Surface Heat Budget of the North Water Polynya

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The proposed project is a component of the international North Water Polynya Study, which involves research cruises to the north of Baffin Bay on the Canadian ice-breaker C.C.G.S. Louis S. St. Laurent, in 1997 (summer) and 1998 (spring-summer). This project is to measure the surface heat budget of the polynya. Specific aims are to determine: a) surface heat budget of NOW polynya, and assess its "latent" versus "sensible" character; b) cloud radiative forcing as a function of cloud-cover, cloud type, ice-cover, ice-type and solar zenith angle; c) clear sky radiative forcing as a function of water vapor, aerosols and solar zenith angle; d) turbulent exchange coefficients for heat and moisture exchanges in open water and vicinity of ice cover; dependences of these coefficients on conditions in the marine boundary layer; e) skin temperature of ocean and ice, and; f) influence of near-surface, sea-temperature gradients on air-sea fluxes of heat, moisture and gases. These goals will be achieved by using high quality instrumentation, including a self-calibrating infrared interferometric spectroradiometer to measure spectra of radiation emitted by the sky, clouds, the ocean surface and ice cover. By making measurements in the widest range of ice cover (from total ice cover to ice-free conditions), this project is complimentary to the much larger SHEBA and ARM programs.