Abstract The Arctic sea‐ice surface energy budget is characterized by two radiative states driven by the presence or absence of opaque clouds that warm the surface. Ground‐based observations from the 1998 SHEBA campaign collected over sea‐ice suggested that the two radiative states correspond to distinct surface pressure values. Using satellite data, we search for such relationship over 13 years across all sea‐ice‐covered Arctic basins in winter and spring when radiative states influence sea‐ice growth and can trigger early melt. We find a consistent, statistically significant pressure influence across basins, with higher surface pressure associated with the transmissive state and lower pressure with the opaque state. The pressure offset is weaker than the SHEBA‐based estimate , likely caused by an anomalous circulation during spring 1998. These results indicate that surface pressure weakly but systematically modulates radiative‐state occurrence, helping to explain small regional differences in surface cloud radiative warming.
Lac et al. (Fri,) studied this question.