摘要
Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of incident and reflected solar irradiance and describes the ability of a surface to reflect, rather than absorb incident solar shortwave radiation. It is thus a crucial parameter in the climate system, particularly in the polar oceans. Sea ice albedo is a main driver for light transmission into the polar oceans and thus has a high impact on ocean warming, ice melting and marine primary production. During spring and summer, sea ice albedo can exhibit a significant spatial variability caused by meltwater accumulations on the ice. While complex and expensive solutions for albedo measurements are already available, we want to present a simple open-source design that allows for affordable mapping of spatially varying surface albedo on sea ice and beyond. Our solution is based on off-the-shelf components, such as an Arduino microcontroller integrating affordable light sensors, a GPS unit, data recording on memory card and data display into a simple field strengthened unit. We provide example data from two Arctic field deployments showing the capabilities and limitations of this system.
Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of incident and reflected solar irradiance and describes the ability of a surface to reflect, rather than absorb incident solar shortwave radiation. It is thus a crucial parameter in the climate system, particularly in the polar oceans. Sea ice albedo is a main driver for light transmission into the polar oceans and thus has a high impact on ocean warming, ice melting and marine primary production. During spring and summer, sea ice albedo can exhibit a significant spatial variability caused by meltwater accumulations on the ice. While complex and expensive solutions for albedo measurements are already available, we want to present a simple open-source design that allows for affordable mapping of spatially varying surface albedo on sea ice and beyond. Our solution is based on off-the-shelf components, such as an Arduino microcontroller integrating affordable light sensors, a GPS unit, data recording on memory card and data display into a simple field strengthened unit. We provide example data from two Arctic field deployments showing the capabilities and limitations of this system.
基金
the Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar und Meeresforschung
the Helmholtz infrastructure initiative “Frontiers in Arctic marine Monitoring” (FRAM) for funding this project
funded by a Sentinel North Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Université Laval, Canada
