Radiative Climatology of the North Slope of Alaska and the Adjacent Arctic Ocean

摘要: Recent climate modeling results point to the Arctic as a region that is particularly sensitive to global climate change (eg, IPCC 1997). The North Slope of Alaska-Adjacent Arctic Ocean (NSA-AAO) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) sites of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program are designed to collect data on temperature-ice-albedo and water vapor-cloud-radiation feedbacks are believed to be important to the predicted global warming (Stamnes et al. 1999). The main goals of the project are improving radiative transfer models in the Arctic environment and the testing of satellite remote sensing algorithms.At the two NSA-AAO ARM sites, radiation data has now been collected through more than a complete annual cycle. Barrow is the main NSA-AAO site and represents the Arctic Ocean coastal climate whereas Atqasuk (100 km inland) on the other side is anticipated to have more continental character. What we present here is a preliminary investigation on one year (2000) of data of radiative fluxes and standard meteorological elements of these two sites and compare it with similar results obtained in the Arctic Ocean during the one-year (1997/98) Surface Heat Budget in the Arctic (SHEBA) Experiment. The radiative energy balance is calculated from upward and downward looking broadband radiometers. Albedo derived from broadband measurements is used to verify satellites derived albedo, which plays a key role for the determination of the radiation budget from space. Furthermore, we show the implementation and verification of a “Clear-Sky Index”(CSI), which can be used to distinguish between clear and cloudy sky at …