Reanalyses' Performance of Boundary Layer, Cloud, and Surface Energy Budget Variables over Arctic Pack Ice
Earth's climate has been changing rapidly, particularly in the Arctic; however, the Arctic is poorly understood due to spatially and temporally sparse observations. Arctic conditions prove difficult to obtain good quality, long-duration field measurements. Current studies utilize model-observat...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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CU Scholar
2010
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| Online Access: | https://scholar.colorado.edu/atoc_gradetds/3 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=atoc_gradetds |
| Summary: | Earth's climate has been changing rapidly, particularly in the Arctic; however, the Arctic is poorly understood due to spatially and temporally sparse observations. Arctic conditions prove difficult to obtain good quality, long-duration field measurements. Current studies utilize model-observation hybrid datasets (i.e., reanalyses); hence, the accuracy of processes represented in these datasets is important. In this study, meteorological parameters, turbulent fluxes, cloud properties, radiative fluxes, and the surface energy budget from ERA-40, ERA-Interim, NCEP/DOE, and JRA-25 reanalyses are compared to SHEBA observations. Six-hourly reanalyses data were interpolated to the location of the multiyear ice floe and combined, along with observations, into seven-day running means. These were used to understand observation-reanalysis comparisons of energy flux relationships between clouds and sea-ice. All reanalyses demonstrate compensating errors in turbulent and radiative fluxes, yielding negative mean biases for the surface energy balance. These underestimations (surface energy under-absorption) represent too much sea-ice growth compared to reality. |
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