Application of SHEBA Data to Understanding and Simulating the Cloud-Radiation Feedback: Boundary Layer Cloud Microphysical Properties and Processes

Stratton Park Engineering Co., Inc., 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 conduct quality control analyses of aircraft data taken during the field program. The data will provide information about the ice/water in the clouds and, therefore, will be critical for determining the cloud properties affecting cloud radiation feedbacks in the heat budget equation. 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.