Amazon forest loss: An all-sky biophysical top-of-atmosphere cooling feedback
Summary
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 wit
Content
# Amazon forest loss: An all-sky biophysical top-of-atmosphere cooling feedback
*Published: 2026 Apr 23*
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.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adz8296