Transmittance of the Atmosphere for the Photosynthetically Available Radiation Over the Arctic Ocean 2000-2016

We investigated the variations of atmospheric transmittance to Photosynthetically Available Radiation (400nm-700nm) at a pan-Arctic scale between 2000 and 2016. We combined a large dataset of atmospheric and surface Arctic conditions derived from satellites into a radiative transfer model. MODIS atmosphere products (Aqua and Terra), including aerosols, gases and clouds, as well as sea ice age, sea ice concentration and early melt onset, melt onset, early freeze onset and freeze onset were all combined into the atmospheric radiative transfer to estimate the photosynthetically available radiation incident onto the surface of the Arctic Ocean (mol photons per day per square meter). This generated the variable Ed_0plus_daily. The variables Ed_0plus_Clear_daily and Ed_0plus_daily_OW were generated by removing the clouds and sea ice from the simulations, respectively. Finally, the TOA_down variable is computed as the extraterrestrial incident photosynthetically available radiation. All variables are computed everyday during the late spring and early summer for every 1-degree pixels. Please refer to CCIN 12697 for original measurements. Complementary information on PAR is available here: http://www.fondriest.com/environmental-measurements/parameters/weather/photosynthetically-active-radiation/