A Large-Eddy Simulation Study of the Influence of Subsidence on the Stably Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The influence of the large-scale subsidence rate, S, on the stably stratified atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over the Arctic Ocean snow/ice pack during clear-sky, winter conditions is investigated using a large-eddy simulation model. Simulations of two 24-h periods are conducted while varying S between 0, 0.001 and 0.002 ms⁻¹, and the resulting quasi-equilibrium ABL structures and evolutions are examined. Simulations conducted with S = 0 yield a boundary layer that is deeper, more strongly mixed and cools more rapidly than the observations. Simulations conducted with S > 0 yield improved agreement with the observations in the ABL height, potential temperature gradients and bulk heating rates. We also demonstrate that S > 0 limits the continuous growth of the ABL observed during quasi-steady conditions, leading to the formation of a nearly steady ABL of approximately uniform depth and temperature. Subsidence reduces the magnitudes of the stresses, as well as the implied eddy-diffusivity coefficients for momentum and heat, while increasing the vertical heat fluxes considerably. Subsidence is also observed to increases the Richardson number to values in excess of unity well below the ABL top.     

‘Modelling the Arctic Boundary Layer: An Evaluation of Six Arcmip Regional-Scale Models using Data from the Sheba Project’

A primary climate change signal in the central Arctic is the melting of sea ice. This is dependent on the interplay between the atmosphere and the sea ice, which is critically dependent on the exchange of momentum, heat and moisture at the surface. In assessing the realism of climate change scenarios it is vital to know the quality by which these exchanges are modelled in climate simulations. Six state-of-the-art regional-climate models are run for one year in the western Arctic, on a common domain that encompasses the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment ice-drift track. Surface variables, surface fluxes and the vertical structure of the lower troposphere are evaluated using data from the SHEBA experiment. All the models are driven by the same lateral boundary conditions, sea-ice fraction and sea and sea-ice surface temperatures. Surface pressure, near-surface air temperature, specific humidity and wind speed agree well with observations, with a falling degree of accuracy in that order. Wind speeds have systematic biases in some models, by as much as a few metres per second. The surface radiation fluxes are also surprisingly accurate, given the complexity of the problem. The turbulent momentum flux is acceptable, on average, in most models, but the turbulent heat fluxes are, however, mostly unreliable. Their correlation with observed fluxes is, in principle, insignificant, and they accumulate over a year to values an order of magnitude larger than observed. Typical instantaneous errors are easily of the same order of magnitude as the observed net atmospheric heat flux. In the light of the sensitivity of the atmosphere–ice interaction to errors in these fluxes, the ice-melt in climate change scenarios must be viewed with considerable caution.     

Arctic sea ice decay simulated for a CO2-induced temperature rise

A large scale numerical time-dependent model of sea ice that takes into account the heat fluxes in and out of the ice, the seasonal occurrence of snow, and ice motions has been used in an experiment to determine the response of the Arctic Ocean ice pack to a warming of the atmosphere. The degree of warming specified is that expected for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide with its associated greenhouse effect, a condition that could occur before the middle of the next century. The results of three 5-year simulations with a warmer atmosphere and varied boundary conditions were: (1) that in the face of a 5 K surface atmospheric temperature increase the ice pack disappeared completely in August and September but reformed in the central Arctic Ocean in mid fall; (2) that the simulations were moderately dependent on assumptions concerning cloud cover; and (3) that even when atmospheric temperature increases of 6–9 K were combined with an order-of-magnitude increase in the upward heat flux from the ocean, the ice still reappeared in winter. It should be noted that a year-round ice-free Arctic Ocean has apparently not existed for a million years or more.Currently on leave, working for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on the World Climate Programme.The calculations for this work were carried out while both authors were at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

‘Observations and Modelling of Cold-air Advection over Arctic Sea Ice’

Aircraft observations of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over Arctic sea ice were made during non-stationary conditions of cold-air advection with a cloud edge retreating through the study region. The sea-ice concentration, roughness, and ABL stratification varied in space. In the ABL heat budget, 80% of the Eulerian change in time was explained by cold-air advection and 20% by diabatic heating. With the cloud cover and inflow potential temperature profile prescribed as a function of time, the air temperature and near-surface fluxes of heat and momentum were well simulated by the applied two-dimensional mesoscale model. Model sensitivity tests demonstrated that several factors can be active in generating unstable stratification in the ABL over the Arctic sea ice in March. In this case, the upward sensible heat flux resulted from the combined effect of clouds, leads, and cold-air advection. These three factors interacted non-linearly with each other. From the point of view of ABL temperatures, the lead effect was far less important than the cloud effect, which influenced the temperature profiles via cloud-top radiative cooling and radiative heating of the snow surface. The steady-state simulations demonstrated that under overcast skies the evolution towards a deep, well-mixed ABL may take place through the merging of two mixed layers one related to mostly shear-driven surface mixing and the other to buoyancy-driven top-down mixing due to cloud-top radiative cooling.     

All-Sky Surface Radiation and Clear-Sky Surface Energy Budgets: Summer to Freeze-Up in the Western Maritime Arctic

The 2009 ArcticNet expedition was a field campaign in the Amundsen Gulf–eastern Beaufort Sea region from mid-July to the beginning of November aboard the CCGS Amundsen that provided an opportunity to describe the all-sky surface radiation and the clear-sky surface energy budgets from summer to freeze-up in the data sparse western maritime Arctic. Because the fractional area of open water was generally larger than the fractional area of ice floes, the net radiation at the water surface controlled the radiation budget. Because the water albedo is much less than the albedo of the ice floes, the extent and duration of open water in summer is an important albedo feedback mechanism. From summer to freeze-up, the net all-sky shortwave radiation declined steadily as the solar angle lowered, while coincidently the net all-sky longwave radiation became increasingly negative. The all-sky net surface radiation switched from positive in summer to negative during the freeze-up period. From summer to freeze-up, both upward and downward turbulent heat fluxes occurred. In summer, a positive surface energy budget residual contributed to the melting of ice floes and/or to the warming of the Arctic Ocean's mixed layer. During the freeze-up period, with temperatures below approximately ?5°C, the residuals were mainly negative suggesting that heat loss from the ocean's mixed layer and heat released by the phase change of water were significant components of the energy budget's residual.     

Heat budget of the upper Arctic Ocean under a warming climate

The heat budget of the upper Arctic Ocean is examined in an ensemble of coupled climate models under idealised increasing CO₂ scenarios. All of the experiments show a strong amplification of surface air temperatures but a smaller increase in sea surface temperature than the rest of the world as heat is lost to the atmosphere as the sea-ice cover is reduced. We carry out a heat budget analysis of the Arctic Ocean in an ensemble of model runs to understand the changes that occur as the Arctic becomes ice free in summer. We find that as sea-ice retreats heat is lost from the ocean surface to the atmosphere contributing to the amplification of Arctic surface temperatures. Furthermore, heat is mixed upwards into the mixed layer as a result of increased upper ocean mixing and there is increased advection of heat into the Arctic as the ice edge retreats. Heat lost from the upper Arctic Ocean to the atmosphere is therefore replenished by mixing of warmer water from below and by increased advection of warm water from lower latitudes. The ocean is therefore able to contribute more to Arctic amplification.     

Pre-Melt Energy Budget of an Arctic Snowpack on Landfast First-Year Sea Ice

The pre-melt energy budget of a snowpack on landfast first-year sea ice at a remote site in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was analyzed. Over a 19-day period, the total heat conducted into the snowpack at the snow–sea-ice interface was the largest single energy transfer to the snowpack, while each of the turbulent heat fluxes removed comparable amounts of energy. The total energy transferred from the snowpack (∑Q?≈??7027?kJ?m^?2) should have reduced its temperature; however, the opposite occurred. The snowpack’s temperature at both the 7 and 13?cm depths increased over the pre-melt period. The total change in internal energy and latent heat of the snowpack (ΔU_snowpack)_, derived from 15-minute changes in the snowpack’s temperature over the pre-melt period, was approximately 672?kJ?m^?2. Closure of the energy budget was not achieved for either the daily or the total pre-melt period. The terms of the energy budget were determined independently; thus, the failure to close the energy budget was the result of the accumulation of errors associated with all the terms. However, for snow on first-year sea ice, the parameterization of the salinity and temperature dependence of the “specific heat” of the basal layer of the snowpack was likely the primary source of error. The snowpack plays a central role in the transfer of energy across the ocean–sea-ice–atmosphere interface, but an adequate method for modelling the evolution of snow on Arctic sea ice including the energy budget, which determines the warming rate and subsequent melt rate of the snow, has yet to be developed.     

Understanding the Surface Temperature Cold Bias in CMIP5 AGCMs over the Tibetan Plateau

The temperature biases of 28 CMIP5 AGCMs are evaluated over the Tibetan Plateau(TP) for the period 1979–2005. The results demonstrate that the majority of CMIP5 models underestimate annual and seasonal mean surface 2-m air temperatures(T_(as)) over the TP. In addition, the ensemble of the 28 AGCMs and half of the individual models underestimate annual mean skin temperatures(T_s) over the TP. The cold biases are larger in T_(as) than in T_s, and are larger over the western TP. By decomposing the T_s bias using the surface energy budget equation, we investigate the contributions to the cold surface temperature bias on the TP from various factors, including the surface albedo-induced bias, surface cloud radiative forcing, clear-sky shortwave radiation, clear-sky downward longwave radiation, surface sensible heat flux, latent heat flux,and heat storage. The results show a suite of physically interlinked processes contributing to the cold surface temperature bias.Strong negative surface albedo-induced bias associated with excessive snow cover and the surface heat fluxes are highly anticorrelated, and the cancelling out of these two terms leads to a relatively weak contribution to the cold bias. Smaller surface turbulent fluxes lead to colder lower-tropospheric temperature and lower water vapor content, which in turn cause negative clear-sky downward longwave radiation and cold bias. The results suggest that improvements in the parameterization of the area of snow cover, as well as the boundary layer, and hence surface turbulent fluxes, may help to reduce the cold bias over the TP in the models.     

A Sensitivity Study of Arctic Ice-Ocean Heat Exchange to the Three-Equation Boundary Condition Parametrization in CICE6

In this study, we perform a stand-alone sensitivity study using the Los Alamos Sea ice model version 6 (CICE6) to investigate the model sensitivity to two Ice-Ocean (IO) boundary condition approaches. One is the two-equation approach that treats the freezing temperature as a function of the ocean mixed layer (ML) salinity, using two equations to parametrize the IO heat exchanges. Another approach uses the salinity of the IO interface to define the actual freezing temperature, so an equation describing the salt flux at the IO interface is added to the two-equation approach, forming the so-called three-equation approach. We focus on the impact of the three-equation boundary condition on the IO heat exchange and associated basal melt/growth of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Compared with the two-equation simulation, our three-equation simulation shows a reduced oceanic turbulent heat flux, weakened basal melt, increased ice thickness, and reduced sea surface temperature (SST) in the Arctic. These impacts occur mainly at the ice edge regions and manifest themselves in summer. Furthermore, in August, we observed a downward turbulent heat flux from the ice to the ocean ML in two of our three-equation sensitivity runs with a constant heat transfer coefficient (0.006), which caused heat divergence and congelation at the ice bottom. Additionally, the influence of different combinations of heat/salt transfer coefficients and thermal conductivity in the three-equation approach on the model simulated results is assessed. The results presented in this study can provide insight into sea ice model sensitivity to the three-equation IO boundary condition for coupling the CICE6 to climate models.     

Weak vertical diffusion allows maintenance of cold halocline in the central Arctic

In spring preceding the record minimum summer ice cover detailed microstructure measurements were made from drifting pack ice in the Arctic Ocean, 110 km from the North Pole. Profiles of hydrography, shear, and temperature microstructure collected in the upper water column covering the core of the Atlantic Water are analyzed to determine the diapycnal eddy diffusivity, the eddy diffusivity for heat, and the turbulent flux of heat. Turbulence in the bulk of the cold halocline layer was not strong enough to generate significant buoyancy flux and mixing. Resulting turbulent heat flux across the upper cold halocline was not significantly different than zero. The results show that the low levels of eddy diffusivity in the upper cold halocline lead to small vertical turbulent transport of heat, thereby allowing the maintenance of the cold halocline in the central Arctic.     

Mixed-phase clouds cause climate model biases in Arctic wintertime temperature inversions

Temperature inversions are a common feature of the Arctic wintertime boundary layer. They have important impacts on both radiative and turbulent heat fluxes and partly determine local climate-change feedbacks. Understanding the spread in inversion strength modelled by current global climate models is therefore an important step in better understanding Arctic climate and its present and future changes. Here, we show how the formation of Arctic air masses leads to the emergence of a cloudy and a clear state of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water is present, little to no surface radiative cooling occurs and inversions are elevated and relatively weak, whereas surface radiative cooling leads to strong surface-based temperature inversions in the clear state. Comparing model output to observations, we find that most climate models lack a realistic representation of the cloudy state. An idealised single-column model experiment of the formation of Arctic air reveals that this bias is linked to inadequate mixed-phase cloud microphysics, whereas turbulent and conductive heat fluxes control the strength of inversions within the clear state.     

Stable Boundary-Layer Scaling Regimes: The Sheba Data

Turbulent and mean meteorological data collected at five levels on a 20-m tower over the Arctic pack ice during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean experiment (SHEBA) are analyzed to examine different regimes of the stable boundary layer (SBL). Eleven months of measurements during SHEBA cover a wide range of stability conditions, from the weakly unstable regime to very stable stratification. Scaling arguments and our analysis show that the SBL can be classified into four major regimes: (i) surface-layer scaling regime (weakly stable case), (ii) transition regime, (iii) turbulent Ekman layer, and (iv) intermittently turbulent Ekman layer (supercritical stable regime). These four regimes may be considered as the basic states of the traditional SBL. Sometimes these regimes, especially the last two, can be markedly perturbed by gravity waves, detached elevated turbulence (‘upside down SBL’), and inertial oscillations. Traditional Monin–Obukhov similarity theory works well in the weakly stable regime. In the transition regime, Businger–Dyer formulations work if scaling variables are re-defined in terms of local fluxes, although stability function estimates expressed in these terms include more scatter compared to the surface-layer scaling. As stability increases, the near-surface turbulence is affected by the turning effects of the Coriolis force (the turbulent Ekman layer). In this regime, the surface layer, where the turbulence is continuous, may be very shallow (< 5 m). Turbulent transfer near the critical Richardson number is characterized by small but still significant heat flux and negligible stress. The supercritical stable regime, where the Richardson number exceeds a critical value, is associated with collapsed turbulence and the strong influence of the earth’s rotation even near the surface. In the limit of very strong stability, the stress is no longer a primary scaling parameter.     

Arctic climate change in 21st century CMIP5 simulations with EC-Earth

The Arctic climate change is analyzed in an ensemble of future projection simulations performed with the global coupled climate model EC-Earth2.3. EC-Earth simulates the twentieth century Arctic climate relatively well but the Arctic is about 2 K too cold and the sea ice thickness and extent are overestimated. In the twenty-first century, the results show a continuation and strengthening of the Arctic trends observed over the recent decades, which leads to a dramatically changed Arctic climate, especially in the high emission scenario RCP8.5. The annually averaged Arctic mean near-surface temperature increases by 12 K in RCP8.5, with largest warming in the Barents Sea region. The warming is most pronounced in winter and autumn and in the lower atmosphere. The Arctic winter temperature inversion is reduced in all scenarios and disappears in RCP8.5. The Arctic becomes ice free in September in all RCP8.5 simulations after a rapid reduction event without recovery around year 2060. Taking into account the overestimation of ice in the twentieth century, our model results indicate a likely ice-free Arctic in September around 2040. Sea ice reductions are most pronounced in the Barents Sea in all RCPs, which lead to the most dramatic changes in this region. Here, surface heat fluxes are strongly enhanced and the cloudiness is substantially decreased. The meridional heat flux into the Arctic is reduced in the atmosphere but increases in the ocean. This oceanic increase is dominated by an enhanced heat flux into the Barents Sea, which strongly contributes to the large sea ice reduction and surface-air warming in this region. Increased precipitation and river runoff lead to more freshwater input into the Arctic Ocean. However, most of the additional freshwater is stored in the Arctic Ocean while the total Arctic freshwater export only slightly increases.     

Modelling the influence of snow accumulation and snow-ice formation on the seasonal cycle of the Antarctic sea-ice cover

 Recent observational and numerical studies of the maritime snow cover in the Antarctic suggest that snow on top of sea ice plays a major role in shaping the seasonal growth and decay of the ice pack in the Southern Ocean. Here, we make a quantitative assessment of the importance of snow accumulation in controlling the seasonal cycle of the ice cover with a coupled snow–sea-ice–upper-ocean model. The model takes into account snow and ice sublimation and snow deposition by condensation. A parametrisation of the formation of snow ice (ice resulting from the freezing of a mixture of snow and seawater produced by flooding of the ice floes) is also included. Experiments on the sensitivity of the snow–sea-ice system to variations in the sublimation/condensation rate, the precipitation rate, and the amount of snowfall transported by the wind into leads are discussed. Although we focus on the model response in the Southern Hemisphere, results for the Arctic are also discussed in some cases to highlight the relative importance of the processes under study in both hemispheres. It is found that the snow loss by sublimation can account for the removal of 0.45 m of snow per year in the Antarctic and that this loss significantly affects the total volume of snow ice. A precipitation decrease of 50% is conducive to large reductions in the Antarctic snow and snow-ice volumes, but it leads only to an 8% decrease in the annual mean ice volume. The Southern Ocean ice pack is more sensitive to increases in precipitation. For precipitation rates 1.5 times larger than the control ones, the annual mean snow, ice, and snow-ice volumes augment by 30, 20, and 180%, respectively. It is also found that the transfer to the ocean of as much as 50% of the precipitating snow as a result of wind transport has almost negligible effects on the total ice volume. All the experiments exhibit a marked geographical contrast in the ice-cover response, with a much larger sensitivity in the western sector of the Southern Ocean than in the eastern sector. Our results suggest that snow-related processes are of secondary importance for determining the sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice to environmental changes but that these processes could have an important part to play in the response of the Antarctic sea-ice cover to future, or current, climatic changes. Received: 30 June 1997/Accepted: 2 October 1998     

The Summer Arctic Boundary Layer during the Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001 (AOE-2001)

Boundary-layer measurements made from the Swedish icebreaker Oden during the Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001 (AOE-2001) are analysed. They refer mainly to ice drift in the central Arctic during the period 2–21 August 2001. On board Oden a remote sensing array with a wind profiler, cloud radar and a scanning microwave radiometer, and a regular weather station operated continuously; soundings were also released during research stations. Turbulence and profile measurements on an 18-m mast were deployed on the ice, along with two sodar systems, a microbarograph array and a tethered sounding system. Surface flux and meteorological stations were also deployed on nearby ice floes. There is a clear diurnal cycle in radiation and also in wind speed, cloud base and visibility. It is absent in temperature and humidity, probably due to the very strong control by melting/ freezing ice and snow. In the advection of warm air, latent heat of melting maintains the surface temperature at 0 °C, while with a negative energy balance the latent heat of freezing of the salty ocean water acts to maintain the surface temperature > −2 °C. The constant presence of water at the surface maintains a relative humidity close to 100%, and this is also often facilitated by an increasing specific humidity through the capping inversion, making entrainment a moisture source. This ensures cloudy conditions, with low cloud and fog prevailing most of the time. Intrusions of warm and moist air from beyond the ice edge are frequent, but the local Arctic boundary layer remains at a relatively constant temperature, and is shallow and well mixed with strong capping inversions. Power spectra of surface-layer wind speed sometimes show large variance at low frequency. A scanning radiometer provides a monitoring of the vertical thermal structure with a spatial and temporal resolution not seen before in the Arctic. There are often two inversions, an elevated main inversion and a weak surface inversion, and occasionally additional inversions occur. Enhanced entrainment across the main inversion appears to occur during frontal passages. Variance of the scanning radiometer temperatures occurs in large pulses rather than varying smoothly, and the height to the maximum variance appears to be a reasonable proxy for the boundary-layer depth.     

Progress in understanding of land surface/atmosphere exchanges at high latitudes

Summary  This paper summarises some of the key results from two European field programmes, WINTEX and LAPP, undertaken in the Boreal/Arctic regions in 1996–98. Both programmes have illustrated the very important role that snow plays within these areas, not only in the determination of energy, water and carbon fluxes in the winter, but also in controlling the length of the summer active season, and hence the overall carbon budget. These studies make a considerable advance in our knowledge of the fluxes from snow-covered landscape and the interactions between snow and vegetation. Also some of the first measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes (carbon dioxide and methane) are reported for the European arctic and sub-arctic. The measurements show a considerable variability across the arctic, with very high instantaneous values from sub-arctic birch and fen areas and extremely low fluxes reported from the polar desert in the high arctic. The overall annual budgets are everywhere limited by the very short active season in these regions. The heat flux over a high latitude boreal forest during late winter was found to be high. At low solar angles the forest shades most of the snow surface, therefore an important part of the radiation never reaches the snow surface but is absorbed by the forest. This indicates that in areas with sparse vegetation and low solar angles, absorption of direct solar radiation is due to an apparent vegetation cover, which is much greater than the actual one. The first steps are taken in using these measurements to improve models, both point soil/vegetation/atmosphere transfer schemes and 3D meteorogical models. The results are encouraging; increasing the realism progressively improves the representation of the fluxes. A start is made in developing landscape, or catchment scale models. There seems to be some hope that comparatively simple relationships between evaporation and photosynthesis and leaf area may be sufficiently robust to allow the use of remotely sensed images to investigate the areally averaged exchanges. It is suspected that high latitude regions will experience considerable climatic and environmental change in the coming decades. A well found prediction of how these regions will respond requires a comprehensive knowledge of how vegetation will respond and how the changed vegetation will interact with the snow cover and the atmosphere. The studies from the LAPP and WINTEX programmes presented in this volume are an important contribution to this understanding and provide a useful foundation for future research. Received March 6, 2001     

Sensitivity of Arctic warming to sea surface temperature distribution over melted sea-ice region in atmospheric general circulation model experiments

Substantial reduction in Arctic sea ice in recent decades has intensified air-sea interaction over the Arctic Ocean and has altered atmospheric states in the Arctic and surrounding high-latitude regions. This study has found that the atmospheric responses related to Arctic sea-ice melt in the cold season (October–March) depend on sea-ice fraction and are very sensitive to in situ sea surface temperature (SST) from a series of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations in which multiple combinations of SSTs and sea-ice concentrations are prescribed in the Arctic Ocean. It has been found that the amplitude of surface warming over the melted sea-ice region is controlled by concurrent in situ SST even if these simulations are forced by the same sea-ice concentration. Much of the sensitivity of surface warming to in situ SST are related with large changes in surface heat fluxes such as the outgoing long-wave flux in early winter (October–December) and the sensible and latent heat fluxes for the entire cold season. Vertical extension of surface warming and moistening is sensitive to these changes as well; the associated condensational heating modulates a static stability in the lower troposphere. This study also indicates that changes in SST fields in AGCM simulations must be implemented with extra care, especially in the melted sea-ice region in the Arctic. The statistical method introduced in this study for adjusting SSTs in conjunction with a given sea-ice change can help to model the atmospheric response to sea-ice loss more accurately.     

Impact of Different Aerosols on the Evolution of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The present work analyzes the effect of aerosols on the evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over Shangdianzi in Beijing.A one-dimensional ABL model and a radiative transfer scheme are incorporated to develop the structure of the ABL.The diurnal variation of the atmospheric radiative budget,atmospheric heating rate,sensible and latent heat fluxes,surface and the 2 m air temperatures as well as the ABL height,and its perturbations due to the aerosols with different single-scattering albedo (SSA) are studied by comparing the aerosol-laden atmosphere to the clean atmosphere.The results show that the absorbing aerosols cause less reduction in surface evaporation relative to that by scatting aerosols,and both surface temperature and 2 m temperature decrease from the clean atmosphere to the aerosol-laden atmosphere.The greater the aerosol absorption,the more stable the surface layer.After 12:00 am,the 2 m temperature increases for strong absorption aerosols.In the meantime,there is a slight decrease in the 2 m temperature for purely scattering aerosols due to radiative cooling.The purely scattering aerosols decrease the ABL temperature and enhance the capping inversion,further reducing the ABL height.     

C2-C7 Hydrocarbon Concentrations in Arctic Snowpack Interstitial Air: Potential Presence of Active Br within the Snowpack

Samples of interstitial air from within the snow pack on an ice floe on the Arctic Ocean were collected during the April 1994 Polar Sunrise Experiment. The concentrations of C₂-C₇ hydrocarbons are reported for the first time in the snow pack interstitial air. Alkane concentrations tended to be higher than concentrations in free air samples above the snow but very similar to winter measurements at various locations in the Arctic archipelago. However, ethyne concentrations in both interstitial and free air were highly correlated with ozone mixing ratios, consistent with previous demonstrations of the effects of Br atom chemistry. The analysis of total bromine within the snow pack indicate an enrichment in total Br at the interface layer between snow and free troposphere. The mixing ratios of some brominated compounds, such as CHBr₃ and CHBr₂Cl, are found to be higher in this top layer of snow relative to the boundary layer. Results were inconclusive due to the limited number of samples, but suggest the possible presence of active bromine in the snow pack and also that some differences exist between chemical reactions occurring in interstitial air compared to air in the boundary layer.     

Declining summer snowfall in the Arctic: causes, impacts and feedbacks

Recent changes in the Arctic hydrological cycle are explored using in situ observations and an improved atmospheric reanalysis data set, ERA-Interim. We document a pronounced decline in summer snowfall over the Arctic Ocean and Canadian Archipelago. The snowfall decline is diagnosed as being almost entirely caused by changes in precipitation form (snow turning to rain) with very little influence of decreases in total precipitation. The proportion of precipitation falling as snow has decreased as a result of lower-atmospheric warming. Statistically, over 99% of the summer snowfall decline is linked to Arctic warming over the past two decades. Based on the reanalysis snowfall data over the ice-covered Arctic Ocean, we derive an estimate for the amount of snow-covered ice. It is estimated that the area of snow-covered ice, and the proportion of sea ice covered by snow, have decreased significantly. We perform a series of sensitivity experiments in which inter-annual changes in snow-covered ice are either unaccounted for, or are parameterized. In the parameterized case, the loss of snow-on-ice results in a substantial decrease in the surface albedo over the Arctic Ocean, that is of comparable magnitude to the decrease in albedo due to the decline in sea ice cover. Accordingly, the solar input to the Arctic Ocean is increased, causing additional surface ice melt. We conclude that the decline in summer snowfall has likely contributed to the thinning of sea ice over recent decades. The results presented provide support for the existence of a positive feedback in association with warming-induced reductions in summer snowfall.