Collaborative Research: Documenting, Understanding, and Predicting the Aggregate Scale Surface Radiation Flux for SHEBA

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ABSTRACT OPP-9703127 CURRY, JUDITH UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO This research project is a key component of a large, coordinated, multi-investigator program, Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Ocean. The research program will be conducted for 14 months from a ship frozen into the ice pack. These investigators will measure atmospheric conditions of the permanent ice cap of the Arctic Ocean from a scientifically instrumented C-130 aircraft during the Spring and Fall in conjunction with a NASA research program jointly conducted at the site. These researchers will determine the flux of incoming heat radiating onto the ice floe as a function of changing cloud conditions. Their results will help determine how atmospheric heating is coupled to adsorption of heat by the ice. These measurements are critical to understanding how heat is reflected or absorbed by the ice as it melts in the summer and thickens in the winter in response to seasonal variations in climate. The aircraft measurement program makes an essential contribution to the SHEBA team of researchers who will measure atmospheric variables with a large array of instruments on the ice floe and aircraft flying above as well as ice and ocean property measurements made on and below the ice floe. The combined set of measurements in SHEBA will allow refinement of climate models for the Arctic region. Those improved models will lead to better predictions of the climate and the permanence of the Arctic ice cap under a proposed global warming that could occur if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are increased above present levels.