Amazon forest loss: An all-sky biophysical top-of-atmosphere cooling feedback

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dror, Tom; Feingold, Graham
• 署名单位: University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adz8296
• 发表日期: 2026-04-23
• 页码: 429-432
• 关键词: CUMULUS CLOUDS; CLIMATE-CHANGE; DIURNAL-CYCLE; deforestation; IMPACT

摘要

The Amazon rainforest plays a crucial role in regulating Earth's energy and water cycles. The full biophysical impact of deforestation, particularly when mediated by clouds, remains elusive. Using two decades of multisource satellite observations, we isolate biophysical signals of forest loss and present an observation of the all-sky biophysical feedback that integrates surface and atmospheric effects. We find that top-of-atmosphere (TOA) cooling in shortwave and longwave fluxes scales with forest loss fraction, with shortwave dominating. In high-loss areas, shortwave TOA cooling reaches 6.8 +/- 0.6 watts per square meter, with cloud-driven albedo increases doubling the effect relative to surface brightening alone. These findings underscore the importance of cloud responses in estimating the climatic impact of forest cover change and support their integration into climate models and land-management policies.