The Impacts of Reforestation on Winter Albedo in the Northeastern United States Elizabeth Burakowski Advisor: Dr. Cameron Wake New Hampshire Space Grant 20th Anniversary Institute for Earth, Oceans, and Space Durham, NH, Thursday June 2nd, 2011 The University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH 2010-2011 NH Space Grant Fellow

Background Research Questions

Reforestion in New England Albedo is the ratio of outgoing to incoming Primary research question: began between 1850 and solar radiation, or reflectance (Figure 2). How did winter climate in the Northeastern US 1870, after a long period of Remote sensing by the MODerate resolution respond to historical changes in land cover? colonial-era land clearing for Imaging Spectroradiometer reveals a sheep and cow pasture, wood consistent pattern of lower surface albedo Sub-questions: products, and fuel to warm over forested landscapes and higher albedo homes (Figure 1). over unforested landscapes (Table 1; Figures 1. How does present-day surface albedo vary The connection to cheap, mid- 3-5). spatially and temporally between and within Western US grain via rail led to land cover types? pastureland abandonment High Albedo Low albedo 2. How has surface albedo responded to and the shift to coal fuel in the 0.8 0.2 late 1800’s sparked off a region Reflected Reflected historical land cover changes? wide reforestation trend that 3. What has been the change in net surface continued through the 1960’s. 0.2 0.8 Absorbed Absorbed radiation in response to historical land cover Present day loss of forest cover Figure 1. New England forest cover and changes? from 1960 to present is due Figure 2. High albedo surfaces (left) reflect Figure 3. MODerate resolution Imaging population, 1600-2000. primarily to development and more and absorb less Incoming solar radiation Spectroradiometer (MODIS) visible satellite 4. What was the temperature response to Foster et al. 2010 urbanization. than low albedo surfaces (right), leaving less image of snow cover in New England, 17- changes in net radiation, both above and below radiation available to be emitted as heat. Feb-2007. (nasa.gov) forest canopies?

Preliminary Results Future Work Part I: In-situ albedo network Part II: Regional Climate Modeling

Figure 6. Proposed The Weather Research and broad-band Forecasting (WRF) Model is shortwave (O), a free and shared regional spectral (+), and climate model with aircraft-mounted distributed development hyper-spectral and centralized support at albedo will be the National Center for measured over a Atmospheric Research variety of land (NCAR) in Boulder, CO. Map created in ArcMAP 10.1 Map created in ArcMAP 10.1 Map created in ArcMAP 10.1 cover types in MODIS 500-m Land Cover MODIS 500-m Snow Cover MODIS 500-m Albedo Research Plan: (Friedl et al. 2002) (Hall et al. 2006) (Hall et al. 2006) New Hampshire. 1. Model parameterization and optimization- tune and Figure 4. MODIS 500-m land cover (left), snow cover (middle), and albedo (right) for 5-Feb-2005. Albedo values are shown for refine model settings for the Northeastern US snow-covered surfaces only. Higher albedo surfaces in colors, lower albedo surfaces in warm colors. Objectives: 2. Model experimentation- run model for 5-year 1. Validate MODIS forest albedo (previous studies simulations using present day and historical (Figure 7) 80 limited to unforested regions) land cover scenarios to characterize climate 70 responses to reforestation. Figure 5. Mean snow- 2. Characterize temporal and spatial variability of 60 covered surface albedo 50 Mean Albedo= 0.27 Mean Albedo= 0.41 albedo for land cover 3. Improve and refine MODIS snow cover and 40 types in the albedo algorithms 30 Northeastern US,

Mean Albedo (%) 20 averaged for winter Instrumentation: 10 (DEC-FEB) months over • Shortwave broadband- Licor LI-200sa 0 the period 2001-2005. Pyranometer Error bars represent • Spectral – Eppley Precision Spectral Grass Crop one standard Urban Pyranometer Snow Ice Savanna deviation (Burakowski Mixed Forest Open Shrub Barren/Sparse Closed Shrub and Wake, 2010). • Aircraft-Mounted Hyperspectral – AISA Figure 7. Proposed land cover scenarios for present-

Wooded Savanna Eagle/Hawk Imaging Spectrometer day (left) and 1870 (right). Historical land cover Deciduous BroadleafEvergreen Broadleaf Crop-Natural MosaicPermanent Wetland Evergreen Needleleaf Deciduous Needleleaf scenario generated by converting all present-day deciduous broadleaf and urban classes to cropland.