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A Simple Scheme for Estimating Turbulent Heat Flux over Landfast Arctic Sea Ice from Dry Snow to Advanced Melt

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Abstract

We describe a dynamic-parameter aggregation scheme to estimate hourly turbulent heat fluxes over landfast sea ice during the transition from winter to spring. Hourly albedo measurements are used to track the morphology of the surface as it evolved from a fairly smooth homogeneous dry snow surface to a rougher heterogeneous surface with spatially differential melting and melt ponds. The estimates of turbulent heat fluxes for 928 h are compared with eddy-covariance measurements. The model performance metrics (W m\(^{-2}\)) for sensible heat flux were found to be: mean bias \(=\) \(-3\), root-mean-square error \(=\) 6 and absolute accuracy \(=\) 4, and for latent heat flux near zero, 3 and 2, respectively. The correlation coefficient between modelled and measured sensible heat fluxes was 0.82, and for latent heat fluxes 0.88. The turbulent heat fluxes were estimated more accurately without adjustments than with adjustments for atmospheric stability based on the bulk Richardson number. Overall, and across all metrics for both sensible and latent heat fluxes, the dynamic-parameter aggregation scheme outperformed the static Community Ice (C-ICE) scheme, part of the Community Climate System model, applied to the same winter-to-spring transition period.

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Acknowledgments

Field support for the Arctic-ICE project was provided by the Polar Continental Shelf Program of Natural Resources Canada and through Northern Research Supplement Discovery grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Additional support was provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian International Polar Year federal program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change, and a Canada Research Chair Grant. This paper is a contribution to the ArcticNet and Arctic Science Partnership programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Earth Observation Science, Riddell Faculty of Environment Earth and Resources, University of Manitoba, 495 Wallace Building, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    R. L. Raddatz, T. N. Papakyriakou & D. G. Barber

  2. Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    B. G. Else

  3. International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    K. Swystun

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  1. R. L. Raddatz
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  2. T. N. Papakyriakou
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  3. B. G. Else
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  4. K. Swystun
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  5. D. G. Barber
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Correspondence to R. L. Raddatz.

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Raddatz, R.L., Papakyriakou, T.N., Else, B.G. et al. A Simple Scheme for Estimating Turbulent Heat Flux over Landfast Arctic Sea Ice from Dry Snow to Advanced Melt. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 155, 351–367 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-014-0002-8

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