The state of the atmosphere in the 2016 southern Kerguelen Axis campaign region

Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (2019)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2019.02.001

Here we provide an analysis of ship-based measurements of downwelling radiation, cloud fraction and cloud base height from the RSV Aurora Australis Kerguelen Axis marine science campaign.

We compared estimates of cloud fraction obtained with a cloud imager and ceilometer, and found good agreement between the two measurement types, particularly when the camera images were analysed in a narrow overhead field to account for differences in the measurement techniques.

Overall, the cloudiness of our study region appeared to be above average for the time of year, but we could not identify a clear cause for this in the prevailing climatic conditions.