Cloud and atmospheric properties strongly influence the mass and energy budgets of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). To address critical gaps in the understanding of these systems, a new suite of cloud- and atmosphere-observing instruments has been installed on the central GIS as part of the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric State, and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) project. During the first 20 months in operation, this complementary suite of active and passive ground-based sensors and radiosondes has provided new and unique perspectives on important cloud?atmosphere properties. High atop the GIS, the atmosphere is extremely dry and cold with strong near-surface static stability predominating throughout the year, particularly in winter. This low-level thermodynamic structure, coupled with frequent moisture inversions, conveys the importance of advection for local cloud and precipitation formation. Cloud liquid water is observed in all months of the year, even the particularly cold and dry winter, while annual cycle observations indicate that the largest atmospheric moisture amounts, cloud water contents, and snowfall occur in summer and under southwesterly flow. Many of the basic structural properties of clouds observed at Summit, Greenland, particularly for low-level stratiform clouds, are similar to their counterparts in other Arctic regions. The ICECAPS observations and accompanying analyses will be used to improve the understanding of key cloud?atmosphere processes and the manner in which they interact with the GIS. Furthermore, they will facilitate model evaluation and development in this data-sparse but environmentally unique region

While snow accumulation over central Greenland has been extensively studied, interannual variability of snowfall in the region is not well understood due to a dearth of observations. The Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) project at Summit, Greenland, offers a unique, ground-based opportunity to study precipitation in central Greenland where the surface mass balance is positive. Combining data from a Precipitation Occurrence Sensor System (POSS), Millimeter-wavelength Cloud Radar (MMCR), and snow stake field, the annual cycle of precipitation at Summit is examined. Average daily snowfall is higher by a factor of 3 from June to October compared to November to May, while surface height change is only higher by 15% during the same timeframes. This reduced variability in surface height is explained by the seasonally varying nature of latent heat flux, compaction, and wind contributions. The ICECAPS remote sensors and stake field measurements do not agree as far as total annual water equivalent. This discrepancy is likely due to a low bias in the POSS and MMCR snowfall retrievals for Summit. To further examine the seasonal cycle, snowfall measurements by the POSS were linked to local meteorological parameters, including wind direction, liquid water path (LWP), 2 m temperature, and precipitable water vapor. An observed wind direction and moisture dependence are consistent with snowfall being linked to pulses of moist air that originate over nearby, ice-free ocean, a resource that becomes more readily available in summertime as the winter sea ice retreats. LWP is shown to have little relationship to snowfall, indicating that ice-phase precipitation processes are quite important for snowfall at Summit.