships of size of greater than or equal to 100000 gross tonnage. The forcing is smaller than the forcing of aircraft contrails (-0.007 to +0.02 Watts per square meter), but considering that the global shipping fleet has rapidly grown in the last five decades and this trend is likely to continue because of the need of more inter-continental transportation as a result of economic globalization, we argue that the radiative forcing of wakes is expected to be increasingly important especially in harbors and coastal regions.
Document ID
20120011709
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Abstract
Authors
Gatebe, Charles K. (Universities Space Research Association Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Wilcox, E. (Desert Research Inst. Reno, NV, United States)
Poudyal, R. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Wang, J. (Nebraska Univ. Lincoln, NE, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
December 5, 2011
Subject Category
Oceanography
Report/Patent Number
GSFC.ABS.01065.ABS
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2011 Fall AGU Meeting
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 5, 2011
End Date: December 9, 2011
Sponsors: American Geophysical Union
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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