K. Stamnes et al., Review of science issues, deployment strategy, and status for the ARM North Slope of Alaska-Adjacent Arctic Ocean climate research site, J CLIMATE, 12(1), 1999, pp. 46-63
Recent climate modeling results point to the Arctic as a region that is par
ticularly sensitive to global climate change. The Arctic warming predicted
by the models to result from the expected doubling of atmospheric carbon di
oxide is two to three times the predicted mean global warming, and consider
ably greater than the warming predicted for the Antarctic. The North Slope
of Alaska-Adjacent Arctic Ocean (NSA-AAO) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART
) site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is designed t
o collect data on temperature-ice-albedo and water vapor-cloud-radiation fe
edbacks, which are believed to be important to the predicted enhanced warmi
ng in the Arctic. The most important scientific issues of Arctic, as well a
s global, significance to be addressed at the NSA-AAO CART site are discuss
ed, and a bl icf overview of the current approach toward, and status of, si
te development is provided. ARM radiometric and remote sensing instrumentat
ion is already deployed and taking data in the perennial Arctic ice pack as
part of the SHEBA (Surface l-leat Budget of the Arctic Ocean) experiment.
in parallel with ARM's participation in SHEBA, the NSA-AAO facility near Ba
rrow was formally dedicated on 1 July 1997 and began routine data collectio
n early in 1998. This schedule permits the U.S. Department of Energy's ARM
Program, NASA's Arctic Cloud program, and the SHEBA program (funded primari
ly by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research) to
be mutually supportive. In addition, location of the NSA-AAO Barrow facilit
y on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration land immediately adjac
ent to its Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory Barrow Observatory
includes NOAA in this major interagency Arctic collaboration.