Research supported by this grant is under the auspices of the Arctic Systems Science (ARCSS) Global Change Research Program and is jointly sponsored by the Division of Ocean Sciences and the Office of Polar Programs. Work to be performed represents preliminary steps towards a major 5-year research project named SHEBA, which is envisioned to study the heat budget of the Arctic Ocean and its impact on global change. The primary goals of SHEBA are: (1) to develop, test and implement models of arctic ocean- atmosphere-ice processes that demonstrably improve simulations of the present day arctic climate, including its variability, using General Circulation Models (GCMs), and (2) to improve the interpre- tation of satellite remote sensing data in the Arctic for analysis of the arctic climate system and provide reliable data for model input, model validation and climate monitoring. Researchers at the University of Colorado will use data taken from aircraft in previous experiments similar to SHEBA to analyze the status cloud data so that the SHEBA field experiment may be planned more efficiently. The aircraft-derived data will be used to validate the results from remote sensing data taken from satellites so that those results may be extended beyond the specific region of the proposed field experiment. ??
