Quantifying bioalbedo: A new physically-based model and critique of empirical methods for characterizing biological influence on ice and snow albedo

Abstract

The darkening effects of biological impurities on ice and snow have been recognized as a significant control on the surface energy balance of terrestrial snow, sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. With a heightened interest in understanding the impacts of a changing climate on snow and ice processes, quantifying the impact of biological impurities on ice and snow albedo ("bioalbedo") and its evolution through time is a rapidly growing field of research. However, rigorous quantification of bioalbedo has remained elusive because of difficulties isolating the biological contribution to ice albedo from that of inorganic impurities and the variable optical properties of the ice itself. For this reason, isolation of the biological signature in reflectance data obtained from aerial/orbital platforms has not been achieved, even when ground-based biological measurements have been available. This paper provides the cell specific optical properties that are required to model the spectral signatures and broadband darkening of ice. Applying radiative transfer theory, these properties provide the physical basis needed to link biological and glaciological ground measurements with remotely sensed reflectance data. Using these new capabilities we confirm that biological impurities can influence ice albedo then identify ten challenges to the measurement of bioalbedo in the field with the aim of improving future experimental designs to better quantify bioalbedo feedbacks. These challenges are: 1) Ambiguity in terminology, 2) Characterizing snow or ice optical properties, 3) Characterizing solar irradiance, 4) Determining optical properties of cells, 5) Measuring biomass, 6) Characterizing vertical distribution of cells, 7) Characterizing abiotic impurities, 8) Surface anisotropy, 9) Measuring indirect albedo feedbacks, and 10) Measurement and instrument configurations.