Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds
Abstract Leads are a key feature of the Arctic ice pack during the winter owing to their substantial contribution to the surface energy balance. According to the present understanding, enhanced heat and moisture fluxes from high lead concentrations tend to produce more boundary layer clouds. However...
Published in: | Nature Communications |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5 |
id |
crspringernat:10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crspringernat:10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 2023-05-15T14:55:19+02:00 Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds Li, Xia Krueger, Steven K. Strong, Courtenay Mace, Gerald G. Benson, Sally National Aeronautics and Space Administration 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Nature Communications volume 11, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 2021-11-02T16:09:31Z Abstract Leads are a key feature of the Arctic ice pack during the winter owing to their substantial contribution to the surface energy balance. According to the present understanding, enhanced heat and moisture fluxes from high lead concentrations tend to produce more boundary layer clouds. However, described here in our composite analyses of diverse surface- and satellite-based observations, we find that abundant boundary layer clouds are associated with low lead flux periods, while fewer boundary layer clouds are observed for high lead flux periods. Motivated by these counterintuitive results, we conducted three-dimensional cloud-resolving simulations to investigate the underlying physics. We find that newly frozen leads with large sensible heat flux but low latent heat flux tend to dissipate low clouds. This finding indicates that the observed high lead fractions likely consist of mostly newly frozen leads that reduce any pre-existing low-level cloudiness, which in turn decreases downwelling infrared flux and accelerates the freezing of sea ice. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic ice pack Sea ice Springer Nature (via Crossref) Arctic Midwinter ENVELOPE(139.931,139.931,-66.690,-66.690) Nature Communications 11 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
spellingShingle |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry Li, Xia Krueger, Steven K. Strong, Courtenay Mace, Gerald G. Benson, Sally Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
topic_facet |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
description |
Abstract Leads are a key feature of the Arctic ice pack during the winter owing to their substantial contribution to the surface energy balance. According to the present understanding, enhanced heat and moisture fluxes from high lead concentrations tend to produce more boundary layer clouds. However, described here in our composite analyses of diverse surface- and satellite-based observations, we find that abundant boundary layer clouds are associated with low lead flux periods, while fewer boundary layer clouds are observed for high lead flux periods. Motivated by these counterintuitive results, we conducted three-dimensional cloud-resolving simulations to investigate the underlying physics. We find that newly frozen leads with large sensible heat flux but low latent heat flux tend to dissipate low clouds. This finding indicates that the observed high lead fractions likely consist of mostly newly frozen leads that reduce any pre-existing low-level cloudiness, which in turn decreases downwelling infrared flux and accelerates the freezing of sea ice. |
author2 |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Li, Xia Krueger, Steven K. Strong, Courtenay Mace, Gerald G. Benson, Sally |
author_facet |
Li, Xia Krueger, Steven K. Strong, Courtenay Mace, Gerald G. Benson, Sally |
author_sort |
Li, Xia |
title |
Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
title_short |
Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
title_full |
Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
title_fullStr |
Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Midwinter Arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
title_sort |
midwinter arctic leads form and dissipate low clouds |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14074-5 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(139.931,139.931,-66.690,-66.690) |
geographic |
Arctic Midwinter |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Midwinter |
genre |
Arctic ice pack Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic ice pack Sea ice |
op_source |
Nature Communications volume 11, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14074-5 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766327108286545920 |