Shortwave and longwave components of the surface radiation budget measured at the Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory, Northern Greenland

• Published in: Earth System Science Data
• Main Authors: Meloni, Daniela, Calì Quaglia, Filippo, Ciardini, Virginia, Bernardino, Annalisa, Iorio, Tatiana, Iaccarino, Antonio, Muscari, Giovanni, Pace, Giandomenico, Scarchilli, Claudio, Sarra, Alcide
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Usi; albedo; Thule
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-543-2024; https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/543/2024/

The Arctic climate is influenced by the interaction of shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation with the atmosphere and the surface. The comprehensive evolution of the Surface Radiative Fluxes (SRF) on different time scales is of paramount importance to understanding the complex mechanisms governing the Arctic climate. However, only a few sites located in the Arctic region provide long-term time series of SRF allowing for capturing of the seasonality of atmospheric and surface parameters and for carrying out validation of satellite products and/or reanalyses. This paper presents the daily and monthly SRF record collected at the Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO, 76.5 ∘ N, 68.8 ∘ W), in North-Western Greenland. The downwelling components of the SW (DSI) and the LW (DLI) irradiances have been measured at THAAO since 2009, whereas the collection of the upwelling SW (USI) and LW (ULI) irradiance was started in 2016, together with additional measurements, such as meteorological parameters and column water vapour. The datasets of DSI (Meloni et al., 2022a; https://doi.org/10.13127/thaao/dsi ), USI (Meloni et al., 2022b; https://doi.org/10.13127/thaao/usi ), DLI (Meloni et al., 2022c; https://doi.org/10.13127/thaao/dli ), ULI (Meloni et al., 2022d; https://doi.org/10.13127/thaao/uli ), and near-surface air temperature (Muscari et al., 2018; https://doi.org/10.13127/thaao/met ), can be accessed through the THAAO web site ( https://www.thuleatmos-it.it/data , last access: 16 January 2024). The DSI is absent (solar zenith angle ≥90 ∘ ) from 29 October to 13 February, assuming maxima in June (monthly mean of 277.0 Wm −2 ), when it is about half of the total incoming irradiance. The USI maximum occurs in May (132.4 Wm −2 ) owing to the combination of moderately high DSI values and high albedo. The shortwave surface albedo (A) assumes an average of 0.16 during summer, when the surface is free of snow. Differently, during months of snow-covered surface, when solar radiation allows A to be estimated, its ...