Ice Albedo Feedback

The ice-albedo-feedback is quite simple, but very serious. Snow and ice reflect the sun which means that they do not absorb much of the solar radiation, they have a high albedo. The water around the snow and ice is much darker, absorbing more of the Sun's radiation (a low albedo), causing the water to heat up. This heating then melts the snow and ice, exposing more of the water, absorbing more of the sun and heating more, and so on. The more water is exposed, the more heat it absorbs. The more heat it absorbs, the more the ice melts exposing more water.

Figure 1: Ice Sheet Albedo

Image Source: http://hot-topic.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/GISalbedo201207.png

You can see in this figure how the albedo, ability to reflect sunlight, decreases into the summer months of the Northern Hemisphere (May - August) and then increases into the fall and winter months. This illustrates how as the temperature increases and ice melts, more radiation and heat is absorbed, melting the ice, and so on.