NASA Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

summer (e.g. Jakobshavn region) this region will be more sensitive to changes in albedo than in regions where this is not the
case. Near the Jakobshavn glacier, even larger changes in albedo have been observed, with decreases as much as 20 percent
per decade.
Derived from text
Arctic Regions; Climate; Albedo; Greenland; Estimates; Glaciers; Melting; Variability; Atmospheric Radiation; Mass
Distribution
20040050926 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Impact of SeaWinds Scatterometer Data on Numerical Weather Prediction
Atlas, Robert; [2003]; 4 pp.; In English; 84th AMS Annual Meeting, 11-15 Jan. 2004, Seattle, WA, USA; No Copyright;
Avail: CASI; A01, Hardcopy
Scatterometer observations of the ocean surface wind speed and direction improve the depiction and prediction of storms
at sea. These data are especially valuable where observations are otherwise sparse - mostly in the Southern Hemisphere and
tropics, but also on occasion in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The SeaWinds scatterometer on the QuikScat satellite
was launched in June 1999 and it represents a dramatic departure in design from the other scatterometer instruments launched
during the past decade (ERS-1,2 and NSCAT). More details on the SeaWinds instrument can be found in Atlas et a1 (2001)
and Bloom et al. (1999). At the time of this writing, SeaWinds scatterometer data from the ADEOS 2 satellite are not yet
available . Therefore this paper will be limited to results from the SeaWinds scatterometer on Quikscat. This presentation
shows the influence of QuikScat data in data assimilation systems both from the NASA Data Assimilation Office (GEOS-3)
and from NCEP (GDAS).
NASA
Numerical Weather Forecasting; Scatterometers; Assimilation; Geos 3 Satellite; Earth Observations (From Space)
48
OCEANOGRAPHY
Includes the physical, chemical and biological aspects of oceans and seas; ocean dynamics; and marine resources. For related
information see also 43 Earth Resources and Remote Sensing.
20040047277 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Fresh Water Content Variability in the Arctic Ocean
Hakkinen, Sirpa; Proshutinsky, Andrey; [2003]; 52 pp.; In English; Original contains black and white illustrations; No
Copyright; Avail: CASI; A04, Hardcopy
Arctic Ocean model simulations have revealed that the Arctic Ocean has a basin wide oscillation with cyclonic and
anticyclonic circulation anomalies (Arctic Ocean Oscillation; AOO) which has a prominent decadal variability. This study
explores how the simulated AOO affects the Arctic Ocean stratification and its relationship to the sea ice cover variations. The
simulation uses the Princeton Ocean Model coupled to sea ice. The surface forcing is based on NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis and
its climatology, of which the latter is used to force the model spin-up phase. Our focus is to investigate the competition
between ocean dynamics and ice formation/melt on the Arctic basin-wide fresh water balance. We find that changes in the
Atlantic water inflow can explain almost all of the simulated fresh water anomalies in the main Arctic basin. The Atlantic water
inflow anomalies are an essential part of AOO, which is the wind driven barotropic response to the Arctic Oscillation (AO).
The baroclinic response to AO, such as Ekman pumping in the Beaufort Gyre, and ice meldfreeze anomalies in response to
AO are less significant considering the whole Arctic fresh water balance.
Author
Arctic Ocean; Fresh Water; Oscillations; Sea Ice; Ocean Models
82