Summer solar radiation in the Canadian high arctic

Abstract

The limited number of weather stations in the Canadian Arctic Islands has prevented the mapping of incoming shortwave radiation. A cloud layer model, using cloud observations reported by summer field camps supported by the Polar Continental Shelf Project, allows the computation of solar radiation for these widely scattered arctic sites. The calculated values were combined with the measured data from the weather stations to examine the temporal and spatial variations of summer radiation. For the years studied (1974-93), incoming shortwave radiation was the highest in June and declined afterwards. On a local scale, coastal low clouds that are prevalent during the open-water periods reduce the solar radiation receipt, but local variability is unlikely to mask the regional trends. At a regional level, most field camps are highly correlated with their closest weather stations. The short-term field camp data were adjusted with the long-term means of the weather stations to map the distribution of solar radiation for the months of June to August. Throughout these months, the northern Queen Elizabeth Islands have relatively high radiation, which decreases towards the western sector. Both seasonal and spatial variations of solar radiation may be related to the distribution of clouds.