Collaborative: Using the SHEBA Flux Data To Improve Regional and Global Climate Models

Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA

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. The data originally collected by these researchers provides an essential dataset of ice-surface observations of the atmospheric boundary level for use in improving large-scale models that require better parameterization of cloud-radiation and surface-albedo feedbacks for predicting the response of Arctic sea ice to global warming. The project involves analysis and quality control of surface-level data and production of a time-series of surface heat flux. The data will be incorporated into models of the atmospheric boundary layer and used to compare to data sets of surface parameters collected by aircraft over flights. The results of this project will be used in conjunction with other projects to enhance mesoscale and General Circulation Models (GCMs) that facilitate better simulations of the Arctic sea ice response to projected global warming trends.