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Radiation Exchange Between Stratus Clouds and Polar Marine Surfaces

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Abstract

The radiative energy exchange between arctic sea-ice and stratiform clouds is studied by means of aircraft measurements and a two-stream radiation transfer model. The data have been obtained by flights of two identically instrumented aircraft during the Radiation and Eddy Flux Experiments REFLEX I in autumn 1991 and REFLEX II in winter 1993 over the arctic marginal ice zone of Fram Strait. The instrumental equipment comprised Eppley pyranometers and pyrgeometers, which measure the solar and terrestrial upwelling and downwelling hemispheric radiation flux densities, and a line-scan-camera on one aircraft to monitor the surface structure of the sea-ice. An empirical parametrization of the albedo of partly ice-covered ocean surfaces is obtained from the data, which describes the albedo increasing linearly with the concentration of the snow-covered sea-ice and with the cosine of the sun zenith angle at sun elevations below 10°. Cloud optical parameters, such as single scattering albedo, asymmetry factor and shortwave and longwave height-dependent extinction coefficient are determined by adjusting modeled radiation flux densities to observations. We found significant influence of the multiple reflection of shortwave radiation between the ice surface and the cloud base on the radiation regime. Consistent with the data, a radiation transfer model shows that stratus clouds of 400 m thickness with common cloud parameters may double the global radiation at the surface of sea-ice compared to open water values. The total cloud-surface-albedo under these circumstances is 30% larger over sea-ice than over water. Parametrizations of the global and reflected radiation above and below stratus clouds are proposed on the basis of the measurements and modeling. The upwelling and downwelling longwave emission of stratus clouds with thicknesses of more than 500 m can be satisfactorily estimated by Stefan's law with an emissivity of nearly 1 and when the maximum air temperature within the cloud is used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institut for Polar and Marine Research, 27586, Bremerhaven, Germany

    D. Freese & Ch. Kottmeier

  2. Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Bremen, 28334, Bremen

    Ch. Kottmeier

  3. Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Universität Karlsruhe, 76128, Karlsruhe

    Ch. Kottmeier

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  1. D. Freese
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  2. Ch. Kottmeier
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Freese, D., Kottmeier, C. Radiation Exchange Between Stratus Clouds and Polar Marine Surfaces. Boundary-Layer Meteorology 87, 331–356 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1000992701127

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