Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020
<p>In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations from two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The s...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Earth System Science Data |
| Online Access: | https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5207/2023/essd-15-5207-2023.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797449308719546368 |
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| author | M. Nishimura T. Aoki M. Niwano S. Matoba T. Tanikawa T. Yamasaki S. Yamaguchi K. Fujita |
| author_facet | M. Nishimura T. Aoki M. Niwano S. Matoba T. Tanikawa T. Yamasaki S. Yamaguchi K. Fujita |
| author_sort | M. Nishimura |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations from two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The stations were installed in the accumulation area on the Greenland Ice Sheet (SIGMA-A site, 1490 m a.s.l.) and near the equilibrium line of the Qaanaaq Ice Cap (SIGMA-B site, 944 m a.s.l.). We describe the two-step sequence of quality-controlling procedures that we used to create increasingly reliable datasets by masking erroneous data records. Those datasets are archived in the Arctic Data archive System (ADS) (SIGMA-A – <a href="https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041303">https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041303</a>, Nishimura et al., 2023f; SIGMA-B – <a href="https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041306">https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041306</a>, Nishimura et al., 2023c). We analyzed the resulting 2012–2020 time series of air temperature, surface height, and surface albedo and histograms of longwave radiation (a proxy of cloudiness). We found that surface height increased, and no significant albedo decline in summer was observed at the SIGMA-A site. In contrast, high air temperatures and frequent clear-sky conditions in the summers of 2015, 2019, and 2020 at the SIGMA-B site caused significant albedo and surface lowering. Therefore, it appears that these weather condition differences led to the apparent surface height decrease at the SIGMA-B site but not at the SIGMA-A site. We anticipate that this quality-controlling method and these datasets will aid in climate studies of northwest Greenland and will contribute to the advancement of broader polar climate studies.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:23:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bc01dae9cc334d8499fe37a99947ac94 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1866-3508 1866-3516 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:23:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Earth System Science Data |
| spelling | doaj.art-bc01dae9cc334d8499fe37a99947ac942023-11-28T09:12:09ZengCopernicus PublicationsEarth System Science Data1866-35081866-35162023-11-01155207522610.5194/essd-15-5207-2023Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020M. Nishimura0T. Aoki1M. Niwano2S. Matoba3T. Tanikawa4T. Yamasaki5S. Yamaguchi6K. Fujita7National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, JapanNational Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, JapanMeteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, Ibaraki, JapanInstitute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, JapanMeteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, Ibaraki, JapanAvangnaq Arctic Project, Osaka, JapanSnow and Ice Research Center, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, Niigata, JapanGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan<p>In situ meteorological data are essential to better understand ongoing environmental changes in the Arctic. Here, we present a dataset of quality-controlled meteorological observations from two automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland from July 2012 to the end of August 2020. The stations were installed in the accumulation area on the Greenland Ice Sheet (SIGMA-A site, 1490 m a.s.l.) and near the equilibrium line of the Qaanaaq Ice Cap (SIGMA-B site, 944 m a.s.l.). We describe the two-step sequence of quality-controlling procedures that we used to create increasingly reliable datasets by masking erroneous data records. Those datasets are archived in the Arctic Data archive System (ADS) (SIGMA-A – <a href="https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041303">https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041303</a>, Nishimura et al., 2023f; SIGMA-B – <a href="https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041306">https://doi.org/10.17592/001.2022041306</a>, Nishimura et al., 2023c). We analyzed the resulting 2012–2020 time series of air temperature, surface height, and surface albedo and histograms of longwave radiation (a proxy of cloudiness). We found that surface height increased, and no significant albedo decline in summer was observed at the SIGMA-A site. In contrast, high air temperatures and frequent clear-sky conditions in the summers of 2015, 2019, and 2020 at the SIGMA-B site caused significant albedo and surface lowering. Therefore, it appears that these weather condition differences led to the apparent surface height decrease at the SIGMA-B site but not at the SIGMA-A site. We anticipate that this quality-controlling method and these datasets will aid in climate studies of northwest Greenland and will contribute to the advancement of broader polar climate studies.</p>https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5207/2023/essd-15-5207-2023.pdf |
| spellingShingle | M. Nishimura T. Aoki M. Niwano S. Matoba T. Tanikawa T. Yamasaki S. Yamaguchi K. Fujita Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 Earth System Science Data |
| title | Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
| title_full | Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
| title_fullStr | Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
| title_short | Quality-controlled meteorological datasets from SIGMA automatic weather stations in northwest Greenland, 2012–2020 |
| title_sort | quality controlled meteorological datasets from sigma automatic weather stations in northwest greenland 2012 2020 |
| url | https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5207/2023/essd-15-5207-2023.pdf |
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