Some Instances of Unstable Surface Temperature Conditions During an Arctic Winter

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Robinson, Elmer
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1955
• Subjects: Animal distribution; Animal migration; Animal population; Animal tagging; Arctic char; Arctic cod; Biology; Crustacea; Economic feasibility; Electrical properties; Fisheries; Fresh-water ecology; Greenland shark; Hydrography; Lakes; Measurement; Meteorology; Oceanography; Oxygen; Plankton; Seals (Animals); Serials; Temperature; Walruses; Water pH; Ungava; Baie d'; Québec; Hudson Strait; Nunavut/Québec; Frobisher Bay; Nunavut; Cumberland Sound; Hudson Bay; Foxe Channel; Qeqertarsuaq region; Greenland; Arctic regions; Arctic; Eielson; Fairbanks; Hudson; Qeqertarsuaq; Alaska; walrus*
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/66863

Unstable conditions (in which air temperature decreases with increasing height at more than 1 C per 100 m) were recorded (to height of 30 m) at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, during Jan.-Feb. 1954, as part of Alaska ice fog investigations. Weather conditions producing surface instability are (in order of importance in the Arctic): periods of strong insolation when snow surface is in bright sun; periods of heavy overcast with an over-riding warm air mass; periods of ice fog. Observations of each condition are discussed; also frequencies at which various lapse rate conditions occurred at low levels in Jan.-Feb. Instability due to ice fog is of minor importance in arctic climatology generally, as ice fog and its associated lapse rates are restricted to urban areas.