An annual cycle of Arctic surface cloud forcing at SHEBA

Intrieri, J. M.; Fairall, C. W.; Shupe, Matthew D.; Persson, P. Ola G.; Andreas, Edgar L.; Guest, Peter; Moritz, Richard E.

doi:10.1029/2000jc000439

Cited by 370 publications

(409 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As the cloud radiative forcing in the central Arctic is negative only for a few weeks in midsummer [Intrieri et al, 2002], the results are in accordance with the observed increase in the length of the melting season.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Meteorological conditions in the Arctic Ocean in spring and summer 2007 as recorded on the drifting ice station Tara

Vihma¹,

Jaagus²,

Jakobson³

et al. 2008

Geophysical Research Letters

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Meteorological observations were made at the drifting ice station Tara in the central Arctic Ocean from 23 March to 19 September 2007, constituting a unique data set from the season preceding the record‐low sea ice extent. Comparisons of the Tara data with observations at the Russian drifting ice stations in 1937–1938 and 1950–1991 and at SHEBA in 1998 indicated that at Tara and SHEBA the atmospheric transmissivity for shortwave radiation was smaller than at the Russian stations, suggesting a higher cloud fraction or optical thickness. Compared to the mean conditions at the Russian stations, at Tara the melting season was twice as long and in April the 2‐m air temperature was 7.0°C higher, but in July the 2‐m temperature difference disappeared. The Tara tethersonde sounding data suggest that the air temperature at the altitudes of 200–1000 m was approximately 1°C higher than the mean of 1954–1985.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Meteorological conditions in the Arctic Ocean in spring and summer 2007 as recorded on the drifting ice station Tara

Vihma¹,

Jaagus²,

Jakobson³

et al. 2008

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Curry and Ebert (1992), Schweiger and Key (1994), Zhang et al (1996), and Walsh and Chapman (1998) all have shown that the net effect of polar clouds is to warm the surface during all but short durations of the high-sun season. Intrieri et al (2002b) and Persson et al (2002) confirmed these results during the SHEBA experiment. Their analyses of the annual cycle of surface turbulent heat fluxes during the SHEBA experiment likewise confirmed that, in general, surface turbulent heat fluxes acted to warm the surface during clear periods, but were small during cloudy periods.…”

Section: Surface Heat Budgetssupporting

confidence: 78%

Vertical Heat Transfer in the Lower Atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean During Clear-sky Periods

Mirocha

Kosović

2005

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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Abstract. A diagnostic study of heat transfer within the lower atmosphere and between the atmosphere and the surface of the Arctic Ocean snow/ice pack during clear-sky conditions is conducted using data from the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) field experiment. Surface heat budgets computed for four cloudy and four clear periods show that, while the net turbulent heat fluxes at the surface are small during the cloudy periods, during the clear-sky periods they are a considerable source of surface heating, balancing significant portions of the conductive heat fluxes from within the snow/ice pack. Analysis of the dynamics and thermodynamics of the lower atmosphere during the clear-sky periods reveals that a considerable portion of the heat lost to the surface by turbulent heat fluxes is balanced by locally strong heating near the atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) top due to the interaction of subsiding motions with the strong overlying temperature inversions surmounting the ABL. This heat is then entrained into the ABL and transported to the surface by turbulent mixing, maintained by a combination of vertical wind shear and wave-turbulence interactions. The frequency of stable, clear-sky periods, particularly during the winter, combined with these results, suggests that the downward transfer of heat through the lower atmosphere and into the surface represents an important component of the heat budgets of the lower atmosphere and snow/ice pack over the annual cycle.

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“…This match indicates that at least on the monthly timescales considered here, there is no evidence to resolve the question of whether the pronounced autumn sea ice and cloudiness anomalies during RILEs are triggered by the ice or the clouds. This result suggests that the very rapid response of surface radiative fluxes to changes in cloudiness in the Arctic (Intrieri et al 2002) necessitates that lead-lag correlations be calculated at higher temporal resolution, but unfortunately daily output from these simulations was not available. We also acknowledge that other sea ice variables such as freeze-up date and growth rates might be more sensitive to the warming influence of increased autumn cloudiness, but we retain ice concentration as our comparative metric due to its close physical linkage with surface evaporation and therefore cloud formation.…”

Section: Role Of Clouds: Driver or Responder?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Changes in Arctic clouds during intervals of rapid sea ice loss

Vavrus¹,

Holland

Bailey

2010

Clim Dyn

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We investigate the behavior of clouds during rapid sea ice loss events (RILEs) in the Arctic, as simulated by multiple ensemble projections of the 21st century in the Community Climate System Model (CCSM3). Trends in cloud properties and sea ice coverage during RILEs are compared with their secular trends between 2000 and 2049 during summer, autumn, and winter. The results suggest that clouds promote abrupt Arctic climate change during RILEs through increased (decreased) cloudiness in autumn (summer) relative to the changes over the first half of the 21st century. The trends in cloud characteristics (cloud amount, water content, and radiative forcing) during RILEs are most strongly and consistently an amplifying effect during autumn, the season in which RILEs account for the majority of the secular trends. The total cloud trends in every season are primarily due to low clouds, which show a more robust response than middle and high clouds across RILEs. Lead-lag correlations of monthly sea ice concentration and cloud cover during autumn reveal that the relationship between less ice and more clouds is enhanced during RILEs, but there is no evidence that either variable is leading the other. Given that Arctic cloud projections in CCSM3 are similar to those from other state-of-the-art GCMs and that observations show increased autumn cloudiness associated with the extreme 2007 and 2008 sea ice minima, this study suggests that the rapidly declining Arctic sea ice will be accentuated by changes in polar clouds.

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An annual cycle of Arctic surface cloud forcing at SHEBA

Cited by 370 publications

References 31 publications

Meteorological conditions in the Arctic Ocean in spring and summer 2007 as recorded on the drifting ice station Tara

Meteorological conditions in the Arctic Ocean in spring and summer 2007 as recorded on the drifting ice station Tara

Vertical Heat Transfer in the Lower Atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean During Clear-sky Periods

Changes in Arctic clouds during intervals of rapid sea ice loss

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