Quantifying the impact of solar zenith angle, cloud optical thickness, and surface albedo on the solar radiative effect of Arctic low-level clouds over open ocean and sea ice

Becker, Sebastian; Ehrlich, André; Schäfer, Michael; Wendisch, Manfred

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12831-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12831-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12831-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 20

Research article

|

15 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 15 Oct 2025

Quantifying the impact of solar zenith angle, cloud optical thickness, and surface albedo on the solar radiative effect of Arctic low-level clouds over open ocean and sea ice

Sebastian Becker, André Ehrlich, Michael Schäfer, and Manfred Wendisch

Data sets

Cloud radiative forcing, LWP and cloud-free albedo derived from airborne broadband irradiance observations during the AFLUX and ACLOUD campaign Johannes Stapf et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932010

Short summary

Clouds interact with solar radiation and can alter the surface temperature. The strength of this cloud impact is driven by cloud properties as well as solar elevation and surface reflection. As these dependencies are poorly represented in climate models, cloud, surface, and radiation observations are used to quantify the contributions of the drivers in the Arctic. It is shown that the weaker surface reflection dominates the stronger cooling effect of clouds over open ocean compared to sea ice.