In March and April 1998 a field program in the project Artist (Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction Study) has been conducted around Svalbard to study radiative and turbulent energy fluxes through clouds in the arctic atmosphere and to develop parameterisations of energy and momentum fluxes for the ice surface. Airborne measurements have been taken of heat, moisture and momentum fluxes, cloud particle distributions, short and long wave radiation budgets and surface conditions. Also some ground based measurements were made.
The flights have been arranged to collect all necessary information to model boundary-layer development during convective conditions. Also measurements of stratus clouds over the ice have been made. In this paper first results of the aircraft measurements will be presented.