Connection Between Arctic Cloud Microphysics and Radiative Fluxes in ARISE Data
Abstract
The NASA Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE) collected a unique data set comprising spectral and broadband radiative iradiances within, above and below cloud precisely during the late summer - early autumn sea ice transition in the Beaufort Sea. Analysis of the spectral irradiance data within cloud transects revealed that these clouds are almost entirely dominated by the liquid phase, in contrast to springtime Arctic mixed-phase clouds that have a much stronger radiative signature and concomitant shortwave attenuation by the ice phase. We also examined 10 Hz broadband irradiance data along cloud transects using Lomb-Scargle periodograms. A classical Arctic mixed-phase cloud shows periodicity in total water content, and hence measured irradiance above or below cloud, in response to alternating updrafts and downdrafts. This was observed in some ARISE cloud transects but not the majority of cases. ARISE data from the late summer sea ice transition period therefore point to a cloud microphysical regime that is noticeably different than springtime mixed-phase clouds over the same region, warmer clouds observed in the Arctic during the height of summer, or colder and multi-layered autumnal mixed-phase clouds.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A51G0146L
- Keywords:
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- 3337 Global climate models;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3349 Polar meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 0738 Ice;
- CRYOSPHERE