Weather data collected from a transect of automatic weather stations on Mt Elder, Macquarie Island, 1998-1999
Taken from the abstract of the referenced publication: The relevance, power and application of biologically oriented climate change research is maximised when studies are coupled to climate change scenarios. This study constructs a climate change scenario with a high spatio-temporal resolution for s...
| Other Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | unknown |
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Australian Antarctic Data Centre
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| Online Access: | https://researchdata.ands.org.au/weather-collected-transect-1998-1999/699349 https://doi.org/10.4225/15/53EDB49B710D5 https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/ASAC_1015_AWS_MtElder http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617536 |
| Summary: | Taken from the abstract of the referenced publication: The relevance, power and application of biologically oriented climate change research is maximised when studies are coupled to climate change scenarios. This study constructs a climate change scenario with a high spatio-temporal resolution for surface air temperature on east facing coastal slopes of Macquarie Island. Fifty years of surface air temperature data have been analysed using ARIMA time series analysis. Forecasts to 2030 and backcasts to 1912 have been made. Data from four Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) positioned along a 370 metre above sea level (MASL) altitudinal gradient on the slopes of Mt Elder have been regressed against meteorological observations collected simultaneously. Using these regressions a 50-year climate of the AWS sites along the altitudinal gradient was reconstructed. Forecasts of the reconstructed AWS sites to 2030 were then made with ARIMA time series analysis. Using the analogy of an altitudinal gradient being akin to a temperature gradient, the temperature difference between AWS sites along the altitudinal gradient was then converted to years by dividing the temperature difference by the forecast rate of warming. Results suggest that surface air temperature on Macquarie Island has increased by 0.3 degrees C between 1912 and 1948 and 0.3 degrees C between 1948 and 1998. Surface air temperatures are forecast to increase by 0.2 degrees C from 1998 to 2030. Combined, these results suggest that there will be a 0.8 degrees C increase in surface air temperatures between 1912 and 2013 (118 years). This represents a 19% and 16% increase of the 4.4 degrees C mean surface air temperature of 1912-1914 and 4.8 degrees C mean of 1948-1998 respectively. It is likely that this forecast rate of change will have profound effects on terrestrial ecosystem structure and function. We thoroughly support current moves to establish an international collaboration for monitoring the effects of climate change on periantarctic terrestrial and limnetic ecosystems. Taken from the relevant section of the referenced thesis: AWSs were situated at 10 masl, 200 masl, 365 masl and 370 masl along the Mt Elder altitudinal gradient with the two highest AWS sites situated close to the summit at 370 masl (feldmark vegetation) and in the lee of the slope at 365 masl (short grassland vegetation). The 365 masl and 370 masl AWSs are approximately 10 metres apart from one another. All four AWSs measured dry bulb and wet bulb air temperature (degrees C) at approximately 30 cm above the ground, soil temperature between 5 and 10 cm depth (degrees C) and wind-speed at approximately 40 cm above ground level (m/sec). Sensors for wet and dry bulb temperature were placed to the North of the AWS masts. The wicks on all wet bulb sensors were replaced fortnightly to avoid salt accumulation, which can alter the evaporative qualities and of the wick. At 10 masl and 365 masl solar radiation (MJ/m2/sec) was measured at 35 cm using photoelectric pyranometers positioned on separate masts 5 to 10 metres from masts which hosted sensors for dry-bulb, we-bulb and wind speed sensors. The pyranometer at the 365 masl site was positioned to the north of the summit where it received no shading from the interaction of solar angle and the topography of the slope between 270 degrees west through north to 90 degrees east. Silica beads in the pyranometers were replaced fortnightly or more often in extremely wet periods to prevent internal condensation which can effect the accuracy of readings. See the scanned pdf of part of the thesis for more information. |
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