Cloud liquid water path at the North Slope of Alaska has minimal sensitivity to local meteorology in Arctic winter

Hartig, Kara; Cassano, John J.; Shupe, Matthew D.; Solomon, Amy

doi:10.5194/acp-26-12689-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-12689-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-12689-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 17

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

08 Sep 2026

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 08 Sep 2026

Cloud liquid water path at the North Slope of Alaska has minimal sensitivity to local meteorology in Arctic winter

Kara Hartig, John J. Cassano, Matthew D. Shupe, and Amy Solomon

Data sets

Ceilometer (CEIL), 2000-01-01 to 2023-12-31, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) D. Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1181954

MWR Retrievals (MWRRET1LILJCLOU), 2001-04-01 to 2023-12-31, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) D. Zhang https://doi.org/10.5439/1027369

Balloon-Borne Sounding System (SONDEWNPN), 2011-01-01 to 2023-12-31, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) E. Keeler et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1595321

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORGE), 2011-11-11 to 2014-02-07, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) K. Johnson et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1228770

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORGE), 2014-02-08 to 2019-10-27, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) K. Johnson et al. https://doi.org/10.5439/1389054

Cloud Radar (KAZR, KAZR2, or MWACR) Corrected VAP (KAZRCFRCORGE), 2019-10-28 to 2023-12-31, North Slope Alaska (NSA), Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) T. Toto and S. Giangrande https://doi.org/10.5439/1560129

Model code and software

LWP_Insensitive_Figures K. Hartig https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22055290

Editorial statement

This article provides substantial new insights into the meteorological processes responsible for liquid cloud formation in the Arctic, based on a decadal-scale climatology. Liquid clouds are found to be commonplace and surprisingly insensitive to the meteorological regime, including to moisture level and temperature. Various candidate mechanisms are proposed for liquid cloud formation with encouragement that the atmospheric sciences community determine which is most likely to be at play.