Investigation of high resolved snow height measurements at Neumayer Station, Antarctica, 2013

Antarctica is a continent with a strong character. High wind speeds, very low temperatures and heavy snow storms. All these parameters are well known due to observations and measurements, but precipitation measurements are still rare because the number of manned stations is very limited in Antarctica. In such a polar snow region many wind driven phenomena associated with snow fall exist like snow drift, blowing snow or sastrugi. Snow drift is defined as a layer of snow formed by the wind during a snowstorm. The horizontal visibility is below eye level. Blowing snow is specified as an ensemble of snow particles raised by the wind to moderate or great heights above the ground; the horizontal visibility at eye level is generally very poor (National Snow And Ice Data Center (NSIDC), 2013). Sastrugi are complex, fragile and sharp ridges or grooves formed on land or over sea ice. They arise from wind erosion, saltation of snow particles and deposition. To get more details about these procedures better instruments than the conventional stake array are required. This small report introduces a new measuring technique and therefore offers a never used dataset of snow heights. It is very common to measure the snow height with a stake array in Antarctica (f.e. Neumayer Station, Kohnen Station) but not with a laser beam. Thus the idea was born to install a new instrument in December 2012 at Neumayer Station

High resolved snow height measurements at Neumayer Station, Antarctica, 2013 - 2015

At Neumayer-Station in Antarctica snow height is permanently monitored with a laser distance meter. The instrument measures continuously since 2013-01-01 and is located in the vicinity of the Air Chemical Observatory Neumayer. By design, the sample area of the surface is on the order of a few millimetre in diameter. Long-term trends of the measured snow height are strongly correlated with accumulation on the ice shelf at a horizontal scale of several kilometres. Short-term trends reflect dynamic changes of the surface and can be used to deduce information on surface roughness

High resolved snow height measurements at Neumayer Station, Antarctica, 2013

Antarctica is a continent with a strong character. High wind speeds, very low temperatures and heavy snow storms. All these parameters are well known due to observations and measurements, but precipitation measurements are still rare because the number of manned stations is very limited in Antarctica. In such a polar snow region many wind driven phenomena associated with snow fall exist like snow drift, blowing snow or sastrugi. Snow drift is defined as a layer of snow formed by the wind during a snowstorm. The horizontal visibility is below eye level. Blowing snow is specified as an ensemble of snow particles raised by the wind to moderate or great heights above the ground; the horizontal visibility at eye level is generally very poor (National Snow And Ice Data Center (NSIDC), 2013). Sastrugi are complex, fragile and sharp ridges or grooves formed on land or over sea ice. They arise from wind erosion, saltation of snow particles and deposition. To get more details about these procedures better instruments than the conventional stake array are required. This small report introduces a new measuring technique and therefore offers a never used dataset of snow heights. It is very common to measure the snow height with a stake array in Antarctica (f.e. Neumayer Station, Kohnen Station) but not with a laser beam. Thus the idea was born to install a new instrument in December 2012 at Neumayer Station

The World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC)of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN)

The WRMC is the central archive of the BSRN. It was established in1992 at ETH Zurich. The objective of the archive is to provide the best possible quality for short- and long-wave surface radiation fluxes. These readings are taken from a small number of selected stations, in contrasting climatic zones, together with collocated surface and upper air meteorological data and other supporting observations. Originally, the archive was used only from climate scientists. Meanwhile, the WRMC also gets used more and more in the framework of solar energy research. The typical average interval for radiation data is one minute. The parameters offered: global, diffuse, direct, long-wave down, reflex, long-wave up, UV radiation, synoptic observations, upper air soundings, total ozone, ceilometer data, and radiation measurements from towers. More than 8700 months (~ 725 years) of high quality radiation data submitted from 59 stations since 1992 are archived. BSRN data are available for non commercial users for bona fide research purposes at no cost. For details see: http://bsrn.awi.de/data/conditions-of-data-release.html. All data can be retrieved interactively by any registered user from a ftp-server and the Publishing Network PANGAEA (http://www.pangaea.de/search?q=BSRN)

About the Baseline Surface Radiation Network

The Earth’s radiation budget is essential for driving the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean and for building the main conditions for the Earth's climate system. To detect changes in the Earth’s surface radiation field the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and its central archive - the World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) - was created in 1992. BSRN is a project of the Data and Assessments Panel of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). It is the global baseline network for surface radiation for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), contributing to the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW), and forming a cooperative network with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). The data are of primary importance in supporting the validation and confirmation of satellite and computer model estimates. At a relatively small number of stations (currently 58) in contrasting climatic zones, solar and infrared radiation is measured with instruments of the highest available accuracy with high temporal resolution (mainly 1 minute). A total of over 7500 station-month datasets were available in the WRMC. The poster will present the current state of the archive, the quality control mechanisms for the data and how scientists can access and use the data

BSRN snapshot 2015-09, links to zip archives

The Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and its central archive - the World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) - was created in 1992. It is a project of the Data Assimilation Panel from the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and as such is aimed at detecting important changes in the Earth's radiation field at the Earth's surface which may be related to climate changes. The data are of primary importance in supporting the validation and confirmation of satellite and computer model estimates of these quantities. At a small number of stations in contrasting climatic zones, covering a latitude range from 80°N to 90°S, solar and atmospheric radiation is measured with instruments of the highest available accuracy and with high time resolution (1 to 3 minutes). Since 2008 the WRMC is hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, Germany (http://www.bsrn.awi.de/)

Physical and chemical properties of different summer sea-ice types, sea water and precipitation in the Eurasian basin during the CAATEX 2019 cruise

The physical properties of sea ice, including salinity, sea ice temperature, and sea ice texture as well as isotopic composition (oxygen and hydrogen) were analyzed from samples collected on the CAATEX 2019 expedition to the central Arctic Ocean (between North Pole and Svalbard) in late summer 2019. In addition, isotope samples were collected from precipitation, melt ponds, and under-ice seawater. Data was collected to understand the formation mechanisms of sea ice in the area. Ice cores were collected with an ice corer, and measurements (temperature) were directly carried out from ice cores after retrieval. From an additional ice core, samples (salinity and isotopes) were collected and melted onboard. Salinity of samples was measured onboard using a conductivity probe, while samples for isotopic composition were placed in sample bottles and measured at the FARLAB (University of Bergen) after the expedition . A complete ice core was brought back for texture analysis of the sea ice and processed at the freezer lab at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Texture was examined by first slicing ice samples very thin by use of a microtome. These thin ice slices were observed in polarized light that reveals the crystal structure of the ice. This data includes the photographs taken of the ice cores in natural light and in polarized light

Temperature of different summer sea-ice types, sea water and precipitation in the Eurasian basin during the CAATEX 2019 cruise

The physical properties of sea ice, including salinity, sea ice temperature, and sea ice texture as well as isotopic composition (oxygen and hydrogen) were analyzed from samples collected on the CAATEX 2019 expedition to the central Arctic Ocean (between North Pole and Svalbard) in late summer 2019. In addition, isotope samples were collected from precipitation, melt ponds, and under-ice seawater. Data was collected to understand the formation mechanisms of sea ice in the area. Ice cores were collected with an ice corer, and measurements (temperature) were directly carried out from ice cores after retrieval. From an additional ice core, samples (salinity and isotopes) were collected and melted onboard. Salinity of samples was measured onboard using a conductivity probe, while samples for isotopic composition were placed in sample bottles and measured at the FARLAB (University of Bergen) after the expedition . A complete ice core was brought back for texture analysis of the sea ice and processed at the freezer lab at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Texture was examined by first slicing ice samples very thin by use of a microtome. These thin ice slices were observed in polarized light that reveals the crystal structure of the ice. This data includes the photographs taken of the ice cores in natural light and in polarized light

Stratigraphy of sea-ice cores collected in the Eurasian basin during CAATEX 2019 cruise

The physical properties of sea ice, including salinity, sea ice temperature, and sea ice texture as well as isotopic composition (oxygen and hydrogen) were analyzed from samples collected on the CAATEX 2019 expedition to the central Arctic Ocean (between North Pole and Svalbard) in late summer 2019. In addition, isotope samples were collected from precipitation, melt ponds, and under-ice seawater. Data was collected to understand the formation mechanisms of sea ice in the area. Ice cores were collected with an ice corer, and measurements (temperature) were directly carried out from ice cores after retrieval. From an additional ice core, samples (salinity and isotopes) were collected and melted onboard. Salinity of samples was measured onboard using a conductivity probe, while samples for isotopic composition were placed in sample bottles and measured at the FARLAB (University of Bergen) after the expedition . A complete ice core was brought back for texture analysis of the sea ice and processed at the freezer lab at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Texture was examined by first slicing ice samples very thin by use of a microtome. These thin ice slices were observed in polarized light that reveals the crystal structure of the ice. This data includes the photographs taken of the ice cores in natural light and in polarized light