Relating ARM Arctic Cloud and Radiation Measurements to Large-scale Dynamics and Western Arctic Climatology
| Xiquan Dong | University of North Dakota |
| Baike Xi | University of North Dakota |
| Chuck Long | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
Category: Radiation
Using six years of data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site, we find that clouds are dominant over Northern Alaska with an annual average of 0.75. More clouds exist in the warm season (May-October) than in the cold season (November-April), which exhibits a strong association with the large-scale dynamics. The net surface radiation budget (SRB) indicates that Arctic surface loses radiative energy during October-April and gains radiative energy during May-September, and clouds tend to enhance snow melting in spring and impede the solidification of permafrost in autumn. The annual averages of shortwave, longwave and NET cloud radiative forcing are -36, 45 Wm-2, and 9 Wm-2, respectively, indicating that Arctic clouds have a net warming effect on the surface throughout the year. The yearly average surface albedo in 2002 is 6% less than the six-year average, which results in a gain of 5 Wm-2 in net SRB and an increase of 1 oC in surface air temperature. Through this study and comparison with others, we conclude that the ARM observed Arctic clouds and SRB do correlate with the large-scale dynamics and represent the Western Arctic climatology.
This poster will be displayed at ARM Science Team Meeting.
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