COMBLE-Isotopic Links to Atmospheric Water’s Sources (ISLAS) Snow Sampling 2020 Field Campaign Report

• Main Authors: Sodemann, Harald, Dekhtyareva, Alena, Seidl, Andrew, Johannessen, Aina
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Longyearbyen; Norway; Tromsø; Bergen; Andenes; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1721761; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1721761; https://doi.org/10.2172/1721761

Within the European Research Council (ERC)-funded project entitled Isotopic Links to Atmospheric Water’s Sources (ISLAS), researchers from the University of Bergen, Norway, used the stable isotope composition of atmospheric water vapor and precipitation to obtain information about the sources and transport processes of water vapor within arctic weather systems. In particular, during cold-air outbreak conditions, evaporation and precipitation occur in close proximity within the study area. With evaporation studied at a single location (Ny-Ålesund), ISLAS researchers wanted to be able to sample the resulting precipitation at several downstream locations. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) site was one of those locations, included in an entire network of precipitation sampling stations reaching from Ny-Ålesund, where water vapor isotope measurements are conducted near the surface, to Longyearbyen, Tromsø, Andenes, Ålesund, and Bergen. Daily precipitation samples, enhanced by more frequent sampling during intense operational periods (IOPs), were conducted during four weeks from 20 February to 20 March 2020. The contribution from the ARM mobile facility (AMF) observatory, deployed at ANX (Andenes, Norway) during COMBLE, was valuable to understand the spatial coherence of water isotope signals from arctic and extratropical weather systems.