A Two-Year Record of the Climate on the Greenland Crest from an Automatic Weather Station,
Abstract
An automatic weather station (AWS) was installed on the Greenland Summit (72.30 N, 38.00 W, 3210 m) in May 1987. The AWS unit operated for two years until May 1989 when it was moved to Fresh Air Site (72.82 N, 38.82 W, 3185 m), an air sampling site, where it is still operating. The AWS data were transmitted to the ARGOS data collection system on the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. The AWS unit measures wind speed and direction, air temperature, and the relative humidity at a nominal height of 3 m, air pressure at the height of the electronics enclosure, and the vertical air temperature difference between 3.0 and 0.5 m. The latent and sensible heat from the snow surface to the air were estimated using the wind speed, vertical air temperature difference, and the relative humidity. The data are compared with those from two earlier stations, Eismitte (70.90 N, 40.70 W, 3000 m) from September 1930 through August 1931 (Wegener's expedition) and Station Centrale (70.92 N, 40.64 W, 2993 m) from September 1949 through August 1951 (Victor's expedition). The winds observed at Cathy Site were quite similar to those observed at the two previous stations. Also, the large fluctuations in temperature observed during the winter months at the two historic stations were observed at Cathy Site. The transition from positive to negative values for the sensible and latent heat flux occurred in October.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP007290
Entities
People
- Charles R. Stearns
- George A. Weidner
Organizations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison