• Main Author: Ola Persson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Persson
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.560.5921; http://www.epic.noaa.gov/SEARCH/obs/workshop/reports/persson.pdf

Understanding changes in the mass balance of the Arctic pack ice is a key component of the Study for Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), and the surface energy budget (SEB) determines the mass balance of a particular floe. A simple definition of the SEB is: Ftot = Q *- Hs- Hl + C, (1) where Ftot is the total energy flux into the surface slab, Q * the net radiative flux, Hs the turbulent sensible heat flux, Hl the turbulent latent heat flux, and C the conductive flux. To understand the causes for the changes in the mass balance, each of the components of the SEB needs to be monitored in addition to the mass balance itself. The following questions are important for deciding on how to monitor the SEB: 1) what are the major contributors to changes in Ftot, 2) how accurately do we need to know each term, and 3) how accurately can we measure each term with a) surface measurements and b) satellite measurements? Some of the analyses from SHEBA (Persson et al 2002) and satellite studies by Key et al (1997) and others can be used to try to answer these questions. The SHEBA measurements show that Ftot can undergo changes of 60 Wm-2 or greater in a matter of a few hours, and that each of the terms on the right-hand-side (rhs) of (1) can have