A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation

Lubin, Dan; Ghiz, Madison L.; Castillo, Sergio; Scott, Ryan C.; LeBlanc, Samuel E.; Silber, Israel

doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1

Title: A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

Abstract A field campaign at Siple Dome in West Antarctica during the austral summer 2019/20 offers an opportunity to evaluate climate model performance, particularly cloud microphysical simulation. Over Antarctic ice sheets and ice shelves, clouds are a major regulator of the surface energy balance, and in the warm season their presence occasionally induces surface melt that can gradually weaken an ice shelf structure. This dataset from Siple Dome, obtained using transportable and solar-powered equipment, includes surface energy balance measurements, meteorology, and cloud remote sensing. To demonstrate how these data can be used to evaluate model performance, comparisons are made with meteorological reanalysis known to give generally good performance over Antarctica (ERA5). Surface albedo measurements show expected variability with observed cloud amount, and can be used to evaluate a model’s snowpack parameterization. One case study discussed involves a squall with northerly winds, during which ERA5 fails to produce cloud cover throughout one of the days. A second case study illustrates how shortwave spectroradiometer measurements that encompass the 1.6- μ m atmospheric window reveal cloud phase transitions associated with cloud life cycle. Here, continuously precipitating mixed-phase clouds become mainly liquid water clouds from local morning through the afternoon, not reproduced by ERA5.more »« less

Authors:

Lubin, Dan ^[1]; Ghiz, Madison L. ^[2]; Castillo, Sergio ^[3]; Scott, Ryan C. ^[4]; LeBlanc, Samuel E. ^[5]; Silber, Israel ^[6]

a Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
b DNV, San Diego, California
c The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
d NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
e Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Moffett Field, California, f NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
g The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

Publication Date:: Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Contributing Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

OSTI Identifier:: 1998782

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1999175

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0021004; SC0021974

Resource Type:: Published Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Climate

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Volume: 36 Journal Issue: 19; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755

Publisher:: American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Antarctica; Ice shelves; Clouds; Radiation; Instrumentation/sensors; Model evaluation/performance

Citation Formats


                    Lubin, Dan, Ghiz, Madison L., Castillo, Sergio, Scott, Ryan C., LeBlanc, Samuel E., and Silber, Israel. A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation.  United States: N. p., 2023. 
Web.  doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1.

Copy to clipboard


                    Lubin, Dan, Ghiz, Madison L., Castillo, Sergio, Scott, Ryan C., LeBlanc, Samuel E., & Silber, Israel. A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1

Copy to clipboard


                    Lubin, Dan, Ghiz, Madison L., Castillo, Sergio, Scott, Ryan C., LeBlanc, Samuel E., and Silber, Israel. Sun .  
"A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1998782,

  title        = {A Surface Radiation Balance Dataset from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation},

  author       = {Lubin, Dan and Ghiz, Madison L. and Castillo, Sergio and Scott, Ryan C. and LeBlanc, Samuel E. and Silber, Israel},

  abstractNote = {Abstract A field campaign at Siple Dome in West Antarctica during the austral summer 2019/20 offers an opportunity to evaluate climate model performance, particularly cloud microphysical simulation. Over Antarctic ice sheets and ice shelves, clouds are a major regulator of the surface energy balance, and in the warm season their presence occasionally induces surface melt that can gradually weaken an ice shelf structure. This dataset from Siple Dome, obtained using transportable and solar-powered equipment, includes surface energy balance measurements, meteorology, and cloud remote sensing. To demonstrate how these data can be used to evaluate model performance, comparisons are made with meteorological reanalysis known to give generally good performance over Antarctica (ERA5). Surface albedo measurements show expected variability with observed cloud amount, and can be used to evaluate a model’s snowpack parameterization. One case study discussed involves a squall with northerly winds, during which ERA5 fails to produce cloud cover throughout one of the days. A second case study illustrates how shortwave spectroradiometer measurements that encompass the 1.6- μ m atmospheric window reveal cloud phase transitions associated with cloud life cycle. Here, continuously precipitating mixed-phase clouds become mainly liquid water clouds from local morning through the afternoon, not reproduced by ERA5. We challenge researchers to run their various regional or global models in a manner that has the large-scale meteorology follow the conditions of this field campaign, compare cloud and radiation simulations with this Siple Dome dataset, and potentially investigate why cloud microphysical simulations or other model components might produce discrepancies with these observations. significance statement Antarctica is a critical region for understanding climate change and sea level rise, as the great ice sheets and the ice shelves are subject to increasing risk as global climate warms. Climate models have difficulties over Antarctica, particularly with simulation of cloud properties that regulate snow surface melting or refreezing. Atmospheric and climate-related field work has significant challenges in the Antarctic, due to the small number of research stations that can support state-of-the-art equipment. Here we present new data from a suite of transportable and solar-powered instruments that can be deployed to remote Antarctic sites, including regions where ice shelves are most at risk, and we demonstrate how key components of climate model simulations can be evaluated against these data.},

  doi          = {10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1},

  journal      = {Journal of Climate},

  number       = 19,

  volume       = 36,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023},

  month        = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0731.1

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Energetics of surface melt in West Antarctica

Journal Article Ghiz, Madison L. ; Scott, Ryan C. ; Vogelmann, Andrew M. ; ... - The Cryosphere (Online)

We use reanalysis data and satellite remote sensing of cloud properties to examine how meteorological conditions alter the surface energy balance to cause surface melt that is detectable in satellite passive microwave imagery over West Antarctica. This analysis can detect each of the three primary mechanisms for inducing surface melt at a specific location: thermal blanketing involving sensible heat flux and/or longwave heating by optically thick cloud cover, all-wave radiative enhancement by optically thin cloud cover, and föhn winds. We examine case studies over Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, which are of interest for ice shelf and ice sheet stability,more »« less
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3459-2021

Full Text Available
Climate data, analysis and models for the study of natural variability and anthropogenic change

Technical Report Jones, Philip D.

Gridded Temperature Under prior/current support, we completed and published (Jones et al., 2012) the fourth major update to our global land dataset of near-surface air temperatures, CRUTEM4. This is one of the most widely used records of the climate system, having been updated, maintained and further developed with DoE support since the 1980s. We have continued to update the CRUTEM4 (Jones et al., 2012) database that is combined with marine data to produce HadCRUT4 (Morice et al., 2012). The emphasis in our use of station temperature data is to access as many land series that have been homogenized by Nationalmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1148878

Full Text Available
The Extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “Heat” Wave. Part II: Impacts on the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Journal Article Wille, Jonathan D. ; Alexander, Simon P. ; Amory, Charles ; ... - Journal of Climate

Abstract Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30°–40°C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. In Part I, we assessed the meteorological drivers that generated an intense atmospheric river (AR) that caused these record-shattering temperature anomalies. Here, we continue our large collaborative study by analyzing the widespread and diverse impacts driven by the AR landfall. These impacts included widespread rain and surface melt that was recorded along coastal areas, but this was outweighed by widespread high snowfall accumulations resulting in a largely positive surface mass balance contribution to the East Antarctic region.more »« less
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0176.1
Use of ARM observations and numerical models to determine radiative and latent heating profiles of mesoscale convective systems for general circulation models

Technical Report Tao, Wei-Kuo ; Houze, Robert, A., Jr. ; Zeng, Xiping

This three-year project, in cooperation with Professor Bob Houze at University of Washington, has been successfully finished as planned. Both ARM (the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program) data and cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations were used to identify the water budgets of clouds observed in two international field campaigns. The research results achieved shed light on several key processes of clouds in climate change (or general circulation models), which are summarized below. 1. Revealed the effect of mineral dust on mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) Two international field campaigns near a desert and a tropical coast provided unique data to drive and evaluatemore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1068554

Full Text Available
The Extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “Heat” Wave. Part I: Observations and Meteorological Drivers

Journal Article Wille, Jonathan D. ; Alexander, Simon P. ; Amory, Charles ; ... - Journal of Climate

Abstract Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30°–40°C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. This record-shattering event saw numerous monthly temperature records being broken including a new all-time temperature record of −9.4°C on 18 March at Concordia Station despite March typically being a transition month to the Antarctic coreless winter. The driver for these temperature extremes was an intense atmospheric river advecting subtropical/midlatitude heat and moisture deep into the Antarctic interior. The scope of the temperature records spurred a large, diverse collaborative effort to study the heat wave’s meteorological drivers, impacts,more »« less
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0175.1

Similar Records