Radiation and Cloud Observations on a High Arctic plateau Ice Cap
Hourly measurements of incoming short-wave and long-wave radiation, surface albedo, and net radiation were made on and around a plateau ice cap on north-eastern Ellesmere Island during the summers of 1982 and 1983. These data were stratified by cloud type and amount. All cloud types increased incomi...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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SelectedWorks
1987
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| Online Access: | https://works.bepress.com/raymond_bradley/48 https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1095&context=raymond_bradley |
| Summary: | Hourly measurements of incoming short-wave and long-wave radiation, surface albedo, and net radiation were made on and around a plateau ice cap on north-eastern Ellesmere Island during the summers of 1982 and 1983. These data were stratified by cloud type and amount. All cloud types increased incoming long-wave radiation, especially low dense clouds, fog, and clouds associated with snowfall. Relative transmission of incoming short-wave radiation, expressed as a percentage of clear-sky radiation receipts, was high for all cloud types compared to clouds at lower latitudes. With high surface albedo (~0.75), net radiation was strongly and positively correlated with net long-wave radiation but showed little relationship to net short-wave radiation. By contrast, with low surface albedo «(0.20) net radiation was negatively correlated with net long-wave radiation but positively correlated with net shortwave radiation. Under high-albedo conditions, an increase in cloudiness led to higher values of net radiation but under low-albedo conditions net radiation decreased as cloud cover increased. Survival of a snow cover would seem to be favoured if the seasonal decline in albedo is accompanied by a corresponding increase in cloudiness. |
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