Meteorological Data for the Astronomical Site at Dome A, Antarctica
Citations Over TimeTop 14% of 2014 papers
Abstract
We present an analysis of the meteorological data collected at Dome A, Antarctica by the Kunlun Automated Weather Station, including temperatures and wind speeds at eight elevations above the snow surface between 0m and 14.5m. The average temperatures at 2m and 14.5m are $-54^{\circ}$C and $-46^{\circ}$C, respectively. We find that a strong temperature inversion existed at all heights for more than 70% of the time, and the temperature inversion typically lasts longer than 25 hours, indicating an extremely stable atmosphere. The temperature gradient is larger at lower elevations than higher elevations. The average wind speed was 1.5m/s at 4m elevation. We find that the temperature inversion is stronger when the wind speed is lower and the temperature gradient decreases sharply at a specific wind speed for each elevation. The strong temperature inversion and low wind speed results in a shallow and stable boundary layer with weak atmospheric turbulence above it, suggesting that Dome A should be an excellent site for astronomical observations. All the data from the weather station are available for download.
Related Papers
- → Time‐adaptive wind turbine model for an LES framework(2015)25 cited
- Reconstruction of past atmospheric CH4 concentration from the firn air data at Dome Fuji (scientific note)(2003)
- → A Study of the Dependence of Surface Wind Direction on the Gradient Wind(1986)1 cited
- The Surface Wind On and Around Guam.(1974)
- Densification of layered firn of the ice sheet at Dome Fuji, Antarctica(2015)