HR: 0800h
AN: B41B-0464    [Abstracts]
TI: United States Land Cover Land Use Change, Albedo and Surface Radiative Forcing 1973 to 2000
AU: * Barnes, C A
EM: christopher.barnes@sdstate.edu
AF: Geographical Information Science Center of Excellence, Wecota Hall 506B, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007-3510, United States
AU: Roy, D P
EM: david.roy@sdstate.edu
AF: Geographical Information Science Center of Excellence, Wecota Hall 506B, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007-3510, United States
AB: This research responds to the recent recommendations made by the U.S. National Research Council for regional forcing studies to better understand climatic responses to land cover land use change. Surface albedo affects the earth's radiative energy balance, by controlling how much incoming solar radiation is absorbed and reflected. It is well established that Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change results in changes in the surface albedo which has a radiative forcing effect, however, to date, studies have been limited due to data uncertainties. New spatially explicit satellite derived LCLU change and albedo data for the conterminous U.S. are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo and radiative forcing. The methodology and preliminary results for 42% of the U.S. processed to date are presented as spatially explicit maps and summary statistics. The results indicate a negative (cooling) radiative forcing effect due to U.S. LCLU change over the last three decades. Data used include USGS Landsat based decadal land cover maps of the conterminous U.S. located using a stratified sampling methodology across 84 ecoregions, mean 2000-2002 MODIS broadband albedo values extracted in each ecoregion for the 10 mapped LCLU classes, and monthly mean surface incoming solar radiation from the recent European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast 40 year Reanalysis (ERA40) product.
DE: 1632 Land cover change
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting