Publication Date:
2020-09-28
Description:
Warm and moist air masses are transported into the Arctic from lower latitudes
throughout the year. Especially in winter, such moist intrusions (MIs) can trigger
cloud formation and surface warming. While a typical cloudy state of the Arc-
tic winter boundary layer has been linked to the advection of moist air masses,
direct observations of the transformation from moist midlatitude to dry Arctic
air are lacking. Here, we have used observations from the Surface Heat Budget
of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) project to compile Eulerian observations along the
trajectories of warm and cold air masses in a Lagrangian sense, showing the cool-
ing and drying of air masses over sea ice and moistening over the open ocean.
Air masses originating mostly over open water generate cloudy conditions over
the observation site, whereas air masses originating over continents or sea ice
generate radiatively clear conditions. We recommend using our case-studies and
the method of linking expeditions to station soundings via back-trajectories for
modelling work in future campaigns
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
