Identification

Title

The large-scale energy budget of the Arctic

Abstract

This paper synthesizes a variety of atmospheric and oceanic data to examine the large-scale energy budget of the Arctic. Assessment of the atmospheric budget relies primarily on the ERA-40 reanalysis. The seasonal cycles of vertically integrated atmospheric energy storage and the convergence of energy transport from ERA-40, as evaluated for the polar cap (defined by the 70°N latitude circle), in general compare well with realizations from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis over the period 1979 - 2001. However, shortcomings in top of atmosphere radiation, as compared to satellite data, and the net surface flux, contribute to large energy budget residuals in ERA-40. The seasonal cycle of atmospheric energy storage is strongly modulated by the net surface flux, which is also the primary driver of seasonal changes in heat storage within the Arctic Ocean. Averaged for an Arctic Ocean domain, the July net surface flux from ERA-40 of -100 W m&#8315² (i.e., into the ocean), associated with sea ice melt and oceanic sensible heat gain, exceeds the atmospheric energy transport convergence of 91 W m⁻². During winter (for which budget residuals are large), oceanic sensible heat loss and sea ice growth yield an upward surface flux of 50-60 W m⁻², complemented with an atmospheric energy convergence of 80-90 W m⁻² to provide a net radiation loss to space of 175-180 W m⁻².

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7c53m36

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-06-14T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact