Arctic cloudiness in spring from satellite imagery: Some comments

✍ Scribed by Curry, Judith A.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1988
• Weight: 494 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 2314-6214
• DOI: 10.1002/joc.3370080510

✦ Synopsis

The April cloud amounts recently presented by Barry el al. (1987) were significantly larger than expected. It was suggested that this discrepancy was caused by the obscuration of surface features by Arctic haze, which is believed by Barry et a/. to consist of pollution aerosol transported from middle latitudes. The present note suggests that a significant portion of the surface obscuration that occurs in April is due to small ice crystals that form in the lower troposphere of high latitudes before the summer warming begins. These ice crystals appear to be a major feature of the Arctic heat regime, and should be included in cloud statistics.