Mesoscale atmospheric processes over an Arctic fjord as observed during a research aircraft campaign in winter

Unique research aircraft observations were conducted within an Arctic fjord in Svalbard during three days in March 2013. Wijdefjorden is 110 km long, 5–15 km wide and has a north–south axis. Two-thirds of the fjord were covered by land-fast sea ice, but the northern part of the fjord was open. On tw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar research Vol. 44; pp. 1 - 25
Main Authors: Suomi, Irene, Vihma, Timo, Nygård, Tiina, Hartmann, Jörg, Lüpkes, Christof
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Spånga Open Academia 27.10.2025
Norwegian Polar Institute
Subjects:
Air masses
Air temperature
Aircraft
Arctic zone
Atmospheric boundary layer
Boundary conditions
Channeling
Climate change
Cold flow
cold-air pool
Fjords
Ice
ice breeze circulation
Ice cover
Ice edge
katabatic wind
Land breezes
low-level jet
Mountains
Near-surface layer
orographic flow channelling
Research aircraft
Sea ice
Surface layers
Surface temperature
Surface wind
Temperature gradients
Topography
Valleys
Weather
Wind fields
Wind shear
Arctic region
ISSN:0800-0395, 1751-8369
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Unique research aircraft observations were conducted within an Arctic fjord in Svalbard during three days in March 2013. Wijdefjorden is 110 km long, 5–15 km wide and has a north–south axis. Two-thirds of the fjord were covered by land-fast sea ice, but the northern part of the fjord was open. On two days the flow over the fjord was largely controlled by orographic channelling of the north-easterly wind, and on all three days a cold-air mass accumulated over the sea ice in the fjord and gradually propagated towards the open sea in the north. An ice breeze (analogous to land breeze) circulation, due to a strong temperature gradient across the sea-ice edge, was a key driver of the southerly near-surface wind over the fjord. On two days, the cold-air mass reached the open sea and the near-surface air mass warmed rapidly by several Kelvins. On one day, the channelled northerly flow pushed the cold-air mass to the south, from where it gradually propagated back to the north after the channelled flow had weakened. The results suggest that the channelling of the large-scale flow in the fjord can suppress the ice breeze to a shallow near-surface layer and even push the cold-air mass far south of ice edge. The near-surface air temperature and wind fields that were based on the Copernicus Climate Change Service Arctic Regional Reanalysis (CARRA) data set included large errors because CARRA did not have any sea ice in the fjord.
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ISSN:0800-0395
1751-8369
DOI:10.33265/polar.v44.9263