1. Australian Antarctic Data Centre
2. Discover and Manage Data
3. Records
4. DomeA_AWS

Description

Automatic Weather Station data obtained at Dome A (Argus), Antarctica.

Data from this AWS are currently available from 2005-2017. At this stage the AWS remains operational, and the data record will be updated as data become available.

The surface elevation of Dome Argus (Dome A) is 4093 m, i.e., at one of the highest place in Antarctica. Our Automatic Weather Station has been deployed near one end of an elongated ridge (about 60 km long and 10 km wide). At this location the thickness of the glacial ice sheet is in excess of 3000 m, overlaying the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountains. We consider this location as a potential site to collect an ice core to provide a record of past climate and atmospheric gas composition going back more than one million years.

The Dome A AWS measures:
- wind speed (knots)
- air temperature - with sensors mounted on mast arms at 1 m, 2 m and 4 m above the snow surface (degrees Celsius)
- snow temperature at 0.1 m, 1 m, 3 m and 10 m depth
- atmospheric pressure (hPa)
- wind direction (degrees)
- incoming solar radiation (MJ per square metre)
- relative humidity (percent)
- snow-fall rate.
(We note that sensor heights decrease as precipitation settles at the site.)

Time is given in UTC.

Purpose

Dome A AWS provides regular (nominally hourly) observations of near-surface atmospheric variables with the aim to build a climate record at this remote site in support of climate and other studies as well as nearby logistical operations.

Quality

The Dome A automatic weather station has temperature sensors at different heights, which allows us to measure the microclimate of the region. Above the snow, sensors appear at one metre, two metres and four metres, while below the snow they appear at 0.1 metres, one metre, three metres and 10 metres.

This AWS operates a remote location in an extreme low temperature environment. Some sensors (i.e., anemometer cease to collect valid data if the operations temperature.

Sensors are not re-calibrated once deployed.

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

• Start date: 2005-01-01 - Stop date:

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > PRECIPITATION > SOLID PRECIPITATION > SNOW
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE > SURFACE TEMPERATURE > AIR TEMPERATURE
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION > SOLAR RADIATION
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR > WATER VAPOR INDICATORS > HUMIDITY
• EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE > SURFACE PRESSURE
• EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SNOW/ICE > SNOW/ICE TEMPERATURE

Use Constraints

This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=DomeA_AWS when using these data.