Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020
In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations by two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The stations wer...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-116 https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-116/ |
id |
ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:essdd110434 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:essdd110434 2023-06-11T04:03:12+02:00 Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 Nishimura, Motoshi Aoki, Teruo Niwano, Masashi Matoba, Sumito Tanikawa, Tomonori Yamasaki, Tetsuhide Yamaguchi, Satoru Fujita, Koji 2023-04-28 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-116 https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-116/ eng eng doi:10.5194/essd-2023-116 https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-116/ eISSN: 1866-3516 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-116 2023-05-01T16:23:11Z In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations by two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The stations were installed in an accumulation area on the Greenland Ice Sheet (SIGMA-A site, 1490 m a.s.l.) and near the equilibrium line of the Qaanaaq Ice Cap (SIGMA-B site, 944 m a.s.l.). We describe the two-step sequence of quality-control procedures that we used to create increasingly reliable datasets by masking erroneous data records. We analyzed the resulting 2012–2020 time series of air temperature, positive degree-days, snow height, surface albedo, and histograms of longwave radiation (a proxy of cloud formation frequency). We found that snow height increased and albedo remained steady at the SIGMA-A site, whereas high air temperatures and clear-sky conditions prevailed while snow height and albedo decreased in the summers of 2015, 2019, and 2020 at the SIGMA-B site. Therefore, it appears that these weather conditions led to notable snow height degradation at the SIGMA-B site but not at the SIGMA-A site. We anticipate that this quality-control method and these datasets will aid in climate studies of northwest Greenland as well as contribute to the advancement of broader polar climate studies. Text albedo Arctic Greenland Ice cap Ice Sheet Qaanaaq Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Greenland Qaanaaq ENVELOPE(-69.232,-69.232,77.467,77.467) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations by two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The stations were installed in an accumulation area on the Greenland Ice Sheet (SIGMA-A site, 1490 m a.s.l.) and near the equilibrium line of the Qaanaaq Ice Cap (SIGMA-B site, 944 m a.s.l.). We describe the two-step sequence of quality-control procedures that we used to create increasingly reliable datasets by masking erroneous data records. We analyzed the resulting 2012–2020 time series of air temperature, positive degree-days, snow height, surface albedo, and histograms of longwave radiation (a proxy of cloud formation frequency). We found that snow height increased and albedo remained steady at the SIGMA-A site, whereas high air temperatures and clear-sky conditions prevailed while snow height and albedo decreased in the summers of 2015, 2019, and 2020 at the SIGMA-B site. Therefore, it appears that these weather conditions led to notable snow height degradation at the SIGMA-B site but not at the SIGMA-A site. We anticipate that this quality-control method and these datasets will aid in climate studies of northwest Greenland as well as contribute to the advancement of broader polar climate studies. |
format |
Text |
author |
Nishimura, Motoshi Aoki, Teruo Niwano, Masashi Matoba, Sumito Tanikawa, Tomonori Yamasaki, Tetsuhide Yamaguchi, Satoru Fujita, Koji |
spellingShingle |
Nishimura, Motoshi Aoki, Teruo Niwano, Masashi Matoba, Sumito Tanikawa, Tomonori Yamasaki, Tetsuhide Yamaguchi, Satoru Fujita, Koji Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
author_facet |
Nishimura, Motoshi Aoki, Teruo Niwano, Masashi Matoba, Sumito Tanikawa, Tomonori Yamasaki, Tetsuhide Yamaguchi, Satoru Fujita, Koji |
author_sort |
Nishimura, Motoshi |
title |
Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
title_short |
Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
title_full |
Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
title_fullStr |
Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
title_sort |
quality-controlled meteorological datasets from sigma automatic weather stations in northwest greenland, 2012–2020 |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-116 https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-116/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-69.232,-69.232,77.467,77.467) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Qaanaaq |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Qaanaaq |
genre |
albedo Arctic Greenland Ice cap Ice Sheet Qaanaaq |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Greenland Ice cap Ice Sheet Qaanaaq |
op_source |
eISSN: 1866-3516 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/essd-2023-116 https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-116/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-116 |
_version_ |
1768377734547898368 |