The Energy and Mass Balance of Coastal Ice Covers in Northern Alaska

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Significant change has been observed in sea-ice conditions along the northern coast of Alaska. These changes could represent alterations in the proportion of sunlight reaching the surface, in the quality and quantity of back radiation into the atmosphere from the surface, or in changes in heat content of land and coastal seas. To provide basic information about the radiation inputs, losses, and heat fluxes, the proposed research would establish 5 sites near Barrow Alaska for detailed monitoring of solar and atmospheric heat fluxes as experienced by snow, sea-ice, near-surface waters, and land. The five sites would include a tundra site, a lake site, a coastal lagoon, and two coastal ocean sites. The goal would be to establish the local heat budgets, seasonal timing of key thermal events (snow melt, sea-ice melt, freezing onset, etc), and feedback mechanisms. The approach would be to use moorings (lake and coastal sites) or permanent stations (tundra site) to obtained detailed information in time series, transect line sampling on frequent useful intervals to obtain spatial averages and variability, and aircraft sampling and satellite data to evaluate larger scale conditions in the vicinity of Barrow.