Introduction to special section: FIRE Arctic Clouds Experiment | CU Experts

The sensitivity of climate models seems to be particularly dependent on their treatment of radiation feedback processes in the Arctic. However, there are substantial uncertainties in the cloud, sea ice, and radiation properties of the Arctic, which is an environment where almost all measurement systems and analyses are working at their limit of capability. Motivated by these sensitivities and uncertainties, an intense effort was jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to design a research program to address these issues. This planning culminated in three closely coordinated projects: the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) (sponsored primarily by NSF and ONR), the FIRE Arctic Clouds Experiment (sponsored primarily by NASA), and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (sponsored by DOE).

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