#03 Topic: Radiation Variability and Closure in the Arctic & Beyond
Lecturer: Andreas Macke
NEW DATE: Monday, October 14, 2023 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Radiation fluxes at the Earth’s surface and at the top of the atmosphere characterise the state of our climate system and are significantly influenced by clouds. In the polar regions, sea ice plays a comparable role as “oceanic clouds” in that it reflects incoming solar radiation and retains the heat emitted by the ocean. How sea ice and clouds communicate in this mixed environment is still unclear. The lecture will first show balances of solar and terrestrial radiation fluxes and their trends over the entire Arctic over the last 20 years from satellite observations and reanalysis data. The specific role of clouds for the radiation budget is presented for the Polarstern expedition MOSAiC and, in particular, the spatio-temporal variability of the radiation balances for the precursor campaign PASCAL. In an outlook, the problem of three-dimensional radiative transfer of the typically highly inhomogeneous clouds is pointed out, which is being investigated by the DFG research group C3SAR.