Upper-Air Data Collected on Ice Station Weddell.

• Main Authors: Claffey, Kerry J., Andreas, Edgar L., Makshtas, Aleksandr P.
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1994
• Subjects: Meteorology; *METEOROLOGICAL DATA; *UPPER ATMOSPHERE; *ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDING; PRESSURE GRADIENTS; USSR; OCEAN SURFACE; ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE; TURBULENCE; ICE FORMATION; WINTER; DATA ACQUISITION; WIND VELOCITY; SYNCHRONISM; RADIOSONDES; AIR WATER INTERACTIONS; HEAT FLUX; MARINE METEOROLOGY; GEOSTROPHIC WIND; HUMIDITY; SEA ICE; TEMPERATURE INVERSION; JET STREAMS; ICEBREAKERS; WEDDEL SEA; SPN-19950112029; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Sea ice; Weddel Sea
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA289707; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA289707

From February to June 1992, as Ice Station Weddell (ISW) drifted through the uncharted western Weddell Sea, we launched radiosondes, typically twice a day, to study the structure of the lower atmosphere. Here, we describe the 15W radiosounding program, report on the availability of the data, and offer preliminary analyses of some of the atmospheric features we observed. For 10 days in late May and early June, as the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov approached ISW from the northeast to help remove the ice camp, we made simultaneous soundings four times a day from 15W and from the Fedorov. We, therefore, also describe here the radiosounding system on the Fedorov, report on the availability of these data, and present preliminary comparisons of the simultaneous 15W and Fedorov soundings. Our soundings showed that temperature inversions were very common in this part of the Weddell Sea in fall and winter. Over 95% of the 15W soundings and 100% of the Fedorov soundings showed low-level temperature inversions. Of these, over 40% of the 15W soundings and over 67% of the Fedorov soundings were surface-based. A low-level jet in the wind speed profile was also common. We found such a jet in almost 80% of the 15W soundings for which we had wind information. The jet core was usually between 25 and 175 m above the surface, and speeds in the core were commonly between 4 and 10 m/s. (AN)