AMRC & AWS

Explanation of data:

Narrative: Over a 1-year period in 2016/7, two Automatic Weather Stations were deployed on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in support of a field study of the impact of surface meltwater movement on ice-shelf flexure. One station (AWS 1) was deployed at a site called “Artificial Basin” (near Pegasus air field) where the field team attempted to create a surface meltwater pond artificially using bulldozer excavation (this failed). The other station (AWS 2) was deployed at a natural lake called “Rift Tip” where a very old ice-shelf rift terminated and created a topographic depression. AWS 1 was on a surface of melting firn, AWS 2 was on a site of bare ice/water/debris-covered ice.

AWS 1 operated for about 364 days (about 22 Jan 2016 to 21 Jan 2017), AWS 2 operated only from November 2016 to mid January 2017.

Sensors on both AWS units included 2 thermometers, 2 RH meters, 2 wind speed, 1 wind direction and 1 4-component radiometer. All were standard sensors sold by Campbell Scientific. Barometric pressure was not recorded. The Wind Direction data on both AWSs were “corrected” from an initially unknown orientation using Pegasus AWS run by the AMRC of U. Wisconsin (we determined a correction of the un-oriented sensor by comparing with the Pegasus AWS which was located ~2 km away).

Data is reported in standard units (C, m/s, W/m^2, deg. true azimuth, 0-1, %, Pa) as appropriate. NaN is substituted for data that is missing or bad.

McMIS_AWS_1.txt:

Columns of data in the supplied text file are:

headings = [Year Month Day Hour Minute Second Short_wave_from_sky Short_wave_from_ground Long_wave_from_sky Long_wave_from_ground 2.2_m_T 5.44_m_T 2.25_m_wind_speed 5.74_m_wind_speed 5.74_m_wind_direction(uncorrected) 5.74_m_wind_direction(corrected) net_radiation albedo 2.2_m_RH 5.44_m_RH water_vapor_pressure];

The relative humidity sensor at 5.44 m functioned intermittently due to field damage in handling the sensor.

McMIS_AWS_2_Met_Data.txt:

Columns of data in the supplied text file are:

headings = [Year Month Day Hour Minute Second 2.5_m_T 3.5_m_T 2.5_m_wind_speed 3.5_m_wind_speed 3.5_m_wind_direction(uncorrected) 3.5_m_wind_direction(corrected) net_radiation albedo 2.5_m_RH 3.5_m_RH];

McMIS_AWS_2_Rad_Data.txt 

Columns of data in the supplied text file are:

(note that the meteorology data and radiation data have different time-series lengths)

headings = [Year Month Day Hour Minute Second Short_wave_from_sky Short_wave_from_ground Long_wave_from_sky Long_wave_from_ground net_radiation albedo];