Wintertime leads play an important role in the Arctic boundary layer as they promote turbulent flux exchanges from the warm exposed water to the cold atmosphere, thereby affecting the boundary layer cloudiness and structure. Recent work suggests that less (more) low‐level cloud occurrence is found in higher (lower) lead fraction periods, yet the analysis efforts were limited to a peripheral sea north of Barrow, Alaska. Here, we extend the previous study to examine this relationship between wintertime Arctic leads and low clouds in the context of a longer time series (November–March, 2006–2011) and greater spatial coverage (pan‐Arctic), based on cloud products from CloudSat and Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellites and lead area fraction derived from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR‐E) observations. We focus on the east side of high‐pressure systems to isolate lead impacts on boundary layer clouds. Using a k‐means cluster‐analysis algorithm, low‐level cloud regimes are categorized on the basis of occurrence frequency of low‐level clouds. We find that, in the pan‐Arctic, less (more) low‐level cloud occurrence is associated with higher (lower) large‐scale lead flux, in agreement with the previous study. This lead‐low cloud association exhibits strong regional variation; it is enhanced over the Beaufort Sea where the variability of large‐scale meteorological conditions is decreased. These results suggest that a higher lead fraction might have important impacts on the Arctic surface energy budget by decreasing downwelling longwave radiation through reduced low‐level cloudiness.

中文翻译：

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泛北极冬季铅与低云之间的关系

冬季铅在北极边界层中起着重要作用，因为它们促进了从温暖的裸露水到寒冷大气的湍流交换，从而影响了边界层的浑浊和结构。最近的工作表明，在较高（较低）的铅馏分期发现较少（更多）低水平云的发生，但是分析工作仅限于阿拉斯加巴罗以北的外围海域。在这里，我们将先前的研究扩展到更长的时间序列（2006年11月至3月，2006年至2011年）和更大的空间覆盖范围（泛北极）的背景下，研究冬季北极铅和低云之间的这种关系，基于CloudSat和Cloud-Aerosol Lidar和红外探路者卫星观测（CALIPSO）卫星的云产品，以及从用于EOS（AMSR-E）观测的高级微波扫描辐射仪得出的铅面积分数。我们将重点放在高压系统的东侧，以隔离铅对边界层云的影响。用一个k均值聚类分析算法，根据低层云的出现频率对低层云区域进行分类。我们发现，在泛北极地区，较少（更多）的低水平云发生与较高（较低）的大规模铅通量相关，这与先前的研究一致。这种铅低云协会表现出强烈的区域差异。它在波弗特海（Beaufort Sea）上得到增强，在该处，大规模气象条件的变化性降低了。这些结果表明，较高的铅含量可能会通过降低低空浑浊度来降低下行长波辐射，从而对北极表面能收支产生重要影响。