Publication Date:
2024-04-23
Description:
With the Arctic rapidly changing, the needs to observe, understand, and model the changes are essential. To
support these needs, an annual cycle of observations of atmospheric properties, processes, and interactions
were made while drifting with the sea ice across the central Arctic during the Multidisciplinary drifting
Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition from October 2019 to September 2020.
An international team designed and implemented the comprehensive program to document and characterize all
aspects of the Arctic atmospheric system in unprecedented detail, using a variety of approaches, and across
multiple scales. These measurements were coordinated with other observational teams to explore cross-
cutting and coupled interactions with the Arctic Ocean, sea ice, and ecosystem through a variety of
physical and biogeochemical processes. This overview outlines the breadth and complexity of the
atmospheric research program, which was organized into 4 subgroups: atmospheric state, clouds and
precipitation, gases and aerosols, and energy budgets. Atmospheric variability over the annual cycle
revealed important influences from a persistent large-scale winter circulation pattern, leading to some
storms with pressure and winds that were outside the interquartile range of past conditions suggested by
long-term reanalysis. Similarly, the MOSAiC location was warmer and wetter in summer than the reanalysis
climatology, in part due to its close proximity to the sea ice edge.The comprehensiveness of the observational
program for characterizing and analyzing atmospheric phenomena is demonstrated via a winter case study
examining air mass transitions and a summer case study examining vertical atmospheric evolution. Overall, the
MOSAiC atmospheric program successfully met its objectives and was the most comprehensive atmospheric
measurement program to date conducted over the Arctic sea ice. The obtained data will support a broad range
of coupled-system scientific research and provide an important foundation for advancing multiscale modeling
capabilities in the Arctic.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
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isiRev
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