ABSTRACT OPP-9702004 OPP-9701840 STAMNES, KNUT LUBIN, DAN UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO OPP-9703565 BORYS, RANDOLPH UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA This research project is a key component of a large, coordinated, multi-investigator program, Surdace Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Ocean. The research program will be conducted for 14 months from a ship frozen into the ice pack. These investigators will measure near-surface atmospheric conditions of the region from the cloud base to the surface of the permanent ice cap of the Arctic Ocean using an instumented research balloon during a period from Spring to Fall. The research will be conducted in conjunction with a DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement research program jointly conducted at the site. These researchers will determine the vertical profile of temperature and humidity as a function of changing cloud conditions. Their results will help determine how atmospheric heating is coupled to adsorption of heat by the ice. These measurements are critical to understanding how heat is reflected or absorbed by the ice as it melts in the summer and thickens in the winter in response to seasonal variations in climate, especially changing cloud conditions. The balloon measurement program makes an essential contribution to the SHEBA team of researchers who will measure atmospheric variables with a large array of instruments on the ice floe and aircraft flying above, as well as ice and ocean property measurements made on and below the ice floe. The combined set of measurements in SHEBA will allow refinement of climate models for the Arctic region. Those improved models will lead to better predictions of the climate and the permanence of the Arctic ice cap under a proposed global warming that could occur if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are increased above present levels.
