RADIATION AND CLOUD OBSERVATIONS ON

• Main Authors: A High, Arctic Plateau, Ice Cap
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ellesmere Island; Ice cap
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.634.5922; http://www.igsoc.org/journal/33/114/igs_journal_vol33_issue114_pg162-168.pdf

ABSTRACT. Hourly measurements of incoming short-wave and long-wave radiation, surface albedo, and net radiation were made on and around a plateau ice cap on north- eastern Ellesmere Island during the summers of 1982 and 1983. These data were stratified by cloud type and amount. AU cloud types increased incoming long-wave radiation, especially low dense clouds, fog, and clouds associated with snowfall. Relative transmission of incoming short-wave radiation, expressed as a percentage of clear-sky radiation receipts, was high for all cloud types compared to clouds at lower latitudes. With high surface albedo (~0.75), net radiation was strongly and positively correlated with net long- wave radiation but showed little relationship to net short- wave radiation. By contrast, with low surface albedo ('0.20) net radiation was negatively correlated with net long-wave radiation but positively correlated with net short-wave radiation. Under high-albedo conditions, an increase in cloudiness led to higher values of net radiation but under low-albedo conditions net radiation decreased as cloud cover increased. Survival of a snow cover would seem to be favoured if the seasonal decline in albedo is accompanied by a corresponding increase in cloudiness.