1,2,- 1University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America (sebastian.schmidt@lasp.colorado.edu)
- 2University of Colorado, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
- 3NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, United States of America
- 4NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, United States of America
The NASA Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface-Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX) was an extensive aircraft mission in the Spring and Summer of 2024 that was designed to characterize the connections between radiation, the atmosphere, and the cryosphere over the course of a melt season in the Arctic Ocean North of Greenland and Canada. It tracked the evolution of multi-year and seasonal sea ice in response to varying cloud, aerosol and surface conditions while simultaneously probing the life cycle of clouds – especially for thin low-level mixed-phase boundary layer systems, which were encountered frequently and often persisted for multiple days. These clouds likely contribute to the Spring surface melt to a greater extent than previously known, and yet they are often difficult to even detect with satellite imagers in low Earth orbit.
Up to three aircraft with a payload comprising remote sensing, radiation, cloud and aerosol microphysics and composition, and thermodynamic measurements, were strategically collocated to observe different aspects of co-evolving cloud-aerosol systems in the vertical, horizontal, and temporal dimension. In some cases, airmasses were tracked over 2-3 days. ARCSIX reached deep into the Arctic and provides a wealth of statistics on interconnected cloud, aerosol, and surface properties. It captured a broad range of surface and thermodynamic states and even tracked an anomalous sea ice melt event – a harbinger of what is to come in a seasonally ice-free Arctic.
We will provide an overview of the mission and present first results, some of which are challenging the current understanding of a region that is undergoing the most rapid climate-driven changes of the globe. Drawing on ARCSIX data, we will convey some new ideas about the maintenance of mysteriously long-lived warm boundary layer Arctic clouds, with the goal of engaging a broader community in the analysis of the ARCSIX data set.
How to cite: Schmidt, S., Taylor, P., and Boisvert, L.: NASA’s Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface-Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX) – Mission Overview and First Results, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-16271, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-16271, 2026.
