Is There a Diurnal Cycle in the Summer Cloud-Capped Arctic Boundary Layer?

Data from the Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001 (AOE-2001) are used to study the vertical structure and diurnal cycle of the summertime central Arctic cloud-capped boundary layer. Mean conditions show a shallow stratocumulus-capped boundary layer, with a nearly moist neutrally stratified cloud layer, although cloud tops often penetrated into the stable inversion. The subcloud layer was more often stably stratified. Conditions near the surface were relatively steady, with a strong control on temperature and moisture by the melting ice surface. A statistically significant diurnal cycle was found in many parameters, although weak in near-surface temperature and moisture. Near-surface wind speed and direction and friction velocity had a pronounced cycle, while turbulent kinetic energy showed no significant diurnal variability. The cloud layer had the most pronounced diurnal variability, with lowest cloud-base height midday followed by enhanced drizzle and temporarily higher cloud-top heights in the afternoon. This is opposite to the cycle found in midlatitude or subtropical marine stratocumulus. The cloud layer was warmest (coolest) and more (less) stably stratified midafternoon (midmorning), coinciding with the coolest (warmest) but least (most) stably stratified capping inversion layer. It is speculated that drizzle is important in regulating the diurnal variability in the cloud layer, facilitated by enhanced midday mixing due to a differential diurnal variability in cloud and subcloud layer stability. Changing the Arctic aerosol climate could change these clouds to a more typical “marine stratocumulus structure,” which could act as a negative feedback on Arctic warming.