The overarching goal of ARCSIX is to quantify the contributions of surface properties, clouds, aerosol particles, and precipitation to the Arctic summer surface radiation budget and sea ice melt during the early melt season. ARCSIX included two aircraft deployment periods. Flights during the spring deployment took place between 28 May and 14 June 2024. The summer deployment flights took place between 25 July and 16 August 2024.

It encompasses three main science questions and one objective:

• Science Question 1 (Radiation): What is the impact of the predominant summer Arctic cloud types on the radiative surface energy budget?
• Science Question 2 (Cloud Life Cycle): What processes control the evolution and maintenance of the predominant cloud regimes in the summertime Arctic?
• Science Question 3 (Sea Ice): How do the two-way interactions between surface properties and atmospheric forcings affect the sea ice evolution?
• Remote Sensing and Modeling Objective: Enhance our long-term space-based monitoring and predictive capabilities of Arctic sea ice, cloud and aerosols by validating and improving remote sensing algorithms and model parameterizations in the Arctic.

» Flight paths flown: ARCSIX 1 + 2

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To accomplish the science objectives, ARCSIX deployed these aircraft platforms:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) P-3 Orion Aircaft	NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Gulfstream III Aircaft	SPEC Learjet Model 25 Research Aircraft

For ARCSIX details, visit:

» https://espo.nasa.gov/ARCSIX/

» ARCSIX White Paper