Arctic Summer Airmass Transformation, Surface Inversions, and the Surface Energy Budget
Abstract
During the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE) in summer 2014 a weeklong period of warm-air advection over melting sea ice, with the formation of a strong surface temperature inversion and dense fog, was observed. Based on an analysis of the surface energy budget, we formulated the hypothesis that, because of the airmass transformation, additional surface heating occurs during warm-air intrusions in a zone near the ice edge. To test this hypothesis, we explore all cases with surface inversions occurring during ACSE and then characterize the inversions in detail. We find that they always occur with advection from the south and are associated with subsidence. Analyzing only inversion cases over sea ice, we find two categories: one with increasing moisture in the inversion and one with constant or decreasing moisture with height. During surface inversions with increasing moisture with height, an extra 10–25 W m−2of surface heating was observed, compared to cases without surface inversions; the surface turbulent heat flux was the largest single term. Cases with less moisture in the inversion were often cloud free and the extra solar radiation plus the turbulent surface heat flux caused by the inversion was roughly balanced by the loss of net longwave radiation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1175/jcli-d-18-0216.1
Entities
People
- Ian M. Brooks
- John Prytherch
- Joseph Sedlar
- Matthew D. Shupe
- Michael Tjernström
- Peggy Achtert
Organizations
- Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Office of Naval Research
- Stockholm University
- Swedish Research Council
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Leeds
- University of Reading