View source for Climate feedback

[[Category:Done 2016-01-15]]
[[Category:Translated to Spanish]]
[[es:Retroalimentación climático]] 
<onlyinclude>'''Climate feedback''' is a response to a climate process that either intensifies or minimizes the initial effect of a [[climate forcing]] (often either warming or cooling). Essentially, these climate feedback effects occur after an initial forcing (warming or cooling) causes a change, and this change in turn influences the severity of the initial change.</onlyinclude><ref name=IPCC_SREX>IPCC, 2012: Glossary of terms. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA, pp. 555-564.</ref> These responses are separated into two major categories based on whether they make the initial change more or less intense. [[Positive feedback]] increases an initial change in the environment - pushing it farther from the balance that the climate has been in, whereas a [[negative feedback]] is one that reduces the effect of some initial change in the environment, bringing it back to a more stable state.<ref name="RE1">NASA Global Climate Change. (October 10, 2015). ''The Study of Earth as an Integrated System'' [Online]. Available: http://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_role/science/</ref> 

<gallery mode=packed caption="Types of Feedback" widths="350px" heights="232px"  >
File:Ponds_on_the_Ocean,_ICESCAPE.jpg|Figure 1. The melting of polar ice is an example of a positive feedback.<ref>Wikimedia Commons. (October 11, 2015). ''Ponds on the Ocean'' [Online]. Available: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Ponds_on_the_Ocean,_ICESCAPE.jpg</ref>
File:Clouds_in_vellore.JPG|Figure 2. Excess cloud formation from ocean evaporation is an example of a negative feedback.<ref>Wikimedia Commons. (October 10, 2015). ''Clouds in Vellore'' [Online]. Available: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Clouds_in_vellore.JPG</ref>
</gallery>

==Positive Climate Feedback==
:: [[positive climate feedback|''main article'']]
[[Positive climate feedback]] is any process that creates a bigger change after some initial change, essentially magnifying it.<ref name="RE1"/> The phrase 'positive' climate feedback has made it sound like these feedback cycles are good, but quite the opposite is true, positive feedback cycles endanger the climate by knocking it further from a stable equilibrium. These include:

* a drop in [[albedo]] with the melting of polar ice - particularly sea ice
* the release of [[carbon]] as a result of melting permafrost.
* the amount of water in the [[atmosphere]], this increases as the world gets warmer, and puts even more water into the atmosphere.

==Negative Climate Feedback==
:: [[negative climate feedback|''main article'']]
[[Negative climate feedback]] is a process that is one type of climate feedback wherein some initial change causes some secondary change that in turn decreases the initial change, essentially minimizing the initial change - keeping the climate in a stable state.<ref name="RE1"/> Processes that have a negative climate feedback keep the Earth's climate stable, which is a good thing. These include:
* the [[evaporation]] of [[water]] from the [[ocean]]s that results in increased [[cloud]] formation 
* increasing temperature radiates more heat into space, this is called ''[[Planck feedback]]'' and comes from the [[Stefan-Boltzmann law]]. 

==Effect on Climate==
A wide variety of climate feedbacks can occur as a result of some initial change to the climate, generally through climate forcings. The warming as a result of [[fossil fuel]] [[combustion]] is one of the primary processes that triggers a feedback. Then, depending on the type of feedback, the initial change in the climate is either enhanced or diminished. 

The positive feedback cycles are disconcerting when the climate is concerned. This type of feedback contributes to accelerating [[climate change]]s as they increase some already high amount of temperature increase. With positive feedback, some minor change in the state of the climate can result in a large change overall. Thus different types of feedback can cause different changes in the climate, but if it is a positive feedback the initial warming can propagate into a cycle of steadily increasing warming,

==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Uploaded]]