The data set provided here is for manuscript *Summertime low clouds mediate the impact of the large-scale circulation on Arctic sea ice* by Huang et al. that published in Communications Earth & Environment.
Abstract:
The rapid Arctic sea ice retreat in the early 21st century is believed to be driven by several dynamic and thermodynamic feedbacks, such as albedo feedback and water vapor feedback. However, the role of clouds in these feedbacks remains unclear since the causality between clouds and these processes is complex. Here, we use NASA CERES satellite products and NCAR CESM model simulations to suggest that summertime low clouds have played an important role in driving sea ice melt by amplifying the adiabatic warming induced by a stronger anticyclonic circulation aloft. The upper-level high pressure regulates low clouds through stronger downward motion and increasing lower troposphere relative humidity. The increased low clouds favor more sea ice melt via emitting stronger longwave radiation. Then decreased surface albedo triggers a positive ice-albedo feedback, which further enhances sea ice melt. Considering the importance of summertime low clouds, accurate simulation of this process is a prerequisite for climate models to produce reliable future projections of Arctic sea ice.
Data source:
Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, Version 1 is accessed from NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at http://nsidc.org/data/docs/daac/nsidc0051_gsfc_seaice.gd.html#cavalieri_92. The ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis product is available at https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era-interim. NASA AIRS/Aqua L3 monthly standard physical retrieval version 6 can be obtained from https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/AIRS3STM_006/summary?keywords=AIRS%20L3. NASA CERES SYN1deg and CERES EBAF-surface datasets are available at http://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/ . The output of CESM-Large Ensemble project is available on NCAR Climate Data Gateway (https://www.earthsystemgrid.org/dataset/ucar.cgd.ccsm4.CESM_CAM5_BGC_LE.html).
