RECONSTRUCTION OF HIGH ARCTIC WINTER SURFACE ENERGY FLUXES

• Main Author: Pike-Thackray, Colin
• Other Authors: Department of Physics & Atmospheric Science, Master of Science, n/a, Randall Martin, Glen Lesins, Jeffrey Pierce, Tom Duck, Not Applicable
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Arctic; atmosphere; clouds; radiation; surface energy balance; surface fluxes; Climate change
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10222/14167

Throughout the late 20th and early 21st century, the global temperature has been on the rise, a process that has been accelerated in the Arctic. The Arctic surface temperatures have risen at a factor of 3 greater rate than the global average, leading to the term Arctic Amplification of climate change. In this study, the enhanced warming of the Arctic, and the enhancement at the Arctic surface in comparison to the warming of the atmosphere aloft, is investigated through a reconstruction of the past surface energy balance by a model driven by downwelling irradiance reconstructed using radiosonde profiles and the radiative transfer code SBDART. The downwelling irradiance is shown to be increasing over the time-period of 1994-2009, and the sources of this increase are diagnosed. The time-evolution of the surface flux terms are discussed, and the sensitivity of the surface temperature to changes in atmospheric temperature is investigated.