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Onset and end of the summer melt season over sea ice: thermal structure and surface energy perspective from SHEBA

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Abstract

Various measurements from the Surface Heat Flux of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment have been combined to study structures and processes producing the onset and end of summer melt over Arctic sea ice. The analysis links the surface energy budget to free-troposphere synoptic variables, clouds, precipitation, and in-ice temperatures. The key results are (1) SHEBA melt-season transitions are associated with atmospheric synoptic events (2) onset of melt clearly occurs on May 28, while the end of melt is produced by a sequence of three atmospheric storm events over a 28-day period producing step-like reductions in the net surface energy flux. The last one occurs on August 22.; (3) melt onset is primarily due to large increases in the downwelling longwave radiation and modest decreases in the surface albedo; (4) decreases in the downwelling longwave radiation occur for all end-of-melt transition steps, while increases in surface albedo occur for the first two; (5) decreases in downwelling shortwave radiation contribute only to the first end-of-melt transition step; (6) springtime free-tropospheric warming preconditions the atmosphere–ice system for the subsequent melt onset; and (7) melt-season transitions also mark transitions in system responses to radiative energy flux changes because of invariant melt-season surface temperatures. The extensive SHEBA observations enable an understanding of the complex processes not available from other field program data. The analysis provides a basis for future testing of the generality of the results, and contributes to better physical understanding of multi-year analyses of melt-season trends from less extensive data sets.

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Notes

  1. Because the range of dates for the SHEBA data is from October 1997, to October 1998, dates are designated by the day of year starting on Jan. 1, 1997, using YDxxx. For example, Jan. 1, 1998, is denoted by YD366.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the hard, dedicated work provided by the numerous members of the SHEBA science team and project staff. The data collected by the Atmospheric Surface Flux Group (E. Andreas, C. Fairall, P. Guest, and numerous staff) provided the principal data set for this study. A. Grachev contributed useful additional processing of the turbulent flux data. Other groups contributing significant data include the Ice Physics Group (D. Perovich and T. Grenfell), the cloud remote sensing group (T. Uttal, J. Intrieri, M. Shupe), the SHEBA Project Office (R. Moritz), and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) group. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants OPP-97-01766, ARC0714053, and ARC1023366. Collection of some of the data used was also supported by the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program. Clarity was improved by recommendations from two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309-0216, USA

    P. Ola G. Persson

  2. Physical Sciences Division (NOAA/ESRL/PSD), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth Systems Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA

    P. Ola G. Persson

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Correspondence to P. Ola G. Persson.

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Persson, P.O.G. Onset and end of the summer melt season over sea ice: thermal structure and surface energy perspective from SHEBA. Clim Dyn 39, 1349–1371 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1196-9

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