OVERVIEW OF ARCTIC CLOUD AND RADIATION CHARACTERISTICS

To provide a background for ARM's activities at the North Slope of Ala ska/Adjacent Arctic Ocean sites, an overview is given of our current s tate of knowledge of Arctic cloud and radiation properties and process es. The authors describe the Arctic temperature and humidity character istics, cloud properties and processes, radiative characteristics of t he atmosphere and surface, direct and indirect radiative effects of ae rosols, and the modeling and satellite remote sensing of cloud and rad iative characteristics. An assessment is given of the current performa nce of satellite remote sensing and climate modeling in the Arctic as related to cloud and radiation issues. Radiation-climate feedback proc esses are discussed, and estimates are made of the sign and magnitude of the individual feedback components. Future plans to address these i ssues are described.