The Arctic Radiation Balance

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9321547 Key This three-year program will quantify the individual energy streams that make up the arctic surface radiation budget, and will relate the observed radiation distribution to synoptic-scale wind, pressure, and moisture patterns. It will be the first effort to produce a comprehensive radiation climatology for the Arctic. The arctic surface energy budget, particularly that of the Arctic Ocean, has been identified as a major component of the global climate system that is potentially sensitive to climate-scale perturbations due to feedback mechanisms involving the surface albedo, the stability of the lower troposphere, and water vapor transport. The project includes four main tasks: (1) The analysis of solar and long-wave radiation data obtained directly at manned observing sites in the arctic. (2) The calculation of radiative fluxes at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere using a satellite-based cloud data product from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). (3) For selected months, the ISCCP-derived fluxes will be compared to the corresponding synoptic regime, and (4) a study to assess the effects of the sampling and analysis procedure on the radiation statistics and their temporal variability will be undertaken. ***