10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau
Long-term, continuous in situ observations of the near-surface atmospheric boundary layer are critical for many weather and climate applications. Although there is a proliferation of surface stations globally, especially in and around populous areas, there are notably fewer tall meteorological tower...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6fff65bbb5f1426e9cf313494f2ccad8 2023-05-15T13:46:09+02:00 10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau C. Genthon D. Veron E. Vignon D. Six J.-L. Dufresne J.-B. Madeleine E. Sultan F. Forget 2021-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 https://doaj.org/article/6fff65bbb5f1426e9cf313494f2ccad8 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/13/5731/2021/essd-13-5731-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3508 https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3516 doi:10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 1866-3508 1866-3516 https://doaj.org/article/6fff65bbb5f1426e9cf313494f2ccad8 Earth System Science Data, Vol 13, Pp 5731-5746 (2021) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 2022-12-31T05:44:14Z Long-term, continuous in situ observations of the near-surface atmospheric boundary layer are critical for many weather and climate applications. Although there is a proliferation of surface stations globally, especially in and around populous areas, there are notably fewer tall meteorological towers with multiple instrumented levels. This is particularly true in remote and extreme environments such as the East Antarctic plateau. In the article, we present and analyze 10 years of data from six levels of meteorological instrumentation mounted on a 42 m tower located at Dome C, East Antarctica, near the Concordia research station, producing a unique climatology of the near-surface atmospheric environment (Genthon et al., 2021a, b). Monthly temperature and wind data demonstrate the large seasonal differences in the near-surface boundary layer dynamics, depending on the presence or absence of solar surface forcing. Strong vertical temperature gradients (inversions) frequently develop in calm, winter conditions, while vertical convective mixing occurs in the summer, leading to near-uniform temperatures along the tower. Seasonal variation in wind speed is much less notable at this location than the temperature variation as the winds are less influenced by the solar cycle; there are no katabatic winds as Dome C is quite flat. Harmonic analysis confirms that most of the energy in the power spectrum is at diurnal, annual and semi-annual timescales. Analysis of observational uncertainty and comparison to reanalysis data from the latest generation of ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) reanalyses (ERA5) indicate that wind speed is particularly difficult to measure at this location. Data are distributed on the PANGAEA data repository at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932512 (Genthon et al., 2021a) and https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932513 (Genthon et al., 2021b). Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic East Antarctica Earth System Science Data 13 12 5731 5746 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 C. Genthon D. Veron E. Vignon D. Six J.-L. Dufresne J.-B. Madeleine E. Sultan F. Forget 10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Long-term, continuous in situ observations of the near-surface atmospheric boundary layer are critical for many weather and climate applications. Although there is a proliferation of surface stations globally, especially in and around populous areas, there are notably fewer tall meteorological towers with multiple instrumented levels. This is particularly true in remote and extreme environments such as the East Antarctic plateau. In the article, we present and analyze 10 years of data from six levels of meteorological instrumentation mounted on a 42 m tower located at Dome C, East Antarctica, near the Concordia research station, producing a unique climatology of the near-surface atmospheric environment (Genthon et al., 2021a, b). Monthly temperature and wind data demonstrate the large seasonal differences in the near-surface boundary layer dynamics, depending on the presence or absence of solar surface forcing. Strong vertical temperature gradients (inversions) frequently develop in calm, winter conditions, while vertical convective mixing occurs in the summer, leading to near-uniform temperatures along the tower. Seasonal variation in wind speed is much less notable at this location than the temperature variation as the winds are less influenced by the solar cycle; there are no katabatic winds as Dome C is quite flat. Harmonic analysis confirms that most of the energy in the power spectrum is at diurnal, annual and semi-annual timescales. Analysis of observational uncertainty and comparison to reanalysis data from the latest generation of ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) reanalyses (ERA5) indicate that wind speed is particularly difficult to measure at this location. Data are distributed on the PANGAEA data repository at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932512 (Genthon et al., 2021a) and https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932513 (Genthon et al., 2021b). |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
C. Genthon D. Veron E. Vignon D. Six J.-L. Dufresne J.-B. Madeleine E. Sultan F. Forget |
author_facet |
C. Genthon D. Veron E. Vignon D. Six J.-L. Dufresne J.-B. Madeleine E. Sultan F. Forget |
author_sort |
C. Genthon |
title |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
title_short |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
title_full |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
title_fullStr |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau |
title_sort |
10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at dome c, east antarctic plateau |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 https://doaj.org/article/6fff65bbb5f1426e9cf313494f2ccad8 |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
op_source |
Earth System Science Data, Vol 13, Pp 5731-5746 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/13/5731/2021/essd-13-5731-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3508 https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3516 doi:10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 1866-3508 1866-3516 https://doaj.org/article/6fff65bbb5f1426e9cf313494f2ccad8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5731-2021 |
container_title |
Earth System Science Data |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
5731 |
op_container_end_page |
5746 |
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1766237942612754432 |