Toward a Better Surface Radiation Budget Analysis Over Sea Ice in the High Arctic Ocean: A Comparative Study Between Satellite, Reanalysis, and local‐scale Observations

Reanalysis datasets from atmospheric models and satellite products are often used for Arctic surface shortwave (SW) longwave (LW) radiative budget analyses, but they suffer limitations require validation against local-scale observations. These rare in the high Arctic, especially longer periods that include seasonal transitions. In this study, radiation meteorological observations acquired during Norwegian Young Sea Ice Cruise (N-ICE2015) campaign over sea ice north of Svalbard (80–83°N, 5–25°E) January–June 2015, cloud lidar Ice-Atmosphere-Ocean Observing System Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization compared to daily monthly retrievals Clouds Earth's Radiant Energy (CERES) ERA-Interim ERA5 reanalysis. Results indicate temperature is a significant driver winter LW biases both reanalysis data, along optical depth CERES. May, SW downwelling irradiances close properties well captured (except ERA-Interim), while upward biased low due albedo all datasets. Net comparable (∼20–30 Wm−2) opposite sign CERES which allows error compensation. Biases reduce ±10 Wm−2 ERA5. June downward remains (8–10 suggesting unsettled representation issues. Surface always differs by more than 0.1 between datasets, leading total flux differences.