• Main Authors: Colin S. Bonner *a, Michael C. B. Ashley A, Stuart G. Bradley B, Xiangqun Cui C, Longlong Feng D, Xuefei Gong C, Jon S. Lawrence A, Daniel M. Luong-van A, Zhaohui Shang G, John W. V. Storey A, Lifan Wang D, Huigen Yang I, Ji Yang D, Xu Zhou J, Zhenxi Zhu D
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: atmosphere; boundary layer; SODAR; Antarctica; Antarctic plateau; Antarctic; Plato; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.296.8194; http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~plato/papers/bon10b.pdf

Snodar is a high resolution acoustic radar designed specifically for profiling the atmospheric boundary layer on the high Antarctic plateau. Snodar profiles the atmospheric temperature structure function constant to a vertical resolution of 1 m or better with a minimum sample height of 8 m. The maximum sampling height is dependent on atmospheric conditions but is typically at least 100 m. Snodar uses a unique in-situ intensity calibration method that allows the instrument to be autonomously recalibrated throughout the year. The instrument is initially intensity calibrated against tower-mounted differential microthermal sensors. A calibration sphere is located in the near-field of the antenna to provide a fixed echo of known intensity, allowing the instrument to be continuously re-calibrated once deployed. This allows snow accumulation, transducer wear and system changes due to temperature to be monitored. Year-round power and communications are provided by the PLATO facility. This allows processed data to be downloaded every 6 hours while raw data is stored on-site for collection the following summer. Over 4 million processed samples have been downloaded through PLATO to date. We present signal attenuation from accumulation of snow and ice on Snodar’s parabolic