Application of SHEBA Data to Understanding and Simulating the Cloud-Radiation Feedback: The Cloudy Boundary Layer

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project is part of an integrated set of proposals for the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Ocean project. The goal of the current phase of the SHEBA project is to use data collected during a one year experiment during which an icebreaker frozen into the ice pack of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas was used as a platform for data collection. A full annual cycle of data relating to feedbacks of the ocean-ice-atmosphere system was collected and will be used to improve model parameterizations of sea ice response to global warming. This project will assemble a data set of atmospheric boundary layer parameters in order to improve the physics used in models. The researchers are collaborating with other investigators looking at additional aspects of the cloud-radiation feedback mechanisms. The activities of this project are an essential effort to enhance the outcome of the SHEBA research projects designed to improve column, mesoscale and General Circulation Models (GCMs) that facilitate better simulations of the Arctic sea ice response to projected global warming trends.